I learned about Penny Dreadful after
viewing a ghost story. They were not originally 8 page stories about Highway
men and Pirates. They were a one page story sold at executions. An interview
would be held with the prisoner and he or she could tell their story; about
their life, their crime and how they were to be hung with any last words. The
interview was then woven into a story, a dreadful portrayal of the hanging or
the crime drawn and then it was printed on cheap paper. These were sold to
everyone who attended the public executions for a penny. Hence, a penny for a
dreadful tale.
Penny Dreadfuls were so popular at
Public executions that they became a form of reading entertainment and so were
born the 8 page versions. These were printed weekly and sold for a penny.
Stories could continue form issue to issue sometimes ending in the middle of a
sentence. The targeted audience for these stories were young working males.
They came from real life stories that were dramatized, sensationalized and made
more gruesome than they actually were. They also came from existing Gothic
fiction novels that were popular and too expensive for the working man.
The fictional Sweeney Todd got his
start as an 8 page Penny Dreadful titled The
String of Pearls: A Romance.
The series lasted 18 weeks. No one knows for
sure who the original author was of this tale.
Whispers circulated that the
tale was created based on an actual incident found on an older one page Penny
Dreadful at Newgate Prison in London. However, there are no public records in
London of a Barbor-Surgeon named Sweeney Todd or one that was located on Fleet
Street. There are also no records of a
trial or execution ever having taken place for a man named Sweeney Todd.
….but maybe the name was changed to
protect the family of the real Sweeney Todd or Todd Sweeney.
I have a great grandmother who
married a James Letcher Sweeney. I wonder…..
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