Penny Dreadful is a horror drama television series (2014-2016). The title refers to the penny dreadfuls, a type of 19th-century British fiction publication with lurid and sensational subject matter. The series draws upon many public domain characters from 19th-century Victorian Gothic fiction, including Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray;

Mina Harker, Abraham Van Helsing, John Seward, Renfield, and Count Dracula from Bram Stoker’s Dracula; Victor Frankenstein and his monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; and Henry Jekyll from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

showing their origin stories as an explorer searches for his daughter. Justine from Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue by the Marquis de Sade also appears. A spin-off series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, aired from April 26 to June 28, 2020.