Spooky Classics Trio - Dracula, Frankenstein, and Jekyll & Hyde

DRACULA

Bram Stoker’s legendary gothic work ponders our darkest, primal fears, and presents an antagonist that perfectly represents all that the Victorian Era deplored and repressed: lust, deviousness, disease, but also far more complicated fears of the foreign or mystifying. Today, the horror of a being that is neither dead nor alive, that subsists on hosts, and that seems intent on overtaking the globe, has never felt so apt.

FRANKENSTEIN

Mary Shelley’s classic novel, arguably the first science fiction story ever, embodies our desire for innovation and warns that the attainment of success, no matter how grand, carries with it the weight of repercussion and lasting consequence. Man's reach may often exceed his grasp, but in the case of Victor Frankenstein and his forbidden experiments, man’s reach far exceeds his nerve. The stitched abomination that he raises is an affront to nature, but the creature is merely a byproduct of unrestrained ambition, leaving us to ask the question: who is the true monster?

JEKYLL & HYDE

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde boldly confronts the duality of man within the constraints of society, and posits that the true nature of morality isn't as black-and-white as it may seem at first blush. Robert Louis Stevenson, perhaps best known for his seminal work Treasure Island, crafts a gothic novella that is part psychological thriller, part horror, and part science fiction, blurring the lines between alchemy and erudition, ethics and free will, good and evil. Herein lies a tale of facing one's inner demon, only to see it grinning back from the darkness.