Alfred Harmsworth | Missus Mooney's Halfpenny Dreadfuls

I love to read in my spare time so let me introduce you to a Victorian craze that still continues today.

The Penny Dreadful (or Penny Blood) was a term applied to 19th century British fiction publications, usually lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing a penny.

The term, was soon applied to 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 primarily at working class adolescents.

Half-Penny Dreadfuls came about in the mid-1890s when publisher Alfred Harmsworth decided to do something about what was widely perceived as the corrupting influence of the Penny Dreadfuls.

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.”