Penny Dreadfuls, 1865 · page 39 of 204
Rose Mortimer; Or, The Ballet-Girl's Revenge — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Victorian Penny Dreadful Page Analysis This page contains both an illustration and running prose from "Rose Mortimer; or, The Ballet-Girl's Revenge" (page 33). The engraved illustration depicts a woman in flames near a tree with cherubs above and a fence below, captioned "Help! Help!" shrieked the Terrified Ballet-Girl." The text describes the woman hiding evidence of a crime by concealing bloodstains and concealing a torture instrument up the chimney. It then characterizes an antagonist—a tall, muscular woman with bloodshot eyes and protruding teeth—whom the protagonist Rose fears will kill her as the antagonist apparently killed someone named Miriam. The narrative emphasizes the brutal, melodramatic nature typical of penny dreadful sensation fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
eee _- ——_—— a --— —_--—- -—— ROSE MORTIMER; OR, THE BALLEY-GIRL’S REVENGE. SS mM am | . i [“HELP! HELP!’’ SHRIEKED THE TERRIFIED RALULET-GIRI. | Fetching a broken piece of iron fromthe fireplace, | But for how long? she withits aid knocked in the nails again. | As she stood now the eandle-light fell full upon The old wreteh paused for a moment, and raising | her eyil face, and Rose thought she never yet seen so the eandle above her head, shaded her cyes, and) forbidding a countenance. scanned the floor around. Ifer eyes were bloodshot, and peered out from be- There were the stains *f blood upon one of the neath bushy grey eyebrows, rough and ragged. boards, and these she shuffled out with her feet. Her mouth was like a split in her face, from which — | Then she cautiously hid the instrument. of torture | protruded two great teeth, more like those of some up the chimney and glanced round again. k | wild animal than a human being. There was now nothing in the appearance of the | Her frame was tall and muscular, and Rose could room to lead a casual observer to suppose that so | easily understand that the unhappy Miriam had strug- dreadful a deed had been committed in it. eled vainly to resist her murderous attacks. The evidences of her crime had disappeared. ‘And I, too,’’ Rose could not help thinking, “‘ shall lor a time, at least, she was safe. | T also fall a victim to her brutality ?” pn Dials ECON GIOOKSACO