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Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The
pejorative A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts of 8 to 16 pages, each costing one penny. 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 Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–47). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet Stre ...
,
Dick Turpin Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher ea ...
,
Varney the Vampire ''Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood'' is a Victorian-era serialized gothic horror story variously attributed to James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest. It first appeared in 1845–1847 as a series of weekly cheap pamphlets of the ...
, and
Spring-heeled Jack Spring-heeled Jack is an entity in English folklore of the Victorian era. The first claimed sighting of Spring-heeled Jack was in 1837. Later sightings were reported all over the United Kingdom and were especially prevalent in suburban Lo ...
. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
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 a week. ''The Guardian'' described penny dreadfuls as "Britain's first taste of mass-produced
popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
for the young", and "the Victorian equivalent of video games". While the term "penny dreadful" was originally used in reference to a specific type of literature circulating in mid-
Victorian Britain In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
, 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 Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw mate ...
paper and were aimed at young
working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...
men. 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 Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...
.


Origins

Crime broadsides were commonly sold at
public execution A public execution is a form of capital punishment which "members of the general public may voluntarily attend." This definition excludes the presence of only a small number of witnesses called upon to assure executive accountability. The purpose ...
s in the United Kingdom in the 18th and 19th centuries. These were often produced by printers who specialised in them. They were typically illustrated by a crude picture of the crime, a portrait of the criminal, or a generic
woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...
of a hanging taking place. There would be a written account of the crime and of the trial and often the criminal's confession of guilt. A doggerel verse warning others to not follow the executed person's example, to avoid their fate, was another common feature.
Victorian-era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardi ...
Britain experienced social changes that resulted in increased
literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...
rates. With the rise of
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
and industrialisation, people began to spend more money on entertainment, contributing to the popularisation of the novel. Improvements in printing resulted in
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
s such as Joseph Addison's ''The Spectator'' and Richard Steele's ''The Tatler'', and England's more fully recognizing the singular concept of reading as a form of leisure; it was, of itself, a new industry. Other significant changes included industrialisation and an increased capacity for travel via the invention of tracks, engines, and the corresponding
railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
distribution (the first public railway, Stockton and Darlington Railway, opened in 1825). These changes created both a market for cheap popular literature and the ability for it to be circulated on a large scale. The first penny serials were published in the 1830s to meet this demand. Between 1830 and 1850 there were up to 100 publishers of penny-fiction, in addition to many magazines which embraced the genre.Flanders, Judith (15 May 2014)
“Penny dreadfuls”
British Library. Retrieved 6 February 2019 The serials were priced to be affordable to working-class readers, and were considerably cheaper than the serialised novels of authors such as
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
, which cost a shilling welve penniesper part.


Subject matter

The stories themselves were reprints, or sometimes rewrites, of the earliest Gothic thrillers such as ''
The Castle of Otranto ''The Castle of Otranto'' is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle – ''A Gothic Story''. Se ...
'' or ''
The Monk ''The Monk: A Romance'' is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796. A quickly written book from early in Lewis's career (in one letter he claimed to have written it in ten weeks, but other correspondence suggests that he ha ...
'', as well as new stories about famous criminals. The first ever Penny Blood, published in 1836, was called ''Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, &c''. The story continued over 60 issues, each eight pages of tightly-packed text with one half-page illustration. Some of the most famous of these penny part-stories were '' The String of Pearls: A Romance'' (introducing
Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–47). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet Stre ...
, "the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"), ''
The Mysteries of London ''The Mysteries of London'' is a "penny blood" or city mysteries novel begun by George W. M. Reynolds in 1844. Recent scholarship has uncovered that it "was almost certainly the most widely read single work of fiction in mid-nineteenth century B ...
'' (inspired by the French serial '' The Mysteries of Paris''), and ''
Varney the Vampire ''Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood'' is a Victorian-era serialized gothic horror story variously attributed to James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest. It first appeared in 1845–1847 as a series of weekly cheap pamphlets of the ...
'' (1845–47). ''Varney'' is the tale of the
vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deat ...
Sir Francis Varney, and introduced many of the tropes present in
vampire fiction Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th-century poetry, before becoming one of the stock figures of gothic fiction with the publicat ...
recognizable to modern audiences — it was the first story to refer to sharpened teeth for a vampire.
Highwaymen A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to fo ...
were popular heroes; ''Black Bess or the Knight of the Road'', outlining the largely imaginary exploits of real-life English highwayman
Dick Turpin Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher ea ...
, continued for 254 episodes and was well over 2,000 pages long. Turpin was not executed until page 2,207. Some lurid stories purported to be based on fact: ''
Spring-Heeled Jack Spring-heeled Jack is an entity in English folklore of the Victorian era. The first claimed sighting of Spring-heeled Jack was in 1837. Later sightings were reported all over the United Kingdom and were especially prevalent in suburban Lo ...
'' was what we would now call an
urban myth An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
. The first ‘sighting’ of him was in 1837, and he was described as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy, clawed hands and eyes that ‘resembled red balls of fire’. He was mainly sighted in London, but popped up elsewhere, and seems to have been a source of frightened fascination for several decades. At the height of Spring-Heeled Jack hysteria, several women reported being attacked by a clawed monster of a man breathing blue flames. The last ‘sighting’ was in Liverpool in 1904. In 1838,
Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...
featured in a series of penny dreadfuls titled ''Robin Hood and Little John: or, The Merry Men of Sherwood Forest'', which sparked the beginning of the mass circulation of Robin stories. Other serials were thinly-disguised plagiarisms of popular contemporary literature. The publisher
Edward Lloyd Edward Lloyd may refer to: Politicians *Edward Lloyd (MP for Montgomery), Welsh lawyer and politician * Edward Lloyd (16th-century MP) (died 1547) for Buckingham *Edward Lloyd, 1st Baron Mostyn (1768–1854), British politician *Edward Lloyd (Colon ...
, for instance, published a number of hugely successful penny serials derived from the works of
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
, such as ''Oliver Twiss'' and ''Nickelas Nicklebery''. The illustration which featured at the start of each issue was an integral part of the dreadfuls’ appeal, often acting as a teaser for future instalments. As one reader said, “You see’s an engraving of a man hung up, burning over a fire, and some ouldgo mad if they couldn’t learn… all about him.” No wonder one publisher’s rallying cry to his illustrators was “more blood – much more blood!”Flanders, Judith
“Penny dreadfuls”
British Library. Retrieved 11 March 2020 Working class boys who could not afford a penny a week often formed clubs that would share the cost, passing the flimsy booklets from reader to reader. Other enterprising youngsters would collect a number of consecutive parts, then rent the volume out to friends. In 1866, ''
Boys of England ''Boys of England'' was a British boys' periodical issued weekly from 1866 to 1899, and has been called "the leading boys' periodical of the nineteenth century".Christopher Banham, "England and America Against the World": Empire and the USE in Edw ...
'' was introduced as a new type of publication, an eight-page magazine that featured serial stories as well as articles and shorts of interest. Numerous competitors quickly followed, with such titles as ''Boys' Leisure Hour, Boys' Standard, Young Men of Great Britain'', etc. As the price and quality of other types of fiction works were the same, these also fell under the general definition of penny dreadfuls. Appearing in the 1860s, American
dime novel The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...
s were edited and rewritten for a British audience. These appeared in booklet form, such as the ''Boy's First Rate Pocket Library''. Frank Reade, Buffalo Bill, and Deadwood Dick were all popular with the penny dreadful audience. The penny dreadfuls were influential since they were, in the words of one commentator, "the most alluring and low-priced form of escapist reading available to ordinary youth, until the advent in the early 1890s of future newspaper magnate
Alfred Harmsworth Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...
's price-cutting 'halfpenny dreadfuller'". In reality, the serial novels were overdramatic and sensational, but generally harmless. If anything, the penny dreadfuls, although obviously not the most enlightening or inspiring of literary selections, resulted in increasingly literate youth in the Industrial period. The wide circulation of this sensationalist literature, however, contributed to an ever-greater fear of crime in mid-
Victorian Britain In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
.


Decline

The popularity of penny dreadfuls among British children was challenged in the 1890s by the rise of competing literature. Leading the challenge were popular periodicals published by
Alfred Harmsworth Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...
. Priced at one half-penny, Harmsworth's story papers were cheaper and, at least initially, were more respectable than the competition. Harmsworth claimed to be motivated by a wish to challenge the pernicious influence of penny dreadfuls. According to an editorial in the first number of '' The Half-penny Marvel'' in 1893:
It is almost a daily occurrence with magistrates to have before them boys who, having read a number of 'dreadfuls', followed the examples set forth in such publications, robbed their employers, bought revolvers with the proceeds, and finished by running away from home, and installing themselves in the back streets as 'highwaymen'. This and many other evils the 'penny dreadful' is responsible for. It makes thieves of the coming generation, and so helps fill our gaols.
''The Half-penny Marvel'' was soon followed by a number of other Harmsworth half-penny periodicals, such as '' The Union Jack''. At first the stories were high-minded moral tales, reportedly based on true experiences, but it was not long before these papers started using the same kind of material as the publications they competed against. From 1896, the cover of the half-penny comic ''
Illustrated Chips ''Illustrated Chips'' was a British comic magazine published between 26 July 1890 and 12 September 1953. Its publisher was the Amalgamated Press, run by Alfred Harmsworth. Priced at a half-penny, ''Illustrated Chips'' was among a number of Harm ...
'' featured the long-running comic strip of the
tramp A tramp is a long-term homeless person who travels from place to place as a vagrant, traditionally walking all year round. Etymology Tramp is derived from a Middle English verb meaning to "walk with heavy footsteps" (''cf.'' modern English ''t ...
s Weary Willie and Tired Tim, with a young Charlie Chaplin among its readers.
A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...
, the author of ''
Winnie the Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character w ...
'', once said, "Harmsworth killed the penny dreadful by the simple process of producing the 'ha'penny dreadfuller'". The quality of the Harmsworth/
Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...
papers began to improve throughout the early 20th century, however. By the time of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, papers such as ''Union Jack'' dominated the market in the UK. The penny dreadfuls were also challenged by book series such as The Penny Library of Famous Books launched in 1896 by
George Newnes Sir George Newnes, 1st Baronet (13 March 1851 – 9 June 1910) was a British publisher and editor and a founding figure in popular journalism. Newnes also served as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament for two decades. His company, George Newne ...
which he characterized as "penny delightfuls" intended to counter the pernicious effects of the penny dreadfuls, and such as the Penny Popular Novels launched in 1896 by W. T. Stead.


Legacy

A growing consumer culture, increased literacy rates, industrialisation, and the invention of railway (which allowed for mass distribution), created a new market for cheap popular literature for the masses, and the ability for it to be circulated on a large scale. Penny dreadfuls were created in the 1830s to meet this demand. ''The Guardian'' described penny dreadfuls as "Britain’s first taste of mass-produced
popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
for the young", and "the Victorian equivalent of video games". More than one million boys’ periodicals were sold per week. Two popular characters to come out of the penny dreadfuls were Jack Harkaway, introduced in the ''Boys of England'' in 1871, and
Sexton Blake Sexton Blake is a fictional character, a detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels and dramatic productions since 1893. Sexton Blake adventures were featured in a wide variety of British and international publications ...
, who began in ''the Half-penny Marvel'' in 1893. In 1904, the ''Union Jack'' became "Sexton Blake's own paper", and he appeared in every issue thereafter, up until the paper's demise in 1933. In total, Blake appeared in roughly 4,000 adventures, right up into the 1970s. Harkaway was also popular in America and had many imitators. The fictional
Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–47). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet Stre ...
, the subject of both a successful musical by Stephen Sondheim and a feature film by
Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...
, also first appeared in an 1846/1847 penny dreadful titled '' The String of Pearls: A Romance'' by
James Malcolm Rymer James Malcolm Rymer (1814–1884) was a British nineteenth-century writer of penny dreadfuls, and is the co-author with Thomas Peckett Prest of both ''Varney the Vampire'' (1847) and ''The String of Pearls'' (1847), in which the notorious villain ...
and Thomas Peckett Prest. The penny dreadfuls inspired the
British comic A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper. British comics are usually comics anthologies which are ...
s that began to emerge in the 1870s. Describing penny dreadfuls as "a 19th-century British publishing phenomenon", the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
adds, their "very disposability (the booklets’ bargain cover price meant they were printed on exceptionally flimsy paper) has made surviving examples a rarity, despite their immense popularity at the time." Some items that have been named after this topic include a song called "Penny Dreadfuls" by Animal Collective, the Irish literary magazine ''The Penny Dreadful'', and ''
Penny Dreadful Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to ...
'', a Showtime horror television series set in Victorian England.


See also

* * * * * * * *
Lubok A ''lubok'' (plural ''lubki'', Cyrillic: russian: лубо́к, лубо́чная картинка) is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories, and popular tales. Lubki ...
- Russian variation


References

Sources * * * * * * *


External links

*
Black Bess or, The knight of the road. A tale of the good old times
'

* (Bibliographic database of early Victorian penny fiction) 19th-century British literature British culture Horror genres Pulp fiction {{Horror fiction de:Groschenroman