A-Z: Y is for The Yorkshire Witch and Z is for Edward Zane Carroll Judson

I'm posting for the letter Y and Z for the A-Z Challenge.  For the letter Y, I'm featuring Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch and for the letter Z, Edward Zane Carroll Judson a.k.a. Ned Buntline.

"Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch"

The penny dreadful, Mary Bateman the Yorkshire Witch, was written by Thomas Peckett Prest in 1840.  Under the direction of Edward Loyd, Prest endeavored to write bloody tales, often creating storylines from news headlines.  Mary Bateman (1768 – 20 March 1809) was an English con artist who would steal and pretend she had supernatural powers to deceive her marks.  She befriended a husband and wife ( William and Rebecca Perigo) who believed in her abilities.  They paid her a substantial amount of money for her magical potions, spells and such.  Rebecca eventually died eating pudding laced with poison.  Her husband grew suspicious and contacted authorities which led to Mary's arrest.  Mary denied any wrongdoing, but the authorities found poison and other incriminating items in her belongings.  She was sentenced to death by hanging in March 1809.  Afterwards, "her body was put on public display with strips of her skin being sold as magic charm to ward off evil spirits."  Ack!.  That's just gross.  You can read more information about Mary here.  Anyway, there are no known copies of the penny dreadful, Prest created based on that original story which is really too bad.  I suspect with his talent for flair and romance, there might have been a riveting read on our hands.

"Edward Zane Carroll Judson"

Since there is little on penny dreadfuls that begin with the letter Z, I focused on an author from the U.S. who wrote serials.  Edward Zane Carroll Judson was an American, using the pen name Ned Buntline, who wrote serials such as The King of the Sea. A tale of the fearless and free and The Virgin Bride. A romance and more.   Ned had a seasoned background in the Navy and military and later roamed the Wild West with the likes of Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill.  This author led an amazing life to say the least.  He produced Wild West shows with Buffalo Bill and  Texas Jack Omohundro and even claimed he nicknamed "Buffalo Bill" for the hero of his serial novel Buffalo Bill, the King of the Border Men, published in the New York Weekly" in 1869. "Ned Buntline was an American publisher, journalist, writer, and publicist."  I was able to find most of my information about Edward Zane Carroll Judson here, but this image of him hanging with Buffalo Bill is perhaps my favorite.

Not too bad for Y & Z.   Anyway, that's a wrap!  I'm off this weekend to spend time reading the blog posts of other folks since I've been remiss this last week.  Enjoy your weekend!

Mina Burrows

A-Z: X is for eXtra Penny Dreadfuls

The letter for today for the A-Z Challenge is the letter X.  Well, this one as you can imagine is a difficult letter to source.  In order to make the most of this challenge for my readers, I decided to source more penny dreadfuls and post where everyone could find them free.  I'm using the letter X for eXtra penny dreadfuls.  Please enjoy these exceptional serials

George W. M. Reynolds' The Mysteries of London

Overview: George W. M. Reynolds' The Mysteries of London is a sprawling tableau, seeking to depict life as Reynolds saw it in mid-Victorian London and expose what he viewed as gross injustice toward the poor. He wide range of tales included a clergyman as the main character and hump-backed dwarves, harridans and grave-robbers [who] groped past against a background of workhouses, jails, execution yards, thieves' kitchens and cemeteries.

Get your Free copy here via Gutenberg.

William Harrison Ainsworth's The Lancashire Witches

The serial which was later published as a novel is based on the true story of the Pendle witches, who were executed in 1612 for causing harm by witchcraft. It is considered one of the major English novels on witchcraft.

Get your Free copy here via Manybooks.net.

William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard

Overview: A celebrated thief is the un-worthy hero of this early dramatic romance.

Get your #Free copy of Jack Sheppard via ManyBooks.net.

William Harrison Ainsworth's Auriol: The Elixir of Life 

Overview:  On the night of the 1st of March, 1800, and at a late hour, a man, wrapped in a large horseman's cloak, and of strange and sinister appearance, entered an old deserted house in the neighbourhood of Stepney-green. He was tall, carried himself very erect, and seemed in the full vigour of early manhood; but his features had a worn and ghastly look, as if bearing the stamp of long-indulged and frightful excesses, while his dark gleaming eyes gave him an expression almost diabolical.

Get your #Free copy via Amazon.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's Lady Audley's Secret

Lady Audley's Secret was first published as a serial in the mid 1800's.  Here is an overview of the story.  Lady Audley's Secret (1862) was one of the most widely read novels in the Victorian period. It exemplifies "sensation fiction" in featuring a beautiful criminal heroine, an amateur detective, blackmail, arson, violence, and plenty of suspenseful action. To its contemporary readers, it also offered the thrill of uncovering blackmail and criminal violence within the homes of the upper class. The novel makes trenchant critiques of Victorian gender roles and social stereotypes, and it creates significant sympathy for the heroine, despite her criminal acts, as she suffers from the injustices of the "marriage market" and rebels against them. 

Get your #Free copy via Amazon here.





Have you had a change to read any of these?  I haven't, but I can promise there are a few here I'll be adding to my TBR pile.

Have a fantastic day!

Mina Burrows

A-Z: W is for Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf

We're in the final stretch of the A-Z Challenge.  Yahoo!  The letter for today is W and I'm featuring, George Reynold's penny dreadful, Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf.   Earlier in the A-Z Challenge, I blogged about Reynolds and mentioned some of his accomplishments including Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf.  Today, I wanted to go into more detail about the penny dreadful and how important it's story was to the Gothic genre.

"Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf"

Like Varney the Vampire or Feast of Blood, Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf, is a classic piece of Gothic literature.  Aside from the pack with the devil, many werewolf characteristics we use today originated from this serial.  For example, Reynold's story was the one of the first English literature that mentions of a man transforming into a wolf-like creature.

From the back cover of Penny Dreadful Multipack Volume 1, (a book of the original penny dreadfuls with images) the series "is set in the sixteenth century and begins with a recently abandoned old man waiting in vain for his granddaughter to return and care for him as a storm rages in the ancient forest surrounding his isolated cottage. To his surprise, a stranger appears and offers him something he cannot refuse: beauty and youth. But it comes with a price as he must also suffer the curse of the werewolf. Love, violence, and intrigue are all weaved around Fernand Wagner as he struggles to balance being a human and a murderous animal. As things become more out of hand and uncontrollable, the secret he has been trying to hide may just have to come forth and be faced by all involved, including his beloved Nisida."

Where can I get a copy of Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf ?

I found my FREE copy of George Reynold's penny dreadful, Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf via Gutenberg ebooks.  Enjoy!

Have a great day!

Mina Burrows

A-Z: U is for The Union Jack & V is for Varney the Vampire

The letters I'm posting for today is U & V for the A-Z Challenge. U is for The Union Jack and V is for Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood.

"The Union Jack"

Source

The Union Jack was another half-penny dreadful created by Alfred Harmsworth in 1894.  In his quest to rid the market of penny dreadfuls, Harmsworth published serials like The Union Jack, offering readers morally cleaner stories with better writing.  In his first serial, he published an editorial statement, promising  his half-penny's featured "...No tales of boys rifling their employers' cash-boxes and making off to foreign lands, or other such highly immoral fiction products."  His strategy worked, of course, as the rise of the half-penny dreadfuls did end the penny dreadful era.  That might seem a bit depressing, but perhaps the violent trend had run it's course with the general public?  The Union Jack had a very successful run of over 35 years, hosting top characters from the penny dreadful era like Sexton Blake.  

I wasn't able to find an ecopy of this publication which seem strange.  There were a fair amount of original copies being sold online, but nothing in e-format.  Sorry. :(

"Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood"

Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood, was a penny dreadfrul written in 1845-47 by the duo goth writing team, James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Preskett Prest.  The serial is about a "exploits of a deathless creature with an insatiable appetite for blood."  And like many of these goth novels, there are a band of heroes wanted to track and kill the beast.

Varney gave birth to how many of us view vampires today with key characteristics such as "fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the necks of his victims, has hypnotic powers, and has superhuman strength"  Vampires with their brooding and self-loathing seem to be a favorite pastimes with iconic vampire literature, right?  Did you know it originated from ol' Varney.  Even though many people today aren't that familiar with him, he was the first in a long line of "sympathetic vampires."  The ones we're more familiar with are Dark Shadow's Barnabas Collins, Anne Rice's Louis de Pointe du Lac, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Angel, and Charlaine Harris' Bill Compton.

Where can I get a copy of Varney the Vampire?

A copy of the Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood can be found at Gutenberg.


Wow!  We're getting close the end of A-Z.  You guys having fun yet?

Mina Burrows

A-Z: T is for Trials

It's the A-Z Challenge challenge again and today I'm posting for the letter T.  My choice of penny dreadfuls in an interesting one.  As I mentioned, the penny dreadfuls were often written about real-life crimes and were often embellished to drive the public into a reading frenzy.  One source of these works comes from a publication called The New Newgate Calendar which published stories based on the hottest crimes and trials.  It's subtitle was Remarkable Lives of Trials of Notorious Criminals.  Past and Present.  Below is a few images of the original versions I found.

...

"The New Newgate Calendar - Trials"

Source

The Newgate Calendar, the original publication started in the late 1700's as an account of notorious characters, and their infamous stories which let to their inevitable incarceration at Newgate prison.   From the Hathi Trust Digital Library, here is the The New Newgate Calendar synopsis:  "The new Newgate calendar : being interesting memoirs of notorious characters, who have been convicted of outrages on the laws of England, during the eighteenth century, brought down to the present time ... With occasional essays on crimes and punishments, original anecdotes and observations on particular cases; the speeches, confessions, and last exclamations of sufferers, to which is added a correct account of the various modes of punishment of criminals in different parts of the world / By Andrew Knapp and William Baldwin, attorneys at law."

Where can I get a copy of The New Newgate Calendar ?

Thankfully there were a a couple of versions of The New Newgate Calendar available online. I found this one, Beau Langley, Scholar and Libertine here and The Murder of Maria Marten in the Red Barn at Polstead here.

It's fascinating how the illustrations sensationalize these crimes, isn't it?  

Mina Burrows

A-Z: S is for Sexton Blake

Today's letter for the A-Z Challenge is S for Sexton Blake.  Like many pieces of literature, sometimes the characters outlast the stories.  Take Sherlock Holmes for instance, there have been countless detective stories created from his original character.  He's been a household name for over a century, but he's not the only one from this era.  Like Sherlock Holmes, Sexton Blake was a famous fictional detective and he was created during the penny dreadful Victorian era.  Sexton Blake was extremely popular and since then, his character has also been reinvented in numerous works.

"About Sexton Blake"

Sexton Blake first appeared in the Half Penny Marvel in 1983, a publication created by Alfred Harmsworth.  The character detective was dubbed the "poor man's Sherlock Holmes" and grew so wildly popular that the character grew into a veritable comic icon.  There were thousands of versions stemming from the original which continued well into the 1970's.  Beside penny dreadfuls, he appeared in dime novels, slicks, novels, movies, plays, radio shows, TV shows, and comic books. The first penny dreadful was called "The Missing Millionaire" and was written by Harry Blyth.  If you're interested in learning more about this fictional character, visit ReoCities and the ComicVine.  Unfortunately, there were no original copies of the penny dreadful version.  There were, however, dozens of authored variations about this character on Amazon.  

Are you familiar with this English legend?  I had heard of him, but never knew he was so popular or that he originated from the penny dreadful era.

Mina Burrows

A-Z Challenge: Q for FAQ & the letter R is for Risen from the Dead

The A-Z Challenge continues with the letter Q & R! For the letter Q I'm posting a few important facts and questions about penny dreadfuls. For the letter R, I'm featuring the penny dreadful, Risen from the Dead or The Medical Student.

Q is for Penny Dreadful FAQ's

Source

There were few penny dreadfuls I could find for this letter. I did find The Divorced Queen (published in 1868) but beyond that, nothing more. In doing my research, I discovered some interesting facts about penny dreadfuls.

* Many penny dreadfuls did not last throughout time due to their poor quality paper know as cheap pulp paper.

* Its been stated repeatedly that the penny dreadfuls were low quality writing from hack writers.  Knowing how much the industry has changed in recent years, do you believe that statement is true?

* Plagiarism found a happy home during the penny dreadful years. Publisher Edward Lloyd, for example, created titles such as Oliver Twiss and Nickelas Nicklebery based on Dicken's classics. I wonder what Dickens thought about that?

"Risen from the Dead or The Medical Doctor"

Now this penny dreadful sounds wonderfully wicked,doesn't it. From the first glance, it reads like a zombie story straight out of the Victorian era.  I regret to inform you that I was unable to find anything about this serial.  Drat!  Boy did I want to read it!  Still, I enjoyed the illustration since it left much to my imagination which is why I chose to feature it. I also researched information about Boys Weekly Reader, but alas my search gave me squat.  During this era there were far too many publications using the name "Boy" which probably caused much brand confusion. Back then, there were publications such as Boys Library, The Wild Boys of London, Boys Own Paper and the list goes on... I suspect they did that on purpose to gain more readers. Think about it...competing publications could look like other best-selling penny dreadfuls, feature a similar story and header line and countless readers would probably purchase a leaflet for a penny, right? It didn't cost the reader more that a penny, right?  Right! Yeah, that's certainly a strategy.   As far as this one here, the story might not be memorable because it was a bad as the paper it was printed on. Who knows? It still looks interesting though.


That's my Q & and R.  How's everyone's week so far?

Mina Burrows