A complete, restored issue of Penny Dreadfuls from 1853 — all 151 pages of cheap serialized Victorian sensation fiction — crime, horror, and lurid melodrama, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

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A complete issue · 151 pages · 1853

The Seamstress; or, The White Slave of England

1853 · Free to read

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About this issue

This serial novel by G.W.M. Reynolds, illustrated by Henry Andelay, introduces Virginia Mordaunt, an impoverished eighteen-year-old seamstress living in a squalid attic on Tavistock Street in London. The narrative provides extensive physical description of Virginia—her pale complexion, delicate features, modest demeanor, and air of "virginal artlessness"—emphasizing her orphaned status and uncontaminated virtue despite her exposure to harsh circumstances. The story establishes Virginia's desperate labor: she has been entrusted with expensive materials worth nearly £40 (eighteen yards of velvet at one guinea per yard, silk lining, and white Brussels lace for trimmings) to construct a superb dress. Working from five in the morning until one the following morning—twenty hours with only brief breaks—Virginia labors with feverish intensity, pushing herself toward physical collapse. The OCR text ends as she continues near completion of her task, her health visibly deteriorating from exhaustion.

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