Step into the shadowed world of nineteenth-century mourning rituals and discover how grief, beauty, and death intertwined to shape one of history’s most fascinating cultural eras. Internationally recognized author and collector Paul Gambino returns for a book signing of his latest work, Beyond the Veil: The Victorian Obsession with Mourning and Death, a richly illustrated exploration of how disease, ritual, and remembrance profoundly influenced Victorian life on both sides of the Atlantic.

Drawing upon decades of collecting and research, Gambino reveals how the Victorians ritualized loss with a richness and theatricality unparalleled in history. Attendees will learn how black crepe and jet jewelry became symbols of status and sorrow, how séances and spiritualist practices promised communication with the departed, and how Gothic literature—from Frankenstein to Dracula—mirrored society’s obsessions with mortality and the afterlife.