Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls, Dime Novels,


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Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls
	Dime Novels is a term use to describe those novels, belonging to the popular fiction category, which became popular in the late 19th and early 20th Century in the United States. Between the mid and late 19th century, novels were known as Penny Dreadfuls in England and America. The Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls usually targeted the youth as their potent reader. The spread of literacy and increase in printing had led to the increasing popularity of these Dime Novels. The typical Dime Novels were based on the Wild West Adventures, complete with a colorful outer cover. Except the wild west, several other genres of pulp fiction were also represented by the term, Dime Novels. These included, stories about urban outlaws, detective stories, working-girl narratives of virtue defended, and costume romances.

Several archives have started displaying their collections through the web. Among these, the Stanford University boasts of having one of the best collection of Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls. The Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls collection of the Stanford University is an on-line database which exhibits images and covers of more than 2,300popular fictions and paper back books, belonging to the late 19th and early 20th century. Images form the major portion of this database, but text components of each of the story are also available. Among this huge collection, about nine of the novels are available in their complete format. In the on-line books available at the Stanford University website, images are available in different screen size accompanied by a descriptive information.

The Stanford University, Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls database consists of several options. A reader is taken through a guided tour of the website. The guides tour includes: