About the halfpenny dreadful
January 26, 2025 11:35 PM   Subscribe

I know that "The Halfpenny Marvel" was published by Alfred Harmsworth after "Penny dreadful". But did " The Halfpenny dreadful" really exist between these two papers, in the mid 1890 ? Or does " The Halfpenny Marvel" mean " The Halfpenny dreadful"?
posted by mizukko to Writing & Language (3 answers total)
 
Best answer: Well, 'Penny Dreadful' was a general term for many different publications with a similar price and subject matter. I don't think any of them ever adopted the name "Penny Dreadful". The "Halfpenny Marvel" was an actual publication title.
posted by pipeski at 3:20 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Yes, the "penny dreadful" was a descriptive name for that type of literature. In the first issue of the Halfpenny Marvel, the editorial says "The police-court reports in the newspapers are alone sufficient proof of the harm done by the penny dreadfuls", according to a journal article by John Springhall in Victorian Periodicals Review, 1994. Springhall says the term "penny dreadful" was a "derogatory label" used from the 1870s. See the Wikipedia article on the term.
posted by paduasoy at 4:42 AM on January 27


Best answer: You probably know this but a halfpenny was an actual coin, just like the penny. Penny dreadfuls cost a penny to buy; the Halfpenny Marvel apparently cost a halfpenny.

Both of these were cheap prices. There was a common association of "cheap" with "poor quality", in the sense both of physical construction and sensational, lurid content (see "dime novels" in the US). I think the name "Halfpenny Marvel" was meant as a double declaration: (1) the content here will be marvelous, not dreadful, and therefore wholesome for kids; and (2) it will be marvelous while also costing half of what you pay for dreck. (This is all very ironic considering the legacy of other Harmsworth publications like the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror.)
posted by trig at 5:39 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]


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