5 Books You Must Read to Truly Get This Season of Penny Dreadful
In addition to being a supernatural gothic romance, Showtime's drama is also catnip for bookworms. These are the novels you should read to know everything.
Showtime
In addition to being a pulpy bit of supernatural gothic drama, Penny Dreadful is also a show for bookworms. Its protagonist, Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), is fictional, but nearly everyone else—from Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) to Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) to *Dracula'*s Mina Harker (Olivia Llewellyn)—is drawn from classic literature. "A friend once said, 'This show is just too hyper-literate,'" says show creator John Logan. "And I said, 'Thank you! I agree.'" That literacy has never been more evident than last night's Season 3 opener, "The Day Tennyson Died," which you can watch below. As the title suggests, almost the entirety of the episode takes place on the day in 1892 when Alfred, Lord Tennyson passed away, but the big literary reveal is Dracula himself (or at least his voice). It’s an introduction that Logan had been planning for more than two seasons, and one that comes from one of *Penny Dreadful’*s main source texts. What are the others? Below are the books you should read if you really want to get Showtime’s Victorian horror show.
Longmans/Green & Co.Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
In addition to the introduction of Dracula, Season 3 also brings in Dr. Jekyll (Shazad Latif) as a former classmate of Dr. Frankenstein’s. The true friendship between the two will have a lot of impact on the season, but it almost didn’t happen at all. “Originally that was going to be *The* *Island of Doctor Moreau*, but we couldn’t get the rights to *Doctor Moreau*,” Logan says. “I’m fanatical about Robert Louis Stevenson, I love every single one of his books and all of his poetry. So I took a gulp and thought, ‘Do I dare do *Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde*?’ The theme of duality and doppelgängers is significant throughout the entire show, so to have two young mad doctors together and to have one of them be Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde was sort of irresistible to me.” Don’t think, though, that your Stevenson reading list ends at *Jekyll:* Logan says a lot of this season’s Easter eggs come from the author’s other works, like *Kidnapped* and *Treasure Island*.
Constable & RobinsonDracula by Bram Stoker
Stoker's 1897 book has a been huge influence from the very beginning, when Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton)—the father of *Dracula’* s Mina Murray/Harker—was introduced. Mina is ostensibly dead on the show (though she often shows up as a ghost of sorts), but this season brings in three more of Bram Stoker's characters: mad Renfield (Samuel Barnett), Dr. Seward (Patti LuPone), and the Count himself. But just because those characters are there in name, don’t expect them to behave exactly as they do in Stoker’s world. Like other book characters Logan incorporates, they’re just shadows of their literary selves, which keeps the audience guessing about what their favorite characters will do. "Where we fall in and satisfy those desires, and where we defeat them, is part of the fun," Logan says. "I always felt we can’t be shackled by other versions of anything."
Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & JonesFrankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley’s tale of a young science student who creates a monster has also been there from the beginning of *Penny Dreadful*. But while the novel version of Dr. Frankenstein, like the one on *Dreadful*, makes a monster who wants a female companion, Shelley probably never imagined the feminist avenger that the doctor also creates on the TV show. “Her story has all been about female empowerment, but a monstrous version of it,” Logan says. “In Episode 3 you see a suffragette march and she talks about the position of women in Victorian society, which is a parallel to the position of women now, as far as I’m concerned. I really enjoyed writing some very delicious, emotional complicated stuff for her. In a way, Lily is the most contemporary character on the show.”
Penguin BooksThe Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Lily’s beloved, of course, is the immortal Dorian Gray. *Penny'*s Dorian, like Oscar Wilde’s version, is a libertine with a grotesque painting that absorbs all of the abuse he inflicts on himself while he remains young and beautiful. Coupling Gray with Lily, a character as ruthless in love as he is, has been one of Logan’s favorite matchup/mashups on the show. "Dorian and Lily have an amazing story," he says. "They have my personal favorite storyline thisseason because it’s so compelling and unusual."
Kessinger PublishingCarmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
This erotic vampire story is probably the least known of the bunch, but also one of the most vital. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella about a young woman stalked by a female vampire predates *Dracula* by a quarter century, and also served as Logan’s inspiration for both Vanessa’s relationship with Mina and another plot twist coming later in Season 3. “*Dracula* is like a snuff film. It’s so violent, so bloody, except for a few sections,” Logan says. “But *Carmilla* is wildly erotic and romantic, and that’s part of the vampire story too. This season I go deeper into that idea in Lily’s story because Lily has an acolyte named Justine. It’s a very dark, romantic relationship between them.”
Angela Watercutter is WIRED's senior editor for special projects. Prior to joining WIRED she was a reporter for the Associated Press. Watercutter was also a senior editor of Longshot magazine and a contributor to Pop-Up Magazine. She received a bachelor of science degree in journalism from Ohio University. ... Read more
