This penny weekly serialized Blanche of Burgundy; or, The Knight of the Red Cross for working-class readers at one penny per issue. The engraved cover depicts a medieval scene: a noblewoman in elaborate dress consults with an elderly monk while attendants look on in a stone chamber. Such story papers flooded Victorian newsstands, offering melodramatic serials featuring nobility, knights, supernatural elements, and moral crises to compete with newspapers and church for the leisure time of laborers and servants. These cheap publications—ancestors of modern comic books—democratized fiction beyond what lending libraries offered, shaping popular taste through sensation, romance, and historical adventure presented in installments designed to ensure repeat purchases.
About this artifact
- Date
- January 27, 1877
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by comicbooks.com.
Part of our mission to preserve and restore the public-domain heritage of the medium.