The Victorian Blood Book was a part of Evelyn Waugh‘s personal collection of Victorian texts and manuscripts, and arguably the most curious – a scrapbook put together by a loving father for his daughter’s wedding day, this book is an amalgamation of engravings by William Blake, Christian and nature imagery, blood red ink and written text filling all the gaps in between. The text on the pages, hand written by its creator John Bingley Garland in 1854, has the tone of religious ranting, rife with Bible quotes, with phrases such as “Truth! springs out of the earth! and Righteousness! shall look down! from Heaven!” A lot of exclamation points, so many that when I read the text, I read it in the voices of the crazy bums I’ve met on the street trying to convert anyone and everyone to their visions of plague and fire. All I can say is, if my dad gave me something like this, I would question his sanity. But hey, this was the Victorian era, so this type of zealotry was as mainstream and normal as it is today in a Texas megachurch. The creepy element is in the blood dripping from everyone and everything on its pages. Hand drawn in red India ink are bleeding crosses, blood dripping from people, animals, plants and fruit. Literally everything is soaked in the blood of Christ. That’s it, I’m converted! You can look at scans of the full book here, plus take a look at some of my favorites below.
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