Contents of the collection

The University Library owns a collection of 19^th century English serial novels, magazines for young readers and comics.

Around 200 of the serial novels are adventure and sensational literature of the sort produced between 1830 and 1900 for working class readers. These are magazines about bandits, pirates and highwaymen that were published as serial novels in 8, 12 or 16-page instalments. They were despised by the educated classes and referred to as "Penny Dreadfuls".

The 230 or so volumes of English youth magazines from the Victorian era include a few girls' magazines (The Girl's Own Paper, The Monthly Packet) but the emphasis is on magazines for boys (The Boy's Own Paper, The Captain, Chums, Every Boy's Magazine, The Union Jack and others). The main component of these weekly magazines was illustrated serial and adventure novels which shortly afterwards were generally published in attractively designed book formats.

The collection of historical British comics from the period 1848-1939 comprises individual items from the Victorian era (The Man in the Moon, 1848) as well as longer series (almost complete: Comic Life, 1899-1919).

The majority of the 5,000 or so individual booklets stems from the archives of the Amalgamated Press publishing company, which in its day dominated the British market for entertainment magazines.