Penny dreadful

For other uses, see Penny dreadful (disambiguation).

Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road. A romanticized tale of Dick Turpin – a popular subject in fiction. Circa 1860

Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful,[1] and penny blood.[2] The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts of 8 to 16 pages, each costing one penny.[3] The subject matter of these stories was typically sensational, focusing on the exploits of detectives, criminals, or supernatural entities. First published in the 1830s, penny dreadfuls featured characters such as Sweeney Todd, Dick Turpin, Varney the Vampire, and Spring-heeled Jack.

The BBC called penny dreadfuls "a 19th-century British publishing phenomenon". By the 1850s, there were up to a hundred publishers of penny-fiction, and in the 1860s and 1870s more than a million boys' periodicals were sold per week.[4][5] The Guardian described penny dreadfuls as "Britain's first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young", and "the Victorian equivalent of video games".[4]

While the term "penny dreadful" was originally used in reference to a specific type of literature circulating in mid-Victorian Britain, it came to encompass a variety of publications that featured cheap sensational fiction, such as story papers and booklet "libraries". The penny dreadfuls were printed on cheap wood pulp paper and were aimed at young working class men.[6] The popularity of penny dreadfuls was challenged in the 1890s by the rise of competing literature, especially the half-penny periodicals published by Alfred Harmsworth.[4][7]

  1. ^ Zimmer, Ben. "Horribles and terribles". Language Log. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  2. ^ Many people use the term "penny blood" interchangeably with "penny dreadful". Sally Powell distinguishes between these terms, however, and designates "penny bloods" as cheap sensational literature written largely for working-class adults. Powell, p. 46
  3. ^ Anderson, Hephzibah (1 May 2016). "The shocking tale of the penny dreadful". BBC Culture.
  4. ^ a b c "Penny dreadfuls: the Victorian equivalent of video games". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Flanders was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ James, Louis (1974). Fiction for the Working Man, 1830–50. Harmondsworth: Penguin University Books. p. 20. ISBN 0-14-060037-X.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference springhall2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).