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penny dreadful
noun
- a cheap, sensational novel of adventure, crime, or violence; dime novel.
penny-dreadful
noun
- informal.a cheap, often lurid or sensational book or magazine
Word History and Origins
Origin of penny dreadful1
Example Sentences
It is the rare as-told-to book, or one created in collaboration with an author-for-hire, that is well-written, but “A Piece of Light” is filled with a superfluity of penny-dreadful prose.
Which can make the penny-dreadful plot even more giggle-icious.
“Tics” isn’t as satisfying as the evening’s penny-dreadful playlets, “The Lighthouse Keepers” and “The Final Kiss,” which are fun because they are so single-mindedly sensationalistic.
Instead, she praised it backhandedly as “a shallow masterpiece” that is “overwrought” with “obvious penny-dreadful popular theatrics.”
Violent, sex-soaked dime novels and penny-dreadful magazines were immensely popular, and upstanding publications such as Harper's and the Atlantic Monthly took delight in denouncing them.
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