Penny Dreadfuls: What Victorian Workers Read with Professor Rebecca Nesvet
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UntitledTown Book and Author Festival returns to Green Bay September 25-27th, 2026. Filled with over 80 speakers, 11 locations and dozens of different events to choose from, there's something for literally everyone. Whether you're a reader, part of a vibrant fandom, a parent or a writer yourself, you'll find your home in UntitledTown. Best part? Everything is completely free to attend! Share the word by inviting your friends and neighbors and help us celebrate stories and reading in Northeastern Wisconsin.
This educational history talk is one of over 80 events at UntitledTown. Here are the details:
What did the most ordinary Victorians read? Not the Brontes or Dickens: "penny dreadfuls": cheap illustrated novels, often historical romance, horror, or both. A brief introduction to the penny dreadful phenomenon and its most enduring titles (Sweeney Todd; Varney the Vampyre), this talk will feature real examples from the 1840s-90s, which attendees can handle, and will end with a brief group composition of the opening of our own penny dreadful. Professor Nesvet will also bring rare examples of Victorian Penny Dreadfuls to display and view.
Where: Neville Public Museum Classrooms, 220 Museum Place, Green Bay, Wisconsin
When: Sunday, September 27, 2026 from 4 - 5 pm.
Admission: FREE
Rebecca Nesvet teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. She is the author of the first book about "Sweeney Todd's" Victorian creator: James Malcolm Rymer, Penny Fiction, and the Family (London: Routledge, 2024). She has also written chapters of popular history books on Victorian subjects for Pen and Sword Books (Barnsley, Yorkshire).
This educational history talk is one of over 80 events at UntitledTown. Here are the details:
What did the most ordinary Victorians read? Not the Brontes or Dickens: "penny dreadfuls": cheap illustrated novels, often historical romance, horror, or both. A brief introduction to the penny dreadful phenomenon and its most enduring titles (Sweeney Todd; Varney the Vampyre), this talk will feature real examples from the 1840s-90s, which attendees can handle, and will end with a brief group composition of the opening of our own penny dreadful. Professor Nesvet will also bring rare examples of Victorian Penny Dreadfuls to display and view.
Where: Neville Public Museum Classrooms, 220 Museum Place, Green Bay, Wisconsin
When: Sunday, September 27, 2026 from 4 - 5 pm.
Admission: FREE
Rebecca Nesvet teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. She is the author of the first book about "Sweeney Todd's" Victorian creator: James Malcolm Rymer, Penny Fiction, and the Family (London: Routledge, 2024). She has also written chapters of popular history books on Victorian subjects for Pen and Sword Books (Barnsley, Yorkshire).
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Where is it happening?
Neville Public Museum, 210 Museum Pl,Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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