Penny Dreadful

[Elgee]

Some things never change :P

 

Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_dreadful:

 

A penny Dreadful (also called penny horrible, penny awful,^[1]penny number, and penny blood^{[n 1]}) was a type of British fiction publication in the 19th century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing one (old) 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 at young working class males.^[3]

 

 

 

 

Victorian 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 newspapers 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 industrialization and an increased capacity for travel via the invention of tracks, engines, and the corresponding railway distribution.

In accordance with these changes, the demand for literature in the mid-nineteenth century intensified dramatically. The penny dreadfuls, named for both their cheap nature, and poor, sensational quality, erupted into existence and met the desires of the poor class. The penny dreadfuls “became by far 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’s price-cutting ‘halfpenny dreadfuller’ (Springhall 568).” The term "dreadful" was originally assumed to express societal anxiety or moral alarm over the new profitable innovation directed at the youth.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[4]

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 young working class males. 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 (introducing 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 English 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 interest. It was printed on the same cheap paper, though it sported a larger format than the penny parts.

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.

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[5]

 

 

 

[Elgee]

Moving along to modern times ...

 

 

Who, other than Dors, watches the TV series?

 

 

One of the most interesting aspects of Penny Dreadful is how it has used various themes from the literature on which it is based to plumb the depths of its characters, both those from the novels and those invented for the show. Monsters have long been a key part of myths, legends and folklore, grotesque creatures that those who offend the gods are transformed into or for our heroes to destroy in a blaze of glory.

Over the course of the nineteenth century from Frankenstein (published first in 1818) to Dracula (published in 1897), the monster undergoes something of a transformation. It arguably began in Switzerland in 1815 when Mary Shelley conceived the idea of Frankenstein in a nightmare, and used it for a storytelling competition that took place amongst her companions, including her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley (they were not yet married), Lord Byron and Byron’s doctor, John Polidori. This storytelling competition not only unleashed Frankenstein and his Creature upon English literature, but also introduced into popular fiction the figure of the vampire, thanks to Polidori’s novella, The Vampyre.

Both the man-made monster and the vampire would become key figures in the Gothic fiction of the late nineteenth century, influenced by the technological and scientific advances of the age. Victorian society was fascinated with the idea of the monstrous, from the so-called ‘freak shows’ which exhibited people with biological rarities and became commercial successes to the literature of the period.

 

 

 

 

Exciting news! PENNY DREADFUL will be back for a second season consisting of 10 episodes. Starring Josh Hartnett, Timothy Dalton and Eva Green, the series will go back into production in Dublin, Ireland for a 2015 launch.

 

 

[Hayl3y]

^saw first episode and i loved it

[michellem]

It's on my "to watch"-list! Gothic, victorian, and apparantly also well made? I'm in! (also, I luuuurve Eva Green)

[Elgee]

It's ... different. But very addictive. Not for the feint hearted, though. Not so much in terms of the "horror" effects, but for the more human angles. When vampires were still blood sucking ***ing rending tearing vampires, instead of being sexy or twinkly.

[Ireond]

There have ALWAYS been sexy vampires.  For some odd reason, there's seems to be a group of people every generation that think that painful ways to die look hot.  (Succubi, Vampires, Dryads and Nymphs, for Zeus's sake.)

 

Take the Maeneds.  If you didn't party with them, you'd be ripped apart by a horde of drunk and screaming women.  If you did party with them, I think odds were death by, um, exhaustion.

 

Gothic fiction when done right is one of the few things that can give me the hebbiejibblies though.  Penny Dreadful is on my watch list, I'll probably get to it about a month from now

[Brandie]

Is it on netflix or amazon by any chance? I'm looking for a new series to binge watch

[Elgee]

I wouldn't know, Brandie - I watch it on satelite tv.