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The Mysteries Of A London Convent [Transcript], William H. Hillyard

Gothic Archive Chapbooks

Published in The London Miscellany and written by William Heard Hillyard (1811-1870), this 22 chapter story must have been considered a guaranteed blockbuster with the newspaper’s intended reading audience.

The Mysteries of a London Convent relies most immediately on the sensational categories that we saw delineated in The Mysteries of the Inquisition, as well as another and earlier penny dreadful production with an almost identical plot, Smiff’s The New Mysteries of London (1858), written in imitation of Reynolds’s blockbuster The Mysteries of London (1844-48).

The Affecting History Of The Duchess Of C**** Who Was Confined Nine Years In A Horrid Dungeon, Under Ground, Where Light Never Entered, A Straw Bed Being Her Only Resting Place, And Bread And Water Her Only Support, Conveyed By Means Of A Turning-Box, By Her Inhuman Husband; Whom She Saw But Once During Her Long Imprisonment, Though Suffering By Hunger, Thirst, And Cold, The Most Severe Hardships, But Fortunately She Was At Last Discovered, And Released From The Dungeon, By Her Parents. [Transcript], Stéphanie Félicité Genlis

Gothic Archive Chapbooks

The narrative is given in the first person by the Duchess of C**** herself. She relates the circumstances of her easy, wealthy upbringing and tells of how she fell in with a dangerous friend, the Marchioness de Venuzi. While staying with her friend, she becomes enamored of the exiled Count de Belmire, but is instead forced into a marriage with his villainous uncle, the Duke of C****, by her parents. When the Duke discovers incriminating letters from the Duchess of C**** to Belmire at the Venuzi residence, he locks the Duchess of C**** in a castle dungeon and takes their …

The Vindictive Monk Or The Fatal Ring [Transcript], Isaac Crookenden

Gothic Archive Chapbooks

Calini discovers he is a foundling, abandoned as an infant with a ring left among his. The story continues with Calini as an adult, returning from the home of his beloved, Alexa. Calini is suddenly taken hostage and locked in a dungeon by Sceloni, a monk. It is later discovered that Calni’s kidnapping is a plot by Signor Holbruzi to steal Alexa. The plot was to kill Calini, but Sceloni chooses to secretly imprison Calini instead. Holbruzi pursues Alexa. He is unsuccessful, as Alexa remains devoted to Calini. Frustrated in his attempts, Holbruzi demands that Sceloni kidnap Alexa and bring …

Ethelred & Lidania; Or, The Sacrifice To Woden [Transcript], Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson

Gothic Archive Chapbooks

The story is set in the medieval period and begins with Sir Ethelred, a superstitious but tolerant pagan knight, caught in a storm at sea with his Christian tutor and friend, Aribert. He was returning from a visit to a Count’s daughter, who his wealthy but overbearing pagan father wanted him to marry. Desperate to survive the storm, he invokes the Saxon god Woden to save him, promising to sacrifice the first person to greet him at his home. The weather calms, and Ethelred returns home. Happy to have survived, he immediately greets his wife. He quickly remembers his vow …