Exploring Dracula’s Sublime Landscapes: An Online Talk with Mark Rees 🧛
On Wednesday 17 September, Mark Rees will present an extended online version of his talk, The Sublime Landscapes of Dracula, as part of the Derby Dracula Project’s Dracula: Lunchtime Bites series. The event is free, but you must book in advance.
In May, Mark delivered this talk at the inaugural Dracula Returns to Derby conference, held at Derby’s striking Museum of Making, a contemporary venue and an Aladdin’s cave of historical treasures. The event was organised by the University of Derby in partnership with Derby Museums, Derby Theatre, Bournemouth University, and Sheffield Hallam University.
Mark explores Dracula from an art-historical perspective. He shows how Stoker’s settings — from Whitby’s cliffs to the remote Carpathian Mountains — create the Gothic sublime: landscapes that inspire awe, terror and the uncanny. Using historical images and paintings, he examines whether these locations were already eerie or if Stoker’s imagination transformed them into sites of Gothic wonder.
The talk highlights how visual culture shaped the novel’s atmosphere and continues to influence our imagination.
Book a free ticket for the Sublime Landscapes of Dracula
Join this visually rich, scholarly exploration of Dracula’s world online — free, but book your place here.
What’s Dracula got to do with Derby?
Derby has a unique place in Dracula’s global story.
In 1924, Hamilton Deane’s new stage adaptation premiered in the city, the first to present Stoker’s Count not as a fearsome vampire, but as a suave, urbane figure in evening dress and cloak. This Derby Dracula captured audiences nationwide, eventually reaching the West End, Broadway, and Hollywood, where it inspired the iconic 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi.
Since then, Dracula has appeared in countless books, films, cartoons, toys and video games, becoming one of the world’s most adapted fictional characters. Derby remains central to this cultural journey, hosting events and research that celebrate the city’s historic connection to the vampire’s enduring global appeal.
