
Boys Will Be Boys
The Story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton et al.
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Boys Will Be Boys
The Story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton et al.
About this book
E.S. Turner's first book, published in 1948, is a wholly original, richly researched and uncommonly insightful study of a somewhat disreputable genre: the 'Boys' Weekly' papers commonly known as 'penny dreadfuls.'
'A classic of its kind... [Turner] ploughed through back numbers of the old blood-and-thunder adventure magazines specialising in cliffhanger serials; the young hero would be left hanging over a cliff in a totally impossible situation, which would be easily resolved in the next issue: 'With one bound Jack was free.' Social history had never been as much fun or, with three extra printings in its first week - such was the demand - as profitable.' Jonathan Sale, Guardian
'Some people felt that E.S. Turner may have invented a new kind of book - the popular social history, very British, very funny, but written with a glistening elegance.'
Andrew O'Hagan, London Review of Books
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Table of Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- NOTE TO THIRD EDITION
- PREFACE
- CHAPTER I : GOTHIC HANGOVER
- CHAPTER II : THE DEMON BARBER
- CHAPTER III : ROGUES AND VAGABONDS
- CHAPTER IV : BRAVEALLS AND FEARNOTS
- CHAPTER V : JACK HARKAWAY
- CHAPTER VI : NOT SO CALLOW
- CHAPTER VII : CUCKOO IN THE NEST
- CHAPTER VIII : THE ODYSSEY OF SEXTON BLAKE
- CHAPTER IX : MORE DETECTIVES
- CHAPTER X : PURE INVENTION
- CHAPTER XI : BRITAIN INVADED
- CHAPTER XII : PLANETS AND LOST CITIES
- CHAPTER XIII : MAGNET AND GEM
- CHAPTER XIV : DUNDEE SCHOOL
- CHAPTER XV : WILD WEST
- CHAPTER XVI : VIVE LE SPORT!
- CHAPTER XVII : DICK BARTON – AND AFTER
- INDEX
- Copyright