Penny Dreadfuls and Other Victorian Horrors

by Michael Anglo

Details the history of mid-nineteenth century "penny dreadfuls" that provided escapist reading for working class youth.

Some of the lurid tales issued in penny parts followed in the tradition of the Gothic romances of the eighteenth century; others were inspired by gallows literature - the broadsheets and the spurious criminal biographies and death-cell confessions that were hawked around at public hangings. The "dreadfuls" were published strictly for profit, and a successful tale would be spun out for hundreds of episodes, with horror piled on horror to hold the interest of the semi-literate readers. In this entertaining book, the author focuses on some of the most famous titles. Dyed-in-the-wool villains, real and imaginary, are brought to vivid life, among them Varney the Vampyre, Sawney Beane the Man-Eater, Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber, Dick Turpin, Jack Sheppard, Charles Peace, and Spring-Heeled Jack. Also examined are the rousing boys' stories which replaced the "dreadfuls," featuring such heroes as Jack Harkaway, the resourceful schoolboy adventurer. We enter the world of the enterprising publishers who did not scruple to plagiarize popular novels and who having made a fortune, then became pious and respectable. The text is complemented by examples of the woodcuts which, always melodramatic and often borrowed from earlier, quite different stories, helped coax hard-earned pennies from prospective readers' pockets.

Genres: History, Horror, Nonfiction

124 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Marjolein]

Although the edition is quite pretty, as it is richly illustrated with both black and white and coloured prints, some of the information in it is outdated. For example, the author states that he could not discover a 1847 version of "The String of Pearls", whereas this is now available online. Moreover, some of his sources (such as Sawney Bean, The Man Eater of Scotland which he attributed to Edward Lloyd) have been proven to be non-existent. As the book is lacking a bibliography, it will be quite hard to track down any of Anglo's sources. As such this book is "okay" as a general overview of the Penny Dreadful and Penny Blood, but it is not very usable for academic purposes. For the latter I would recommend such books as "From The Penny Dreadful to the Hapenny Dreadfuller" by Robert J. Kirkpatrick and "Fiction for the Working Man 1830-1850" by Louis James.

[Surreysmum]

[These notes were made in 2004]. I read this with interest at a time when I was considering writing my M.A. thesis on penny dreadfuls, of which there is a rather unusual and unheralded collection in the main stacks of the University of Alberta library. Despite the fact that it looks like a coffee-table book, it's quite good on influences and sources - and I wonder if the author and I are the only people in the world to have read "Varney the Vampire"?

[Additional notes made in 2026]. Judging by the number of "votes" on my Goodreads review of Varney the Vampyre, that particular horror has apparently come into the light academically (helped of course by the widespread availability of e-texts these days). And no doubt the critical insights offered in Anglo's book are long outdated. But this particular book stays on my shelves for reasons of nostalgia - it was a gift from a valued friend at the very beginning of my career.