The key to a vampire’s immortality? Meeting the anxieties of the moment

While the notion of demonic creatures feeding on blood dates back millennia, the modern concept of the debonair vampire was born with the publication of the gothic horror novel Dracula (1897) by the Irish author Bram Stoker. In this video 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. In doing so, they explore how vampires have remained culturally relevant by evolving to reflect the fears and anxieties of each passing age.