Wiktionary
n. (context British dated English) A cheap pulp novel produced in 19th century Britain.
WordNet
n. a melodramatic paperback novel [syn: dime novel]
Wikipedia
Penny dreadful is a pejorative term used to refer to cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts, each costing one penny. The subject matter of these stories was typically sensational, focusing on the exploits of detectives, criminals, or supernatural entities. While the term "penny dreadful" was originally used in reference to a specific type of literature circulating in mid-Victorian Britain, it 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 wood pulp paper and were aimed at young working class males.
Penny Dreadful is a 2006 American horror film. The film centers on a young woman who has a phobia of cars and ends up stalked by a maniac hitchhiker preying on her fear. Penny Dreadful is an R-Rated film for violence/terror, some sexuality and language.
A penny dreadful is a 19th-century British fiction publication that cost a penny.
Penny Dreadful may also refer to:
- Penny Dreadful (film), a 2006 American horror film
- Penny Dreadful (novel), second novel by Will Christopher Baer
- Penny Dreadful (TV series), a 2014 Showtime television series
- Penny dreadful, inexpensive shares in trading noted for being highly volatile
- "Penny Dreadful", a song by British folk metal band Skyclad from their 1996 album Irrational Anthems
- Penny Dreadful XIII, a New England television horror host
- Penny Dreadful, a DC Comics super-villain and member of Helix (comic book team)
- Penny Dreadful, a character from Skybound's Witch Doctor comics
- Penny Dreadful, a Greek rock band
- Penny Dreadful, a character in the Terry Brooks novel Angel Fire East.
Penny Dreadful is a British-American dark fantasy– horror drama television series set in the Victorian era London. It follows several public domain characters from such 19th-century and early 20th-century fiction as Frankenstein, Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Wolf Man, together with original characters created for the show.
It was created for Showtime and Sky by John Logan, who also acts as co-writer and executive producer. The show was originally pitched to several US and UK channels, and eventually landed with Showtime, with Sky Atlantic as co-producer. The series premiered on Showtime on May 11, 2014, the first in an eight-episode season.
The title refers to the penny dreadfuls, a type of 19th-century British fiction publication with lurid and sensational subject matter. After the season three finale on June 19, 2016, John Logan announced that Penny Dreadful had ended, as the main story had reached its conclusion.
Usage examples of "penny dreadful".
Caleb was in his corner with his latest penny dreadful, reading aloud to Nate and Oron about an axe murderer who preyed on loose women, when a young and disapproving voice loudly exclaimed, “.
Yet it was strangely reassuring to know that I hadn't been the first aristocratic fiend to move through the ballrooms of the world in search of my victims -- the deadly gentleman who would soon surface in stories and poetry and penny dreadful novels as the very epitome of our tribe.
Yet it was strangely reassuring to know that I hadn't been the first aristocratic fiend to move through the ballrooms of the world in search of my victims-the deadly gentleman who would soon surface in stories and poetry and penny dreadful novels as the very epitome of our tribe.
And now, some twenty years after, what had I done, seeking her out, finding her old house in New Orleans deserted, and spying upon her at Oak Haven, walking the broad upstairs galleries of Oak Haven like an old Penny Dreadful Vampire, looking into her very bedroom until she sat up and spoke my name in the darkness.
I know it has the ring of a penny dreadful, but there's a sinister force behind poor Miles's death.