Introduction
Devilishly Dreadful is an ongoing poetry series inspired by the Victorian penny dreadfuls of the 19th century—cheap, sensational publications that reveled in crime, horror, scandal, and the collapse of moral certainty.
This series does not retell those stories.
It reimagines them.
Each installment draws from a specific historical penny dreadful or Gothic legend and rebuilds it through contemporary poetic forms, original structures, and modern moral interrogation. Faith curdles. Institutions fail. Witnesses speak too late. Monsters aren’t only supernatural—and when they are, they wear human masks.
Across the series, dread emerges not through spectacle alone, but through systems: religion, empire, class, patriarchy, nationalism, and the bureaucracies that protect violence by calling it order.
The Audio Series
Season 1
Season 2
Own the audio series on vinyl
Season 1
Season 2
Coming soon
The Poetry Series
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Devilishly Dreadful: Eight Pound
Hare has a captive audience and a story to tell. A ghazal drawn from the infamous Burke and Hare murders, where confession, betrayal, and eight pounds turn a history lesson into something far more sinister.
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Varney the Vampire; or the First Watch
A Gothic horror ghazal by Tristan Robert Lange reimagining Varney the Vampire through desire, guilt, and damnation. Set on Watch Night, the poem transforms vigil into visitation, weaving shame, curse, and recurrence into an imagined origin rooted in penny-dreadful tradition and moral collapse.
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The Undying Count: Feast of the Brethren
Christmas Eve. A ruined Moravian castle.A determined researcher. What could go wrong? The Undying Count: Feast of the Brethren, a story by Tristan Robert Lange, unfolds through field logs, hymns, and found documents, revealing a gothic Christmas story of faith corrupted and hunger unending.
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Devilishly Dreadful: The Croaker
The dreadful ballade of Jimmy Komick — where comedy curdles, free speech meets its price, and a joker’s voice becomes the dreadful croak that closes Season 1 of Devilishly Dreadful.
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Devilishly Dreadful: Secret’s Gallop
An old ghost legend rides again in colonial New Jersey. When a skeletal rider on a horse named Mënahtuw haunts a village, superstition turns to horror—and the mask of savagery is torn inside out.
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Devilishly Dreadful: The Flames of Betrayal
A reimagined penny dreadful ignites on the Hudson’s edge. The Flames of Betrayal tells the story of Ada — a free Black woman whose vows become her vengeance. In a world that tried to silence her, she answers not with words, but with fire.
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Devilishly Dreadful: God Save the Jack
A witness statement turns uncanny as testimony, broadcast, and sermon begin to blur. In God Save the Jack, the legend of Spring-Heeled Jack stalks a modern London street—through blue flame, televised fear, and the polite voice of hypocrisy.
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Devilishly Dreadful: Vesuvian Vampire
Part three of the Devilishly Dreadful series descends into Gothic horror with a vampire haunted by hunger, remorse, and the weight of his curse. Written in the relentless cadence of a sestina, this installment channels the grotesque spirit of Varney the Vampire—where appetite and despair ignite into fiery myth.
FORM & APPROACH
No single poetic form governs Devilishly Dreadful.
Each piece earns its structure.
Traditional forms—ballade, sestina, ghazal—sit alongside original forms developed by the author. In many cases, the poem’s structure carries as much meaning as its narrative, allowing voice, rhythm, and documentation to do the work of horror.
Documents become testimony.
Testimony becomes indictment.
© 2025 Tristan Robert Lange. All rights reserved.
Tittu
