Dr Camilla HoelReading today’s #DailyDracula section and being reminded that the description of Dracula’s physiognomy is not unlike that of Sherlock Holmes: aquiline, thin nose, lofty forehead, "hair growing scantily round the temples". Then some differences, of course. Notably, the moustache.
Or #DraculaDaily, as the case may be.
Owlet of Minerva@camilla_hoel The nose and moustache are a given, I guess, from the earliest portraits of Vlad III. But the “science” of physiognomy is involved too – Harker explicitly refers to it, and Watson reads determination into Sherlock’s chin. Not sure what character traits we’re supposed to infer for Dracula, but I’m guessing nobility, power, and intellect, rather than criminality …? And then there are those pointy ears. Bat ears? Or fairy ears?
@noctuaminervae I remember reading an article many years ago in which this was discussed as a commentary on Lombroso/gothic, I think. But I do not remember the details. Could it have been something on how Dracula exhibits both intelligence and childish traits in his physiognomy? It may have been Lawrence Frank?
@noctuaminervae I think Mina discusses him as a criminal type at some point? Atavistic.
@noctuaminervae Ooooh, I found a discussion of this description and Lombroso (not the one I was looking for, of course, but...). From William Hughes' reader's guide:
@noctuaminervae But as you say, the ears and canines also suggest other things in this context. Polysemy for the win.
@camilla_hoel Nice catch! I stand corrected. Though it may be debatable. Not sure Lombroso ever met a nose that wasn’t criminal; between flat, upturned, and hawk-like ones, what’s left? 🙂 And criminals are notorious lowbrows, but I suppose highly domed exceptions must be made for super-villain masterminds like Dracula, Moriarty., and Macavity.
@noctuaminervae Eyebrows are involved, either way! I am now imagining Stoker sitting down with Lombroso and a portrait of Vlad and going !aha!
@noctuaminervae You forget normal noses. Noses like Lombroso’s nose. Noses for normal people.
@noctuaminervae Normally normal noses. Of the normal type. Normses.
@camilla_hoel TIL I learned that there was a Journal of Dracula Studies, which seems sadly defunct since 2018.
This article has a relevant discussion of Lombroso etc. (I’m not sold on the anti-Semitism interpretation though). https://research.library.kutztown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=dracula-studies