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About The Penny Bloods
Tales from the Penny Bloods presents a series of audio shows done in the tradition of "old time radio plays." These include adaptions of stories from prestigious Victorian gift annuals like the Keepsake and Forget-Me-Not, and from popular magazines like Charles Dickens's All the Year Round and Household Words.
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Along the way, of course, our programs will also feature stories from the so-called "Penny Bloods" or "Penny Dreadfuls," (think G. W. M. Reynolds's Mysteries of London), bringing you thrilling tales in which London's high society meets the city's underworld.
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Our episodes will entertain you with adventures and romances, ghosts and criminals, with a dash of comedy thrown in.
The Tapping on the Wainscot
(as heard on KCBP-FM Radio Theatre)
Join our team of Edwardian ghost hunters in this tongue-in-cheek tale of a haunted house... Haylesbury Manor is on the market - but is everything as it seems? Is it truly haunted? And will Hargreaves get jam on his waistcoat again?
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Adapted from the short stories 'The Ghost
Hunters' by Allen Upward, published in 1905 in the Royal Magazine - along with Carnacki, 'borrowed' from the occult detective stories by William Hope Hodgson.
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Join us on our Spotify and YouTube channels!
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The One-Handed Lady
(coming soon to KCBP-FM Radio Theatre)
Join us for a dramatization of the 1843 short story "The One-Handed Lady" by by Calder Campbell, published in The Keepsake 1843.
1843: Now in London, Henry Tamber encounters a mysterious stranger and meets the One-Handed Lady. Whatever is her secret? During a visit with his family, a threatening dream foretells danger.
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A tale of mystery, peril and the supernatural, currently being serialised on our Youtube channel.
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Tune in to our Spotify and Youtube channels!
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Tales from the Penny Bloods is a series of
radio plays based on stories from popular
19th-century magazines. We hope you'll enjoy these tales of crime & the supernatural, romance
& adventure, with a few laughs along the way.
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Teachers: you'll also find original texts,
notes, vocabulary, & lesson plans.
Upcoming episodes
We are currently in production on an exciting new episode, Snowbound in Song, written and directed by Julia Warren.
This light-hearted farce features an international opera troupe on tour in the Hebrides, who run intro trouble on their way to their next engagement. With all the fun of a railroad adventure, there'll be comedy and romance, and music, of course. Plus a mystery passenger in the next carriage - who is he? Why the secrecy?
However will it turn out? You'll hear all about it when this episode appears in May.
About the Victorians
British Library:
Posters, newspapers, illustrations and much more, along with expert articles. (www.bl.uk/victorian-britain)
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Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century:
A respected, open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal covering areas like Romantic and Victorian History, Literature, Musicology, Social History, Visual Culture, etc. (https://19.bbk.ac.uk/)
Victorian History Resources:
Elon University's fine site. (elon.libguides.com/Victorian_History/Internet_Resources)
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Victorian Web:
Great all-round information about lit, history, social history, plus other links. (victorianweb.org)
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About the Penny Bloods
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Dittmer, Nicole C. Monstrous Women and Ecofeminism in the Victorian Gothic, 1837–1871. (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666900804/Monstrous-Women-and-Ecofeminism-in-the-Victorian-Gothic)
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This books examines the popular Gothic female “monster” figure in early-to-mid-Victorian literature in the context of medical science, ecofeminism, and social history.
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Dittmer, Nicole C., ed. Penny Bloods: Gothic Tales of Dangerous Women. (https://www.waterstones.com/book/penny-bloods/nicole-c-dittmer/9780712354189)
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Includes a selection of famous and obscure tales from nineteenth-century periodicals which feature "dangerous" female characters, among them witches, femme fatales, vampire mistresses and deadly criminals.
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