Penny Dreadfuls

“Burz-Labrande’s groundbreaking study revolutionises our understanding of penny dreadfuls. This meticulously researched and engagingly written monograph traces these maligned publications from Victorian street culture to today’s neo-Victorian, demonstrating their crucial role in democratising literature. Essential reading for scholars of popular fiction, Victorian studies and cultural history.” —Andrew King, Professor Emeritus of English Literature and Literary Studies, University of Greenwich, London, UK. “Its popular circulation was exactly what many Victorian commentators feared most about the penny dreadful, picturing it as they did as a powerful Gothic monster corrupting the masses. Burz-Labrande’s fascinating new study cleverly recovers the term circulation as a vital critical lens with which to show the multifaceted significance of the penny dreadful from the early-Victorian period right up to the present day.” —Mary L. Shannon, School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Centre for Research in Society, Culture, and Social Change, University of Roehampton, London, UK. “In the age of Dickens and Thackeray, the popular imagination was shaped as much by the penny dreadful with its tales of vampires, grave robbers, mysterious castles and damsels in distress. Manon Burz-Labrande has written a penetrating study of this vital popular form that thrilled the Victorian reading public.” —Rohan McWilliam, Course Leader for History/Professor of Modern British History, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, UK.