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During the last season of the Curriculum, we read Charlotte Cross’s, ‘The Brides’, a prequel and love letter to Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, focusing on the untold stories of the brides of Dracula.
Annotated Extras: A love letter to ‘Dracula’ and intertextuality 'The Brides' by Charlotte Cross
‘Dracula’ is one of the most re-told and re-worked novels in the English literary canon, and even more novels and stories have been inspired by this this late nineteenth Century novel. The myth of the Count, and vampires in general, have been watered down and sexualised, made charming and, while still dangerous, a figure who could easily disguise themse…
‘The Brides’ is a hugely ambitious debut that honoured the novel spectacularly and made us fall even further in love with the Gothic, and we were lucky enough to get to ask Charlotte a few questions about the novel.
Welcome to The Dark Academicals Book Club! Please can you tell us a little about yourself?
Hello! I’m a historical fiction writer living in Scotland with my partner and our two cats. I’m originally from Oxfordshire, England, and moved north of the border back in 2021.
While ‘The Brides’ isn’t dark academia, it sits in the spaces of Gothic and horror which are often seen as sister genres to dark academia. How aware of Dark Academia as a genre are you, and how would you describe it?
I LOVE Dark Academia. I read ‘The Secret History’ probably twenty-five years ago now, and I’ve been a fan of the genre and aesthetic ever since. I’d describe a Dark Academia book (or film) as one that evokes a nostalgia for a version of academia and intellectualism from before the digital age; when knowledge had to be searched out in dusty libraries, when attention spans were longer, when late-night caffeine-fuelled essays were written with a fountain pen rather than on the blue-glow of a screen.
One of our favourite elements of the novel were the cameos from ‘Dracula’. Who of the original characters did you most enjoy writing and working into ‘The Brides’?
I really enjoyed giving John Seward the respect I felt he deserved and didn’t get in ‘Dracula’. Also, and this is niche, I loved giving voice to Dr Arminius. In ‘Dracula’ we only hear of him as a friend of Professor Van Helsing, and I had so much fun dreaming up this character who Bram Stoker mentioned very briefly as some sort of vampire expert, with absolutely no context.
‘The Brides’ is a novel propelled by female rage: at the world, their society, the myriad ways that they’re oppressed, and at themselves. Is that a theme you’re particularly drawn to, or did it evolve from this particular story?
I didn’t intend for ‘The Brides’ to have so much rage, but I think it’s a natural consequence of writing intelligent, complex female characters and putting them in an era where women were, as you say, extremely oppressed. My anti-heroine Mafalda especially chafes against the strictures of society, and some of the dangers and challenges she faces which enrage her are ones women still have to deal with today.
We’d love to hear about how you wrote and structured the novel, especially with the interweaving of letters, diaries and reports from multiple characters in multiple timelines. It sounds tricky! Was it a challenging structure to work with?
Yes. I don’t know how Bram Stoker managed it without a colour-coded spreadsheet like mine! I wrote it mostly chronologically, but also worked on each timeline separately to make sure everything hung together. I realised fairly quickly that I could only work on one POV in any given writing session, to keep each character’s voice constant. I will always love an epistolary novel, and I had so much fun playing around with which character knows what, or which character is hiding things from which other characters. There are points in the novel where the reader is the only person who actually knows everything!
Do you have any favourite reimaginings, prequels or sequels to classic novels that you love or would recommend?
Definitely! ‘The Historian’ by Elizabeth Kostova is a Dark Academia Dracula novel, which I absolutely love and which any Dracula or Dark Academia fan will enjoy. ‘Honeysuckle’ by Bar Fridman-Tell is a beautiful and lush Gothic retelling of the Welsh flower bride fairy tale, which I was lucky enough to blurb and which lives in my head rent-free. ‘The Silence of the Girls’ by Pat Barker about the women of Troy is very dark and could be quite triggering, but it’s a really excellent example of a reimagining.
Where can we find you online and keep up to date with everything coming up from you?
@charlottewriteshistory on Instagram, and less frequently @charlotte.cross on bluesky.
Are you able to tell us anything about what you’re working on at the moment?
I’m currently editing my second Gothic horror book. It’s about Vikings, cursed archaeology, and so much female rage. More info coming soon!
We really loved ‘The Brides’ and we’re so happy that Charlotte agreed to answer some of our questions!
Buy ‘The Brides’: Waterstones | Amazon UK | Blackwell’s | Bookshop.org