Dracula — The Count on the castle wall, 1919

In 1919 the London publisher William Rider & Son brought out the thirteenth edition of Dracula, Bram Stoker's novel of 1897. Its cover was a painting by Edgar Alfred Holloway: the Count climbing down his castle wall, head first.

That painting fills the middle of this poster, lifted out of the cover's blue border and framed in a thin bone-coloured rule. The white-haired Count spreads his cloak like a pair of wings, one hand gripping the stones; behind him rise a battlemented tower and a night sky pricked with stars. The signature "Holloway" sits at the lower right. Above, "Bram Stoker" between two red stars and "DRACULA" in big cream capitals. Below, the matching passage from Chapter III, in Jonathan Harker's journal: “…I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings.”

A 1919 cover, made big

The night-blue ground and cream lettering recall a Victorian playbill. The halftone dots of the 1919 print are kept on purpose: up close, you can see them. It suits a dark living room, a hallway, or the wall above a shelf of horror novels.

Painting by Edgar Alfred Holloway for the 1919 edition, from the British Library scan on Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

More posters are on the Vampires & Dracula page, with the whole Gothic world next door.

Printed in Tunisia, paid on delivery.