A Brief History of Vampires

What could be more romantic on Valentine’s Day than the debonair modern vampire who was born with the publication of the gothic horror novel Dracula (1897) by the Irish author Bram Stoker. In the video below from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, two curators comb through the museum’s collection of materials – including books, photographs, paintings and even a curious take on Victorian taxidermy – to trace the development of the vampire idea since Stoker’s landmark work captured the public imagination.