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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 One-Handed Lady
(as heard on KCBP-FM Radio Theatre)
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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!
Snowbound in Song
(as heard on KCBP-FM Radio Theatre)
Join us for this full version of our affectionate farce about the travails of an opera company on tour in Scotland. The Favreau opera company is on board a train in the snowy winter of 1853 - then the unexpected happens. Feuding tenors, missing libretti, a mystery passenger, romance, mystery & intrigue, with dollops of humour - and a ghost....
Inspired by an actual incident, described in Charles Dickens' Household Words of 1850. ​
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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, The Haunted Cow, written and directed by Arnold A. Schmidt.
It's 1826, and Captain Lambert is sailing his stately frigate, complete with cow, across the Caribbean. All is at peace - until some unexpected guests turn up, strange things start happening and Abigail the Cow is .... haunted?
Pirates, ghosts and no milk - what is going on?
You'll hear all about it when this episode appears in September.
Earlier
Episodes
Catch up on all the earlier episodes here...
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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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