Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula sits at the summit of late-Victorian vampire fiction but the Transylvanian Count had plenty of company. As a metaphor for vile transgression, disease and decay few literary tropes served quite so well as a pale undead figure with a taste for human blood. Perhaps the latter view had something to do with the prevalence of another popular figure during the Victorian fin de siècle, albeit one mercifully confined to the pages of novels and short stories, namely the vampire. Viewed from a gloomier aspect however all could be seen as signs of transgression, perversity and moral and physical degeneration. Viewed from a sunny perspective all could be seen as positive signs of a new age of liberation and freedom dawning within society. The Victorian fin de siècle was an era noted for its decadents, aesthetes, dandies and New Women.
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