Dr Laura Eastlake

@victorianmasc

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Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· 10h

Turns out visiting Madame Tussaud’s in summertime has always been a deeply nightmarish experience! #c19th "OH, UNCLE GEORGE! DO THEY KILL THEM BEFORE THEY STUFF THEM?"

Illustration from Ounch magazine, June 10 1876. Young Victorian girl with her uncle, who wears a morning coat and top hat. They are looking at waxworks of (presumably) Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI or other figures from the ancient regime. She asks: "OH, UNCLE GEORGE! DO THEY KILL THEM BEFORE THEY STUFF THEM?"

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· 1d

A spin-off to the📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" series…Covers that actually work in a deep-cut kinda way! This one is a nice ref to Heathcliff’s dogs, but also captures the malevolent centrality of H himself. Remember folks, there r no bad dogs, only bad Heathcliffs!

Withering Heights cover. Blue background with a graphic silhouette of a dog with docked ears and patterned with green swirls and thorns. #c19th #wutheringheights

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· 6d

As a child this one sentence, with its misleading context clues, from M.R. James's 'Number 13' led me to believe that 'stuepige' was a (frankly glorious, and much-needed) noun for the person who had committed an act of stupidity. I am to this day still sad that it means 'housemaid'. #19thC #stupid

'Such things rarely happen in Denmark, but some piece of stupidity had certainly been performed (which is not so uncommon), and the stuepige must be severely spoken to'

Clothbound cover of M R James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. The font in an old Gothic style.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· 9d

Why is Kate Moss Madeline Usher? And my brain unhinges completely rather than try to make sense of the glorious Jetsons-ass mess that is The Turn of the Screw.

Cover for the Fall of the House of Usher, featuring a nude Kate moss among some bones for … reasons?

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· 10d

📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" Episode 5: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. “Get in, loser. We’re going rowing on the Thames in a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance. Also on Wednesdays we wear arsenic green.” #c19th

Cover of Our Mutual Friend featuring two young women, at school judging by their backpack and casual dress, and wearing jewellery and low rise jeans of c. 2002

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· 17d

Menu from a banquet in Auckland in 1916, given in honour of novelist Henry Rider Haggard. What are we having? Alas, if you’re a veggie then you’re having boiled potatoes and vanilla custard. 😐 #food

MENU.
Victoria Pudding, Sherry Sauce.

Baked Vanilla Custard.
Apple Pie.
Liqueur Jelly.

Macedoine de Fruit.

Creme de Neopolitan.
Compôte des Poires.
Relisb.
Tartines Paté de foie gras.
Olives.
Soups.
Consomme a la Printiniere Royale.
Potage a la Colbert.
Fish.
Fried Fillets Schnapper, Hollandaise Sauce.
Entrees.
Langues d'Agneau en Persil.
Asparagus au Beurre Fondu.
Goints.
Roast Sirloin Beef, Yorkshire Pudding.
Roast Leg Mutton, Onion Sauce.
Corned Round Beef and Carrots.
Poultry.
Roast Turkey a la Financière.
Roast
Chicken, Bread Sauce and Seasoning.
Boiled Fowls a la Soubise.
Vegetables.
Baked Potatoes.
Cabbage.
Boiled Potatoes.
Green Peas.
sweets.
DESSERT.
Savoury.
Crôutes de Jambon Diable.
CAFE NOIR.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· 25d

Aw crikey! Take care my dude. In meantime, please enjoy these pics of the local cat that has forcibly adopted my brother. The General wishes you a speedy recovery, and frankly I would not defy this beast.

Tabby cat, only half visible, looking curiously in through kitchen door

The other half is visible and he big chonk!

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Jul 2

Totally outside my research expertise, but I've just discovered that @uofglasgowasc.bsky.social has the House of Fraser archive dating from 1849. It's a gorgeous peek into changes in fashion, culture & consumerism. Call your fashion historian pals! #c19th housefraserarchive.ac.uk

Pencil sketch of a woman skiing in winter hat and scarf. Back cover of Dickins & Jones Ltd Winter Sports catalogue. Image Source: The House of Fraser Archive at the University of Glasgow

A bride stands in front of a mirror in a fashionable early-Victorian boudoir. An older woman stands by the mirror in a blue gown. Three bridesmaids stand nearby with flowers in their hair. Image: 'The wedding morning' (1839). 'Upwards of a Century'. Dickins and Jones catalogue illustrating 100 years of fashion, 1909. Image Source: The House of Fraser Archive at the University of Glasgow

Image: Front cover of McDonalds Ltd, Christmas gifts catalogue, 1916 showing a christmas tree adorned with candles and gifts. Gifts include lamps, scarves, cushions and among the regular festive decorations there are national flags of Britain, France, Belgium and other allied from WW1. Image Source: The House of Fraser Archive at the University of Glasgow

Image: Photograph of the interior of the House of Fraser store in Buchanan Steet, Glasgow, decorated for Christmas, 1981. Several floors of sumptuously garlanded staircases around the central hall. Chandeliers decorated in green and red hang overhead. Image Source: The House of Fraser Archive at the University of Glasgow

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Jun 21

📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" Episode 4: The Great Gatsby. “They say he killed a man, and bought that big-ass palace with the money he made from his Magic Mike themed speakeasy”

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Jun 21

Good morning!

Curious (or maybe furious) chicken right in n the camera lens against a blue sky.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Jun 11

📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" Episode 3: Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim” (1901). Colonial adventure novel about an orphaned Irish boy who meets a Tibetan lama in Lahore and together they are drawn into the “great game” of imperial espionage. Nice shoes, babe.

Book cover featuring only the torso and legs of a person in khaki short-shorts and very pretty red heels with green and red tattoos.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Jun 5

On train to Edinburgh and turn a page to find: 1870s jokes about train crashes?!

Two men in a Victorian train carriage in huge, inflated, full body puffer jackets which have swallowed up their faces. Text reads: PATENT FIRST-CLASS COSTUME FOR THE COLLISION SEASON.
Traveller. "YES, IT'S DECIDEDLY WARM, BUT THERE'S A FEELING OF SECURITY ABOUT IT I RATHER LIKE." (Yauns.) "ANY CHANCE OF A SMASH TO-DAY!?"
[Drops off to Sleep!]

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Jun 2

One for the autobiography readers...and the Dracula fans 🪰 'Zoophagy', New Statesman and Nation (Apr 6, 1957): 449.

I often think-when confronted with a batch of autobiographies—of Renfield, the zoophagous maniac, Dr. Seward's pet patient, in dear old Dracula. Renfield suffered from the delusion that the more lives he could ingest the stronger he became. He devoured first flies,
later, to save trouble by a kind of arithmetical progression, spiders. The memoirs-addict re-sembles Renfield in that vicarious experience can be absorbed in bulk.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· May 29

Racing into the weekend like…a Victorian roller skater?! Punch (15 Jan 1876) #c19th

Illustration of a young man in a bowler hat helping a young lady on with her roller skate. In the background a very dapper couple skate in perfect synchronicity.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· May 24

Crikey. Sherlock Holmes’s official dating profile is a real mixed bag! #c19th From ‘A Study in Scarlet’, ch.2 (1887)

Sherlock Holmes—his limits.

1. Knowledge of Literature.—Nil.
2. Philosophy.—Nil.
3. Astronomy.—Nil.
4. Politics.—Feeble.
5. Botany.—Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
6. Geology.—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
7. Chemistry.—Profound.
8. Anatomy.—Accurate, but unsystematic.
9. Sensational Literature.—Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
10. Plays the violin well.
11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.
12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· May 21

This dude is a mood all by himself.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· May 17

Weekend reads. 💚❤️💙

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baxter. Cover design features bright and chompy Venus flytraps against a black background.

This Is How you Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. A red bird and a blue bird, fragmented and facing opposite directions against a powder blue
background.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· May 8

⭐️ I’m absolutely delighted that my article ‘The Volcano and the Vampire’ (@gothicstudies.bsky.social) has been awarded the honourable mention in the @ncsascholars.bsky.social Article Prize! Thank you NCSA! Entries for the 2026-7 prize now open. ncsaweb.net/ncsa-article... #c19th

Abigail J. Cooper, “Midwives of Invention: Black Healers and Reconciling Worldviews of Wellness in American Emancipation,” Journal of Social History 58.3 (Spring 2025): 424-50.

Honorable Mention:
Laura Eastlake, “The Volcano and the Vampire: The Case for a Volcanic Gothic,” Gothic Studies 27.1 (2025): 58-77.

Jeffrey Auerbach, “Underground Empire: Charles Warren, William Simpson, and the Archaeological Exploration of Palestine,” Journal of British Studies 63 (January 2024): 82-113.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· May 6

📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" Episode 2: Henry James, 'The Turn of the Screw' (1898) The novel is a #C19th gothic tale of a governess caring for 2 cherubic children who may or may not be in league with ghosts. Also...that's a nut.

Blue cover featuring two spanners (wrenches if you prefer) tussling oddly over a nut. There are no screws in this image. Not one.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Apr 17

Looking at illustrations by Charles Dana Gibson. I have questions about this one. (1903)

Illustration of a woman, with characteristic 'Gibson Girl' updo, carrying a serving tray. Lying on the serving tray, steaming as if recently removed from the oven, but otherwise smiling and unperturbed, is a small cherubic child with wings and legs in the air.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Apr 14

Some volcanic reading for a sunny Tuesday. 🌋

Book cover against blue background: Susan Sontag, “the volcano lover”. Cover features a late 18th/ early 19thC illustration of two women and a young girl pointing up at a volcano which is erupting

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Apr 3

“The Other Bennet Sister” was delightful and now all I want is a shared-universe spin off where the young Gardiners hang out with the young Fezziwigs and maybe solve some crimes and have raucous parties. #c19th

Photograph of indira varma as Mrs Gardiner in green velvet hat, green dress abs purple gloves. Mr gardiner in green coat and red cravat with his hat on his lap. Both smiling and clapping

Illustration from A Christmas Carol showing the Fezziwigs dancing at their ball. Mrs Fezziwig in yellow gown. Mr Fezziwig exhibiting some fancy footwork

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Mar 28

A little peek into the Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre, where they keep Kermit in solitary confinement like Hannibal Lecter. (NB: the Scottish Mask and Puppet centre is actually a pretty cool educational venue with shows and things for families, and you should check it out!)

Pictures of Kermit puppet in a glass cabinet. His puppet mouth is agape, his eyes vacant, as if dreaming about a nice Chianti. He is on a stick mount which gives the appearance of his being perched patiently on a stool, waiting for you to speak to him through the glass.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Mar 27

📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" Episode 1: Florence Marryat's Blood of the Vampire (1897). This book features a female vampire who doesn't know she's a vampire, who drains life not blood, and is enjoying a holiday in a Belgian seaside town. #BadBookCovers #C19th

Cover showing a male, dark-haired vampire scowling scowlily at us. His cape has multiple layers of shoulder details. His pecs are blood-spackled. Behind him hovers what may be either a bat or a chandelier (possibly AI could not decide).

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Mar 24

⭐️ The results are in!! My wonderful hons class have made their choices for dream Victorian Popular Fiction dinner party. Who are you adding and where are you sitting?! #c19th

Seating chart: Leo Vincey, Catherine Earnshaw, Van Helsing, Jane Eyre, The Signalman, Mina Harker, Charles Darwin, Anne Bronte, Anna Sewell, Beatrix Potter, Dr Seward, Dr Jekyll (Mr Hyde by pudding), Marian Halcombe, Wilkie Collins (who would propose to MH by coffee), Sarah Bernhardt, Count Fosco, Napoleon Sarony, Lady Audley, Quincey Morris, Rosalie Murray. Sherlock Holmes declined and is now hiding at home with all the lights off. ME Brandon sadly declines. She has a deadline to meet.

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Mar 19

It’s this one that cracks me up. Exactly how muddy does AI think I’m getting?!

‘Mudroom & Laundry’ featuring two bathtubs, two sinks and no washing machine

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Mar 19

This is the best visual aid I’ve found for explaining to friends and family what it feels like to read text/essays that have been written by AI:

Ai generated architectural plan of a house. From a distance all looks fine. Then you notice there are seven bathrooms, labelled things like ‘bedroom 4/full bath’, ‘master room’ and ‘coat bath’. Three of the bathrooms adjoin the master suite and the ‘gust bath’ sits alone on the other side of the house. The ‘wide two car garage’ is round the back of the house (between two more bathrooms); the ‘gourmet kitchen’ has nothing in it, and the “main foyer’ is a little vestibule at the back of the house (between three bathrooms.)

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Mar 16

Pug expressions. The Strand Magazine. c1890

Page of the strand magazine with comedic illustrations of pug dog expressions, includes practically smiling, suspicious side-eye, and haughty

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Feb 24

He is busy admiring his own fancy bechonkitude in the glass. You may as well admire him too! #fancychicken #pheasant #nothoughts

Dr Laura Eastlake@victorianmasc· Feb 17

Caption contest!