Nightmare! The Birth of Victorian Horror

We like our monsters, as Stephen King fans can attest, and this ambitious 4-part series, hosted by Christopher Frayling, introduces viewers to the "birth" of 4 key works: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein, John Polidori's The Vampyre, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and A. Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. Although, technically, only Stevenson's split-personality classic was written during Queen Victoria's reign, the rise in popularity of Frankenstein (1818) and Polidori's The Vampyre (later updated in Stoker's classic Dracula) surely coincided with the Victorian era's disturbing questions over evolution and the industrial revolution. Except for a brief shot of female breasts (sporting eyeballs!), this is a very accessible introduction to Mr. King's literary forebears for high school audiences as well as others. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)