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[[File:Pennydreadful.png|thumb|right|''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)|serial literature]] produced during the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The [[pejorative]] term is roughly interchangeable with '''penny horrible''', '''penny awful''',<ref>{{cite web |last=Zimmer |first=Ben |url=http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=31 |title=Horribles and terribles |publisher=Language Log |access-date=4 June 2011}}</ref> and '''penny blood'''.<ref>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</ref> The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts of 8 to 16 pages, each costing one [[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|penny]].<ref name="Anderson">{{cite web |title=The shocking tale of the penny dreadful |publisher=BBC Culture |date=1 May 2016 |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160502-the-shocking-tale-of-the-penny-dreadful  |first=Hephzibah |last=Anderson}}</ref> 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". In America in the 1840s, a similar class of consumer content developed known as [[City mysteries|city mysteries.]] 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.<ref name="Guardian"/><ref name="Flanders"/> ''[[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".<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |title=Penny dreadfuls: the Victorian equivalent of video games |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/30/penny-dreadfuls-victorian-equivalent-video-games-kate-summerscale-wicked-boy |access-date=22 November 2018 |work=The Guardian}}</ref>

While the term "penny dreadful" was originally used in reference to a specific type of literature circulating in mid-[[Victorian era|Victorian Britain]], it came to encompass a variety of publications that featured cheap sensational fiction, such as [[story paper]]s and booklet "libraries". The penny dreadfuls were printed on cheap [[Pulp (paper)|wood pulp]] paper and were aimed at young [[working class]] men.<ref name="James">{{cite book|last=James |first=Louis |year=1974 |title=Fiction for the Working Man, 1830–50 |location=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin University Books |isbn= 0-14-060037-X |page=20}}</ref> The popularity of penny dreadfuls was challenged in the 1890s by the rise of competing literature, especially the [[Halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)|half-penny]] periodicals published by [[Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe|Alfred Harmsworth]].<ref name="Guardian"/><ref name="springhall2"/>

==Origins==
Crime [[Broadside (printing)|broadsides]] were commonly sold at [[public execution]]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]] 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://broadsides.law.harvard.edu/ | title=Dying Speeches and Bloody Murders: Crime Broadsides Collected by Harvard Law School Library | publisher=Harvard University Law School Library | access-date=8 March 2013}}</ref>

[[Victorian era|Victorian-era]] Britain experienced social changes that resulted in increased [[literacy]] rates. With the rise of [[capitalism]] and [[industrialisation]], people began to spend more money on entertainment, contributing to the popularisation of the [[novel]]. Improvements in printing resulted in [[newspaper]]s such as [[Joseph Addison]]'s ''[[The Spectator (1711)|The Spectator]]'' and [[Richard Steele]]'s ''[[Tatler (1709 journal)|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 an increased capacity for travel via the invention of tracks, engines, and the corresponding [[Rail transport|railway]] 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 (British pre-decimal coin)|penny]] serials were published in 1836 to meet this demand.<ref name="TurnerES">{{cite book |last=Turner |first=E. S. |author-link=Ernest Sackville Turner |year=1975 |title=Boys Will be Boys |location=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0-14-004116-8 |page=20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Flanders |first=Judith |title=The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime |publisher=Thomas Dunne Books |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-250-04853-0 |location=New York |pages=59}}</ref> Between 1830 and 1850 there were up to 100 publishers of penny-fiction, in addition to many magazines which embraced the genre.<ref name="Flanders">{{cite web |last=Flanders |first=Judith |date=15 May 2014 |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/penny-dreadfuls |title=Penny dreadfuls |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618162441/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/penny-dreadfuls |archive-date=18 June 2020 |publisher=British Library |access-date=6 February 2019}}</ref> 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]], which cost a [[shilling]] [twelve pennies] per part.<ref>[https://dickens.ucsc.edu/resources/faq/by-the-word.html "Was Dickens Really Paid By The Word?"]. The University of Santa Cruz. Retrieved 27 September 2017</ref>

==Subject matter==
[[File:Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood.jpg|thumb|Cover of a ''[[Varney the Vampire]]'' publication (1845)]]
The stories were reprints, or sometimes rewrites, of the earliest [[Gothic fiction|Gothic]] thrillers such as ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' or ''[[The Monk]]'', 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.<ref name="Flanders"/> Some of the most famous of these penny part-stories were ''[[The String of Pearls|The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance]]'' (introducing [[Sweeney Todd]], "the Demon Barber of [[Fleet Street]]"),<ref name=pbs>{{cite web| url=https://www.pbs.org/kqed/demonbarber/penny/ | title=Penny Dreadful: From True Crime to Fiction > ''Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert'' |publisher=[[KQED-TV]] |access-date=9 November 2015 |archive-date=21 February 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030221101922/http://www.pbs.org/kqed/demonbarber/penny/ |url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[The Mysteries of London]]'' (inspired by the French serial ''[[The Mysteries of Paris]]''), and ''[[Varney the Vampire]]'' (1845–1847). ''Varney'' is the tale of the vampire Sir Francis Varney and introduced many of the [[trope (literature)|trope]]s present in [[Vampire literature|vampire fiction]] recognizable to modern audiences—it was the first story to refer to sharpened teeth for a vampire.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-cronin/did-vampires-not-have-fan_b_8415636.html "Did Vampires Not Have Fangs in Movies Until the 1950s?"]. ''Huffington Post''. Retrieved 27 September 2017</ref>

[[Highwayman|Highwaymen]] were popular heroes; ''Black Bess or the Knight of the Road'', outlining the largely imaginary exploits of real-life English highwayman [[Dick Turpin]], 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]]'' was what would now be called an [[Urban legends and myths|urban myth]]. 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]] 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 Hood stories.<ref>{{cite book |title=Swordsmen of the Screen: From Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |page=191}}</ref> Other serials were thinly disguised [[plagiarism]]s of popular contemporary literature. The publisher [[Edward Lloyd (publisher)|Edward Lloyd]], for instance, published numerous hugely successful penny serials derived from the works of Charles Dickens, such as ''Oliver Twiss'' and ''Nickelas Nicklebery''.<ref name="TurnerES" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Flood |first1=Alison |title=Oliver Twiss and Martin Guzzlewit – the fan fiction that ripped off Dickens |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/25/oliver-twiss-twist-charles-dickens-rip-off-edward-lloyd |access-date=4 July 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=25 June 2019}}</ref>

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 installments. As one reader said, "You see's an engraving of a man hung up, burning over a fire, and some [would] go mad if they couldn't learn&nbsp;... all about him." One publisher's rallying cry to his illustrators was "more blood – much more blood!"<ref name="Flanders" />

Working class boys who could not afford a penny each week often formed clubs that would share the cost, passing the flimsy booklets from reader to reader. Other enterprising youngsters would collect several 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 interest.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Christopher |last=Banham |title=England and America Against the World': Empire and the USE in Edwin J. Brett's ''Boys of England'', 1866–99 |journal=Victorian Periodicals Review |volume=40 |issue=2 |year=2007 |pages=151–171}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Boys of England|url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/10549458|work=Stanford University Libraries|series=Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture|year=1867|access-date=20 December 2015}}</ref> Numerous competitors quickly followed, including ''Boys' Leisure Hour'', ''Boys' Standard'', and ''Young Men of Great Britain'' (a short lived companion to ''Boys of England''). 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]]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, 1st Viscount Northcliffe|Alfred Harmsworth]]'s price-cutting 'halfpenny dreadfuller{{'"}}.<ref name="springhall1">{{cite journal|last=Springhall |first=John|title=Disseminating Impure Literature: The 'Penny Dreadful' Publishing Business Since 1860|journal=Economic Historical Review|volume= 47|issue=3 |date=1994}}</ref> In reality, the serial novels were overdramatic and sensational but generally harmless. If anything, the penny dreadfuls, although 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.<ref name="casey">{{cite journal|author=Casey, Christopher|title=Common Misperceptions: The Press and Victorian Views of Crime|journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History|volume=41|issue=3 |date=Winter 2011}}</ref>

==Decline==
[[File:Cover of Illustrated Chips 298 (1896).jpg|thumb|''[[Illustrated Chips]]'' [[Comics anthology|comic magazine]] in 1896. Published by [[Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe|Alfred Harmsworth]], it cost just a [[Halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)|half-penny]].]]

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 [[Halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)|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 ''[[Halfpenny Marvel|The Half-penny Marvel]]'' in 1893:

{{quote|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.<ref name="springhall2">{{cite book |last=Springhall |first=John |title=Youth, Popular Culture and Moral Panics |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=1998 |page=[https://archive.org/details/youthpopularcult00john/page/75 75] |isbn=978-0-312-21394-7 |oclc=38206817 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/youthpopularcult00john/page/75 }}</ref>}}

''The Half-penny Marvel'' was soon followed by other Harmsworth half-penny periodicals, such as ''[[Union Jack (magazine)|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 ''[[Illustrated Chips]]'' featured the long-running [[comic strip]] of the [[tramp]]s Weary Willie and Tired Tim, with a young [[Charlie Chaplin]] among its readers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Chris |title=The British Superhero |date=2017 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |page=22}}</ref> [[A. A. Milne]], the author of ''[[Winnie-the-Pooh (book)|Winnie-the-Pooh]]'', once said, "Harmsworth killed the penny dreadful by the simple process of producing the 'ha'penny dreadfuller{{'"}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knuth |first1=Rebecca |title=Children's Literature and British Identity: Imagining a People and a Nation |date=2012 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=65}}</ref> The quality of the Harmsworth/[[Amalgamated Press]] papers began to improve throughout the early 20th century, however. By the time of the [[World War I|First World War]], papers such as ''Union Jack'' dominated the market in the UK.<ref>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 sent in by parents or teachers were frequently printed, praising the papers for putting the "trash" out of business.</ref>

The penny dreadfuls were also challenged by book series such as [[The Penny Library of Famous Books]] launched in 1896 by [[George Newnes]] which he characterized as "penny delightfuls" intended to counter the pernicious effects of the penny dreadfuls,<ref>[https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8gx4dsz/entire_text/ Penny Library of Famous Books], oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 10 December 2019.</ref> and such as the Penny Popular Novels launched in 1896 by [[W. T. Stead]].<ref>[https://www.publishinghistory.com/penny-popular-novels-masterpiece-library-review-of-reviews.html Penny Popular Novels (The Masterpiece Library) ("Review of Reviews" Office) - Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 10 December 2019.</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Jack2.jpg|thumb|[[Spring-heeled Jack]] illustrated on the cover of the 1904 penny dreadful serial ''Spring-heeled Jack'']]
The character of Spring-heeled Jack has been revived or referenced in a variety of 20th and 21st century media, including:

Two 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.<ref>{{harvp|Turner|1975|p=129}}</ref>  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&nbsp;adventures, right up into the 1970s. Harkaway was also popular in America and had many imitators.

The fictional [[Sweeney Todd]], the subject of both a successful musical by [[Stephen Sondheim]] and a feature film by [[Tim Burton]], first appeared in an 1846/1847 penny dreadful titled ''[[The String of Pearls|The String of Pearls: A Romance]]'' by [[James Malcolm Rymer]] and [[Thomas Peckett Prest]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_String_of_Pearls|title=The String of Pearls|first=James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett|last=Prest|via=Wikisource}}</ref>

The penny dreadfuls inspired the [[British comics]] that began to emerge in the 1870s.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Century Of Comic Capers For Kids At Dewsbury Museum |url=https://www.culture24.org.uk/art/painting-and-drawing/art23449 |access-date=10 September 2020 |agency=Culture 24}}</ref> Describing penny dreadfuls as "a 19th-century British publishing phenomenon", the [[BBC]] 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."<ref name="Anderson" /><ref>Jason Baumann, Susan and Douglas Dillon (22 May 2014). [https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/05/22/penny-dreadfuls "The True Delights of Penny Dreadfuls"]. The New York Public Library.</ref>

==See also==

*{{annotated link|Chapbook}}
*{{annotated link|History of the British comic}}
*{{annotated link|Pulp magazine}}
*{{annotated link|Story paper}}
*{{annotated link|Yellow-back}}
*[[Lubok]] - Russian variation

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
* {{cite book|last= Anglo |first= Michael |year=1977 |title= Penny Dreadfuls and Other Victorian Horrors |location=London |publisher=Jupiter |isbn=0-904041-59-X }}
* {{cite book|last= Carpenter |first= Kevin |year=1983 |title= Penny Dreadfuls and comics : English periodicals for children from Victorian times to the present day  |location= London|publisher= Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood |isbn= 0-905209-47-8}}
* {{cite journal|last= Casey |first= Christopher |year=2010 |title= Common Misperceptions: The Press and Victorian Views of Crime |journal = Journal of Interdisciplinary History | volume = 41 | issue = 3 - Winter 2011 | pages = 367–391 |location= Cambridge | publisher= MIT Press|doi= 10.1162/JINH_a_00106|pmid= 21141651|s2cid= 20046373 }}
* {{cite book|last=Chesterton|first=G. K. |author-link= G. K. Chesterton |year=1901|title=A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Defendant#A_DEFENCE_OF_PENNY_DREADFULS|location= London|publisher=The Daily News }}
* {{cite book|last= Dittmer|first= Nicole C.|year=2023|title= Penny Bloods: Gothic Tales of Dangerous Women |location= London|publisher= British Library|isbn= 978-0712354189}}
* {{cite book|last= Dittmer|first= Nicole C. and Sophie Raine|year=2023|title= Penny Dreadfuls and the Gothic: Investigations of Pernicious Tales of Terror |location= Cardiff|publisher= University of Wales Press|isbn= 9781786839701 }}
* {{cite book|last= Haining |first= Peter |year=1975 |title= The Penny dreadful: or, Strange, horrid and sensational tales! |location=London |publisher=Victor Gollancz |isbn= 0-575-01779-1 }}
* {{cite book|last= James |first= Louis |year=1963  |title= Fiction for the working man 1830–50 |location= Harmondsworth |publisher= Penguin |isbn= 978-0-14-060037-7 }}
* {{cite book|chapter= Black Markets and Cadaverous Pies: The Corpse, Urban Trade and Industrial Consumption in the Penny Blood|title= Victorian Crime Madness and Sensation |author= Powell, Sally |editor1-last=Maunder|editor1-first= Andrew|editor2-last=Moore|editor2-first= Grace|location= Burlington, VT |publisher=Ashgate|year=2004|isbn= 0-7546-4060-4 }}

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
{{Commons Category|Penny dreadfuls}}
* ''[https://archive.org/details/blackbessorknigh01vile Black Bess or, The knight of the road. A tale of the good old times]''
* [http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/pu_penny.html British Library collection of images from penny dreadfuls] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017030725/http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/pu_penny.html |date=17 October 2014 }}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/pop/index.php |title=Price One Penny: Cheap Literature, 1837–1860 |author=Marie Léger-St-Jean |publisher=University of Cambridge |access-date=3 July 2014 |archive-date=28 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528190724/http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/pop/index.php |url-status=dead }} (Bibliographic database of early Victorian penny fiction)

[[Category:Penny dreadfuls| ]]
[[Category:19th-century British literature]]
[[Category:Culture of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Horror genres]]
[[Category:Pulp fiction]]

{{Horror fiction}}



{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Penny dreadful|access_date=2026-03-05}}