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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
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Listings for Reader:  

Charley

 

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anon : [penny dreadfuls]

Statement of boy to London society, aim of which to rescue juvenile criminals, demonstrating pernicious influence of penny dreadfuls: "Bill couldn't read a bit, but he knowed boys that could, and he used to hear 'em reading about Knights of the Road, and Claude Duval and Skeleton Crews, till I suppose his head got regler stuffed with it. He never had no money to buy a pen'orth when it came out, so he used to lay wait for me, carrying my younger sister over his shoulder, when I came out of school at dinner time, and gammon me over to come along with him to a shop on the corner of Rosamond street in Clerkenwell, where there used to be a whole lot of the penny numbers in the window. They was all of a row, Wildfire Jack, the Boy Highwayman, Dick Turpin, and ever so many others -just the first page, don't you know, and the picture. Well, I liked it too, and I used to go along o' Bill and read to him all the reading on the front page and look at the pictures until -'specially on Mondays when there was altogether a new lot -Bill would always get so worked up with the aggravatin' little bits, which always left off where you wanted to turn over and see what was on the next leaf..."

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Charley      Print: Serial / periodical, penny dreadful

  

 : Tyburn Dick

Statement of boy to London society, aim of which to rescue juvenile criminals, demonstrating pernicious influence of penny dreadfuls: Charley reads penny dreadfuls to his brother Bill from the shop window almost every week; one of the serials they read each week is "Tyburn Dick", which gets Bill particularly worked up; They went to the shop, but couldn't find out the conclusion to the serial without purchasing it; therefore they stole the penny number to read at home. Charley concludes to the society: "That was the commencement of it; and so it went on and growed bigger".

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Charley ?      Print: Serial / periodical, penny dreadful

 

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