Dracula — First edition, 1897

Bram Stoker's Dracula was first published in May 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company, Westminster. The book was bound in yellow cloth with its title in red: a very plain cover for a very dark novel.

This poster takes that real cover, photographed from a British Library copy, and enlarges it to the full height: the big "DRACULA", "By Bram Stoker" and the red border, with the weave of the cloth clearly visible. In the open field below sits the line the Count speaks in Chapter II: Listen to them—the children of the night. What music they make! Under it, "Count Dracula · Chapter II", and at the very bottom, "Westminster · Archibald Constable and Company · 1897". These added lines are printed in red into the weave, like real blocking. To reach the poster's shape, a band of plain cloth was extended in the lower part; the rest is the cover as it is.

Yellow and red, nothing else

Two colours and no picture: it is the quietest poster of the set, and the most literary. It lifts a white or grey wall, a hallway, a living room or a reading corner next to your novels.

Photograph of the 1897 cover by the British Library, 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.