‘Gentleman Jack, Or, Life on the Road: A Romance of Deep Interest, Abounding in Hair-breadth Escapes of the Most Exciting Character’ appeared in weekly segments from the pen of Mrs. Grey, (Elizabeth Caroline), (1798-1869). Gentleman Jack is based upon the life of the highwayman John "Sixteen String Jack" Rann (1750 – 30 November 1774). Highwayman were romanticised as dashing and heroic popular folk hero’s in English ballads and popular theatre of the 18th and 19th centuries, their other titles include ‘knights of the road’ and ‘gentlemen of the road’. Victorian penny dreadful were cheap sensationalist fiction, with lurid images, costing a penny, a forerunner in some ways to the modern day graphic novel or comic. This is an original recreation of the Penny Dreadful cover from 1852.
Gentleman Jack or Life on the Road. Penny Dreadful
Recreation of titlepage with added historical elements. Printed on handmade paper resembling the look and feel of paper from the period the work was produced (8.5" x 11"), or textured watercolour paper (5"x7"). Printed with archival inks, and packaged in protective sheet and cardboard backing.