Dr Helena Esser

Had an absolutely wonderful evening talking about Austen adaptations and why we love them at the local cinema. 🩷🩷🩷

Introducing: Dr Helena Esser

@helenaesser.bsky.social is an Independent Scholar in Germany. Her area of research is Victorian and neo-Victorian gender and popular culture, with specific publications on steampunk and Ouida.

So happy to find a fellow fan! I LOVE the series!! And I do have the DVD 😄

Are you looking for spooky Gothic things to watch for Halloween? Here's a bunch of spoktacular Victorian films, TV series, and RPG campaigns for you! 🎃🎃🎃

New Blog post alert- 'Neo-Victorian Gothtober 2025' by Helena Esser. Some spooky neo-Vic gothic films and tv series recommendations for your Halloween watching pleasure! Read here: victorianpopularfiction.org/neo-victoria...

Call for Contributions: Victorian Infrastructures & their Environmental Legacies

We're still looking for articles to be included in our @openlibhums.org special issue!

Abstracts are due 31 October, full texts 31 March '26.

@bavs-uk.bsky.social @rs4vp.org @asleuki.bsky.social @easlce.bsky.social

The Official Ouida Starter Guide As told by Helena Esser So, this Ouida lady.You’ve heard so much, a lot of it from me, if you’ve met me. “I really have to read Ouida!”, you vow, after I’ve tried to conjure the rush and beauty of …

Do you want to start reading Ouida but don't know where to start? Find my handy #Ouida Starter Guide on the official VPFA blog:

@vpfa.bsky.social
victorianpopularfiction.org/the-official...

Been reading these back to back: One is 1890s decadent gothic, one is 2020s fantasy horror. Both are grotesque and beautiful and raw and weird. Basically, -- *gestures wildly* -- what I want to say is: !!!!!!!!!!!

It's finally here! What an incredibly rich contribution to #TerryPratchett studies. Thank you so much @bretonjustine.bsky.social for your hard work on this project (and in getting my author copy to me!). I am so proud to have a chapter in here. #GNUTerryPratchett

The VPFA Blog The VPFA Blog Welcome to the VPFA Blog! Here we will have ponderings, reflections, speculative readings, and more, for the reading pleasure of our fellow Victorianists. If you would like to submit …

Excited to announce that the VPFA blog has launched! Thanks to Emma Butler-Way for her hard work in getting it ready for today, for more information check out the blog at the link below:

victorianpopularfiction.org/the-vpfa-blog/

What a joy it was getting this page ready to go! All the thanks to @helenaesser.bsky.social for the material!

Here we'll have reflections, contemplations, speculations and more (all of a Victorian/neo-Victorian nature, of course).

Interested in contributing? Follow the link below & get in touch!

Helen Esser's book "Steampunk London" on a wooden bench in a park setting

The dirigible has landed & dropped 2 new arrivals on #NeoVictorianism !
"Steampunk London" by @helenaesser.bsky.social analyses how #NeoVictorian fiction, visual art, film & video games, 1980s to present day, reimagine urban space(s) in #steampunk visions of London

#CulturalStudies #LiteraryStudies

VPFA Third Sex reading group will be returning for their first session of Season 6 on 17th September, 5.30-7pm. The topic will be Mary Shelley's Lodore, co-hosted with Susan Civale and Siobhan-Michelle Smith! Sign up here: www.eventbrite.com/e/lodore-tic...

Step into the world of steam, scandal, and storytelling at our Virtual Victorian Tea Salon. Brew your favourite blend and join fellow members online for a lively afternoon discussion, creativity, and Victorian charm. All are welcome at our virtual tea table, whether sharing, reading, or sipping!

Please allow me to recommend some summer reading, followed with an invitation to join our book discussion. Everybody is welcome so please share widely (this poster has the correct start time of 5.30pm!) The text and audiobook are available on Internet Archive/Gutenberg. @vpfa.bsky.social

#BAVS2025 you were a blast! 5 x Birkbeck papers from @drvickymills.bsky.social @nonfictioness.bsky.social @helenaesser.bsky.social Julia Kuehn and me! Great to hang with @jeremynewton64.bsky.social too! Such fun and sociability with so many great #Victorian scholars! @19birkbeck.bsky.social

Here are a few of the #BirkbeckVictorianists on tour again, this time at the @bavs-uk.bsky.social 2025 Conference in Oxford. With @janetteleaf.bsky.social, @helenaesser.bsky.social and @nonfictioness.bsky.social.

#BAVS2026 Day2: Exploring Oscar, travel, transcultural encounters, modes of gazing & enmeshing, and multiple stages & versions of female embodiment.

Here's an excellent opportunity for anyone working on Margaret Oliphant! Please help spread the word. This special issue is looking for more contributors.

Excited to see our collection on Tauchnitz & publishing here at #BAVS2025! There is a little #Ouida chapter in it, too 😉

More #BAVS2025: Exploring travel & Orientalism, the colonial imagery of tea & labour, transatlantic tea rooms, & the domestic masculinity of Japonisme.

Starting #bavs2025 with a really fun séance & a panel in which I fall in love with illustration:

Today's #VPFAExtremes has assembled FIVE (5) whole #Ouida scholars in its hybrid space! A lovely Study Day 2023 re-union with Lorraine Dubuisson, @ouidaite.bsky.social, Crescent Rainwater, & @andrewkingc19.bsky.social ✨️🩷✨️

in the Third Sex Reading group conference session we were discussing Nebedita Sen's Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island. A very poignant commentary on literal, intellectual, cultural, and literary consumption #VPFAExtremes

This year's 3rd Sex reading group session @vpfa.bsky.social was om "The Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island" - a remarkable short story that led to really interesting discussion! #vpfaextremes

A great meal with great conference pals! @vpfa.bsky.social #VPFAextremes

Great to see my fellow #BirkbeckVictorianist @helenaesser.bsky.social in action this morning, talking about #Ouida and spy fiction at the @vpfa.bsky.social conference in Birmingham. With fellow panellists Professor Claudia Capancioni and Dr. Alison Dingle.

It's been a lovely 1st day at VPFA 2025! @vpfa.bsky.social #VPFAextremes

We're all a big family at VPFA! So great to see so many familiar and new faces joining us every year ❤️ #VPFAExtremes

Next we have Lucy Ella Rose discussing the decadent transformations of protagonists in Netta Syrett’s novels as they come to epitomise the transgressive extremes of the 'New Movement' #VPFAExtremes