704
pages, Sterling, ISBN-13: 978-143515721
Penny Dreadfuls:
Sensational Tales of Terror
is pretty much a 700-page reprint of classic (and not-so-classic) horror
novels, of which 1/5 is taken up by Frankenstein,
which is easily found elsewhere (although as it is the original 1818 text,
which was considered more shocking before Mary Shelley toned down its
gruesomeness for the better-known 1831 edition, this may be seen by many as a
more) and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber
of Fleet Street, a genuine penny dreadful that has served as the foundation
for all accounts of Sweeney Todd written since. Additionally, works by Robert
Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Wilkie
Collins, and other well-known writers are to be found within, along with several
sensationalized retellings of famous folk legends and accounts of notorious
highwaymen. That leaves 17 stories that might actually be hard to find, with several
tales that are just a few pages long, and one that was in a mock Old English
that I thought was damn-near unreadable. A barebones reprinting of works that
reshaped the face of horror fiction, having them together in one volume is
convenient.
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