A complete issue · 393 pages · 1870
The Works of George W. M. Reynolds
A complete, restored issue of Penny Dreadfuls from 1870 — all 393 pages of cheap serialized Victorian sensation fiction — crime, horror, and lurid melodrama, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.
A complete issue · 393 pages · 1870
This volume presents "Lady Saxondale's Crimes" by George W. M. Reynolds, a serialized melodrama combining elements of crime, adventure, and romance. The narrative follows multiple interconnected plots: Kate Marshall's abduction by Catalonian bandits and her rescue by Don Diego de Christoval, a Spanish nobleman; Kate's desperate journey to Spain to save her fiancé, Captain Edward Russell, imprisoned in Barcelona after a failed smuggling operation resulted in Spanish revenue officers' deaths; and the broader mystery surrounding Lady Saxondale's criminal past and inheritance disputes. The text features international intrigue involving the French Marquis of Villebelle, banditti gangs, legal proceedings, and a tower hideout. The narrative emphasizes romance, legal jeopardy, rescue interventions, and revelations of hidden identities and rightful heirs, typical of Victorian serialized fiction that emphasized sensation, moral complexity, and dramatic reversals across its thirty-four chapters.
Each page has its own page — the cartoon, who’s in it, and what the satire means.