A complete issue · 316 pages · 1891
A Social Meteor
A complete, restored issue of Penny Dreadfuls from 1891 — all 316 pages of cheap serialized Victorian sensation fiction — crime, horror, and lurid melodrama, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.
A complete issue · 316 pages · 1891
This issue of the Primrose Series (No. 17, March 1, 1891) contains "A Social Meteor" by Clement R. Marley, a serialized social novel in twenty-two chapters. The narrative follows Georgie Wheatley, a wealthy but melancholic young woman whom her friend Ray Thorne invites to Philadelphia for the winter season. Georgie agrees, hoping to distract herself from pining after Jack Nelson, a suitor whom she abandoned six months earlier due to jealousy. The story opens with Ray pressuring Georgie to recount the details of their romantic rupture. Georgie reluctantly explains that despite Nelson's devotion and lavish gifts during their engagement, she grew suspicious of his attentions, precipitating the quarrel that dissolved their betrothal. Subsequent chapters develop themes of romantic misunderstanding, social mobility, and family obligation through encounters at New York hotels, secret pledges, and a developing parallel romance between Ray's relative Lee and another character named Ray, culminating in a quiet wedding.
Each page has its own page — the cartoon, who’s in it, and what the satire means.