Penny dreadful
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A penny dreadful (also called penny number and penny blood) was a type of British fiction publication in the nineteenth century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing a penny. The term, however, soon 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 pulp paper and were aimed primarily at working class adolescents.[1]
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[edit] History
These serials started in the 1830s, originally as a cheaper alternative to mainstream fictional part-works, such as those by Charles Dickens (which cost a shilling (twelve pennies)), for working class adults, but by the 1850s the serial stories were aimed exclusively at teenagers. The stories themselves were reprints or sometimes rewrites of Gothic thrillers such as The Monk or The Castle of Otranto, as well as new stories about famous criminals. Some of the most famous of these penny part stories were The String of Pearls: A Romance (which introduced Sweeney Todd), The Mysteries of London (inspired by the French serial, The Mysteries of Paris) and Varney the Vampire. Highwaymen were popular heroes. Black Bess or the Knight of the Road, outlining the largely imaginary exploits of real-life highwayman Dick Turpin, continued for 254 episodes.
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 was introduced as a new type of publication, an eight page magazine that featured serial stories as well as articles and shorts of interests. It was printed on the same cheap paper, though sporting a larger format than the penny parts.
Numerous competitors quickly followed, with such titles as Boy’s Leisure Hour, Boys Standard, Young Men of Great Britain, etc. As the price and quality of fiction was the same, these also fell under the general definition of penny dreadfuls.
American dime novels 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.
In late 1893 a publisher, Alfred Harmsworth, decided to do something about what was widely perceived as the corrupting influence of the penny dreadfuls. He issued new story papers, The Half-penny Marvel, The Union Jack and Pluck, all priced at one half-penny. 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. A.A. Milne once said, “Harmsworth killed the penny dreadful by the simple process of producing the ha’penny dreadfuller.” The quality of the Harmsworth/Amalgamated Press papers began to improve throughout the early 20th century, however. By the time of the First World War papers such as Union Jack dominated the market.[2]
[edit] Legacy
Two phenomenally popular characters to come out of the penny dreadfuls were Jack Harkaway, introduced in the Boys of England in 1871, and Sexton Blake, 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, a record only exceeded by Nick Carter and Dixon Hawke. Harkaway was also popular in America and had many imitators.
Over time the penny dreadfuls evolved into the British comic magazines.
Owing to their cheap production, their perceived lack of value, and such hazards as war-time paper drives, the Penny Dreadfuls, particularly the earliest ones, are fairly rare today.
[edit] Popular culture
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This "In popular culture" section may contain too many minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivia references. (July 2009) |
There is a troupe of British comedians called The Penny Dreadfuls, composed of three performers: Humphrey Ker, David Reed and Thom Tuck. The Penny Dreadfuls perform sketches all of which are set in Victorian Britain. Their most famous work to date is their radio series The Penny Dreadfuls Present....[3]
A demon in the Terry Brooks novel Angel Fire East takes the name "Penny Dreadful" after seeing one of the novels.
The band Animal Collective has a song named "Penny Dreadfuls" on their album Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished.
British folk metal band Skyclad have a track named "Penny Dreadful" on their 1996 album Irrational Anthems. It was later included on Skyclad's albums Folkemon and No Daylights... Nor Heel Taps. A remake, titled "Penny Dreadful (Full Shining Mix)", was included on Skyclad's album Oui Avant-Garde á Chance. It was later covered by the Italian Progressive/Folk metal band Elvenking and included as a bonus track on their The Winter Wake album and on the Japanese release of their Heathenreel album.
In 2006, Penny Dreadful [4] was one of the movies produced for the horror anthology 8 Movies to Die For. The movie is about a girl named Penny who encounters several urban myths similar to various hand-me-down stories from the penny dreadful publications.
[edit] Further reading
- Anglo, Michael Penny Dreadfuls and Other Victorian Horrors
- Haining, Peter Penny Dreadfuls
- Penny Dreadfuls and Comics, catalogue of exhibition, Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood
- Turner, Ernest Sackville Boys Will be Boys (survey of penny dreadfuls up until the 1960s), ISBN 0-810-34091-7
- G. K. Chesterton "A Defense of the Penny Dreadfuls"
- James, Louis Fiction for the working man 1830-50 Harmonsdworth, Penguin, 1963 ISBN 0-14-06037-X
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ James, Louis/Fiction for the working man 1830-50. Penguin University Books, Harmondsworth, 1974. ISBN 014060037X
- ^ Editorials in early issues of papers such as the Union Jack or Boys' Friend make frequent references to "the blood and thunders", but as time went on the mentions disappeared. Letters were frequently printed, sent in by parents or teachers, praising the papers for putting the "trash" out of business.
- ^ official website http://www.pennydreadfuls.co.uk/about
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454224/
