Penny Dreadful Multipack: Volume 2

Vileroy or The Horrors of Zindorf Castle

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Dracula’s Guest

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

'Oh, if it were only the other way! If the picture could change, and I could be always what I am now!'

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. But 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.' The illustrations include a caricature of Wilde by Beardsley as well as a high definition copy of the original Lipincott's Magazine cover from July, 1890.

VILEROY OR THE HORRORS OF ZINDORF CASTLE

This epic, gripping thriller from Thomas Peckett Prest, the creator of Sweeney Todd is available in a print-book edition for the very first time.

'Zindorff' was a wildly popular serial in the 1850s, outselling works by Dickens and Thackeray, but has now largely been forgotten. All the tropes of the early penny dreadful are here: a quintessential Gothic romance, replete with incidents of physical and psychological terror; remote, crumbling castles; seemingly supernatural events; a brooding, scheming villain; and a persecuted heroine.

DRACULA'S GUEST

This short story by Bram Stoker, the creator of 'Dracula,' 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.

*Fully annotated with original essays "What is a Penny Dreadful?" and "Who wrote Vileroy?"