Penny Dreadful Multipack (Illustrated): Dorian Gray, Vileroy, Jack Harkaway and Dracula's Guest

by Oscar Wilde, Bracebridge Hemyng, Bram Stoker

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vileroy or The Horrors of Zindorf Castle, Jack Harkaway and His Son's Adventures in Australia, and Dracula's Guest. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel by Oscar Wilde, appearing as the lead story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890, printed as the July 1890 issue. The magazine's editors feared the story was indecent as submitted, so they censored roughly 500 words, without Wilde's knowledge, before publication. However, even with that, the story was still greeted with outrage by British reviewers, some of whom suggested that Wilde should be prosecuted on moral grounds, leading Wilde to defend the novel aggressively in letters to the British press. Today, Wilde's fin de siècle novella is considered a classic. It is presented here with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, Wilde's one-time friend with whom he fell out over Salome. Included is a high definition copy of the original Lippincott's Magazine cover from July 1890. Vileroy or The Horrors of Zindorf Castle. This gothic thriller from Thomas Peckett Prest, the creator of Sweeney Toddwas a wildly popular serial in the 1850s, outselling works by Dickens and Thackeray. All the tropes of the penny dreadful are a Gothic romance, replete with incidents of physical and psychological terror; remote, crumbling castles; seemingly supernatural events; a brooding, scheming villain; and, of course, a persecuted heroine. Jack Harkaway and his Son's Adventures in Australia. Jack Harkaway first appeared in the penny magazine Boys of England in 1871 and was an instant hit. The Harkaway titles – which came out in penny parts as well as magazines – were pirated in America and by 1872 the character created by writer Bracebridge Hemyng had become a household name around the world. Young men loved reading about globe-trotting adventurer Jack Harkaway’s shenanigans in stories like ‘Jack Harkaway Afloat and Ashore,’ ‘Jack Harkaway in America and Cuba,’ 'Jack Harkaway at Oxford' and ‘Jack Harkaway’s Adventures in China.’ There were fifteen stories in all, and for a decade the world was enthralled. Long since out of print, the Penny Dreadful Series is introducing Jack Harkaway and his son to a new generation of readers. Dracula's Guest.This short story by Bram Stoker was published posthumously by Stoker's widow in 1914, two year's after the author's death and is a must read for any vampire aficionado. *Over 50 beautiful period illustrations. *Includes essays "What is a Penny Dreadful?" and "Who wrote Vileroy?" This book series is not affiliated with Showtime Networks’ television series 'Penny Dreadful.'

Genres: Ebooks, Classics

666 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 19, 2013

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[Dolores Ayotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow...what an incredible value-packed set of books. "Penny Dreadful Multipack Vol. 2" starts off with a bang with the story of Dorian Gray by Author Oscar Wilde. Dorian is posing for a painting and has become all-consuming to artist Basil Hallward as he states "I couldn't be happy if I didn't see him everyday. He is absolutely necessary to me." In saying so, Basil definitely peeks the interest of Lord Henry who now is quite eager to meet this extraordinary young man. Dorian Gray with his "simple and beautiful nature" manages to become Basil's dearest friend...and the tale of Dorian Gray ensues.

The second offering in this set is "Vileroy or The Horrors of Zindorf Castle". Caroline Mecklenburgh breathes a sigh of relief as she realizes that the castle turret is empty and Claudio is safe, at least for now. The baron refuses to offer his consent for Carolyn to marry Count Durlack. He definitely has other plans as the baron rushes her along the maze of castle corridors towards the castle chapel...

The story of "Jack Harkway and His Sons-Adventures in Australia" further adds to the array of tales by this group of talented authors. Hunston stands upon the beach in the state of dreadful shock and solitude as the boat "Westward Ho!" pulls away from shore and disappears from his line of vision. Hunston is destined to face many adventures. However, the boat and the crew now anchored in Sydney Cove, where many other adventures are about to begin, includes the nefarious character Captain Morgan..."a rover, a bushranger and bandit". There's a price on his head...and a story to unfold.

Also included in this set of books are the Bonus Features about the story of Dracula, an explanation for the English term "penny dreadful"...the American version of the dime novel, as well as a possible answer to "who wrote Vileroy". There is plenty of great reading in this Multipack for those who enjoy classical books!

Inspirational Author & Book Reviewer ~ Dolores Ayotte
http://www.amazon.com/Not-Perfect-Its...

[Leothefox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a nice juicy volume mostly taken up by Thomas Peckett Prest's gothic delight “Vileroy, or the Horrors of Zindorf Castle”, and is padded out by the book-length version (20 chapters) of Oscar Wilde's “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and Bram Stoker's excised chapter “Dracula's Guest”.

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” has been adapted to film a number of times, so I imagine it needs no introduction. Victorian or Edwardian English gentlemen take little notice as Dorian Gray fails to age for 18 years of his life and remains beautiful while corrupting various people and driving them to suicide. This is my first time reading it and I was actually reminded quite a bit of the later chapters in Robert W. Chambers (later) book “The King in Yellow”, which also involves artists and plenty of purple descriptive prose.

“Dracula's Guest” only takes up about 10 pages and it is a nice piece of fanciful horror set in an abandoned village on Walpurisnacht. Werewolves, giants, re-animated corpses, lightning... you know, all that good stuff.

I wanted to read Prest since he's the other possible author of “Varney The Vampire” along with Malcolm James Rymer and is responsible for many penny dreadfuls, including “The Penny Pickwick”. “Vileroy” did not disappoint, since it contains many of the same elements of Walpole's “The Castle of Otranto”, drawn out to 460 pages for maximum dramatic effect. We've got an evil baron who is afraid of ghosts, a plotting count who has screwed over virtually every character in the story, a young heiress held prisoner and threatened with marriage, a hero looking for a brother that the baron murdered, spooky voices, nervous domestics, sudden deaths, dungeons, crypts, an army in exile, secret passages, virgin forest princesses, grizzled old soldiers, murderous bandits, and tons of flashbacks to beef up the gothic mood. While not actually a supernatural tale, there's plenty of gloom, horror atmosphere, and skulls just kinda lying around.

The book is all over the place for content, but everything in here is good. There was some issues with formatting here and there, like block quotes are put in quite right, but it's presented in better shape than some of the penny dreadful reprints I've seen. Well worth it.