Welcome to The Penny Dreadful

First surfacing in the 1830s, Penny Dreadfuls were serialized stories that were sold on the streets of Victorian England for a penny a chapter — sensational, frightening, dramatic stories that served as one of the precursors to modern pop culture.

Many beloved gothic stories started as Penny Dreadfuls, and starting on October 1st, 2022, we’ll revisit many of them.

The Penny Dreadful is a companion project of The Silas Archives, the home of the exploration of vampiric literature, vampire history, queer theory, and the many faces of Carmilla Karnstein.

Subscribe if you dare…

FAQs

Q. When will The Penny Dreadful begin?

A. October 1st, 2022.

Q. What authors will be featured?

A. The Penny Dreadful will feature authors such as J. Sheridan Le Fanu, John William Polidori, Lord Byron, James Malcolm Rymer & Thomas Puckett Prest, Florence Marryat, Bram Stoker, and many others. (I won’t be posting Dracula though, as that’s Dracula Daily’s domain.)

Q. How often will The Penny Dreadful update?

A. Update frequency will vary from story to story, seeing as these stories range from novella-length to…much, much longer. With each new story, a new schedule will be posted as part of the story’s introduction.

Q. How much does a subscription cost?

A. Nothing! The original Penny Dreadfuls cost just that — a penny — but here, classic gothic stories are delivered to your inbox for not a cent.

Q. Who is The Archivist?

A. The Archivist is the (probably) doomed grad student trapped in the archives of the Theophilus Library at Silas University, and head of The Silas Archives, as there seems to be nobody else around to do it. Nobody else who’s alive, anyways. They figure they might as well make use of their time down here, as they don’t seem to be escaping the stacks anytime soon.