What did the most ordinary Victorians read? Not the Brontes or Dickens: “penny dreadfuls”: cheap illustrated novels, often historical romance, horror, or both. A brief introduction to the penny dreadful phenomenon and its most enduring titles (Sweeney Todd; Varney the Vampyre), this talk will feature real examples from the 1840s-90s, which attendees can handle, and will end with a brief group composition of the opening of our own penny dreadful. Professor Nesvet will also bring rare examples of Victorian Penny Dreadfuls to display and view.
Where: Neville Public Museum Classrooms, 220 Museum Place, Green Bay, Wisconsin
When: Sunday, September 27, 2026 from 4 – 5 pm.
Admission: FREE
Rebecca Nesvet
Rebecca Nesvet teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. She is the author of the first book about “Sweeney Todd’s” Victorian creator: James Malcolm Rymer, Penny Fiction, and the Family (London: Routledge, 2024). She has also written chapters of popular history books on Victorian subjects for Pen and Sword Books (Barnsley, Yorkshire).
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