Penny dreadful
The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts of 8 to 16 pages each costing one penny. Penny dreadfuls were printed on cheap wood pulp paper and aimed at young working class men. Working class boys who could not afford a penny each week often formed clubs that would share the cost. They passed flimsy booklets from reader to reader. Other enterprising youngsters collected several consecutive parts then rented the volume out to friends. In 1866 Boys of England was introduced as a new type of publication. This eight-page magazine featured serial stories as well as articles and shorts of interest. Numerous competitors quickly followed including Boys' Leisure Hour Boys' Standard and Young Men of Great Britain. 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 novels were edited and rewritten for a British audience. These appeared in booklet form such as Boy's First Rate Pocket Library. Frank Reade Buffalo Bill and Deadwood Dick were all popular with the penny dreadful audience. Between 1830 and 1850 there were up to 100 publishers of penny-fiction.
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 included The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance introducing Sweeney Todd Varney the Vampire from 1845 to 1847. Varney is the tale of the vampire Sir Francis Varney and introduced many tropes present in vampire fiction recognizable to modern audiences. It was the first story to refer to sharpened teeth for a vampire. Highwaymen were popular heroes; Black Bess or the Knight of the Road outlined largely imaginary exploits of real-life English highwayman Dick Turpin. This series 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 like Spring-Heeled Jack which would now be called an urban myth. The first sighting of him occurred in 1837 and he was described as having terrifying appearance with diabolical physiognomy clawed hands and eyes resembling red balls of fire. He was mainly sighted in London but popped up elsewhere seeming to be 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 breathing blue flames.
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. Priced at one half-penny Harmsworth's story papers were cheaper and initially more respectable than the competition. Harmsworth claimed to be motivated by a wish to challenge the pernicious influence of penny dreadfuls. An editorial in the first number of The Half-penny Marvel in 1893 stated his intentions clearly. The Half-penny Marvel was soon followed by other Harmsworth half-penny periodicals such as The Union Jack. At first the stories were high-minded moral tales reportedly based on true experiences. 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 Illustrated Chips featured the long-running comic strip of tramps Weary Willie and Tired Tim with young Charlie Chaplin among its readers. A. A. Milne author of Winnie-the-Pooh once said Harmsworth killed the penny dreadful by producing the ha'penny dreadfuller. The quality of the Harmsworth/Amalgamated Press papers began to improve throughout the early 20th century. By the time of the First World War papers such as Union Jack dominated the market in the UK.
The character of Spring-heeled Jack has been revived or referenced in various 20th and 21st century media including films and stage productions. Two popular characters to come out of the penny dreadfuls were Jack Harkaway introduced in Boys of England in 1871 and Sexton Blake who began in Half-penny Marvel in 1893. In 1904 the Union Jack became Sexton Blake's own paper appearing in every issue thereafter 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 subject of both a successful musical by Stephen Sondheim and feature film by Tim Burton first appeared in an 1846/1847 penny dreadful titled The String of Pearls: A Romance by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest. The penny dreadfuls inspired British comics that began to emerge in the 1870s. Describing them as a 19th-century British publishing phenomenon the BBC notes their very disposability made surviving examples rare despite immense popularity at the time. The wide circulation of this sensationalist literature contributed to an ever-greater fear of crime in mid-Victorian Britain.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When did the first penny dreadful appear in London?
The first penny serials appeared on London streets in 1836. These early publications met a sudden demand for cheap reading material among the working class.
What was the title of the very first penny blood published in 1836?
The first ever penny blood published in 1836 was called Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen Footpads &c. This story continued over 60 issues each eight pages of tightly packed text with one half-page illustration.
Who created the character Spring-heeled Jack and when did he first appear?
Spring-heeled Jack is a fictional figure whose first sighting occurred in 1837. He was described as having terrifying appearance with diabolical physiognomy clawed hands and eyes resembling red balls of fire.
Which publication killed the penny dreadful by producing cheaper alternatives?
Alfred Harmsworth claimed to be motivated by a wish to challenge the pernicious influence of penny dreadfuls through his periodicals. A. A. Milne author of Winnie-the-Pooh once said Harmsworth killed the penny dreadful by producing the ha'penny dreadfuller.
How many adventures did the character Sexton Blake appear in from 1904 until the 1970s?
In total Blake appeared in roughly 4,000 adventures right up into the 1970s. The Union Jack became Sexton Blake's own paper appearing in every issue thereafter until the paper's demise in 1933.