Dandy Dick or The King's Highway (1900-1901)

<p><strong><em>Dandy Dick; or The King's Highway</em> (1900-1901)</strong> written by Ned Neolan and Ben Brightly and here edited and introduced by <strong>J. S. Mackley</strong> was originally serialised in <em>The Halfpenny Marvel</em> over forty-two issues between April 1900 and February 1901. Unlike the earlier penny-dreadful tales of Spring-Heeled Jack this narrative casts the leaping phantom as a mysterious side figure while its focus turns to the gallant world of English highwaymen.</p><p></p><p>Set against the romanticised backdrop of eighteenth-century London and the wilds of Finchley Common the story follows <strong>Dandy Dick</strong> a wrongly-accused nobleman turned outlaw whose adventures bring him into the company of legendary figures-<strong>Dick Turpin</strong> <strong>Colonel Blood</strong> <strong>Jack Sheppard</strong> and the sinister thief-taker <strong>Jonathan Wild</strong>. Their clashes of honour and corruption evoke a folkloric England poised between chivalry and criminality.</p><p></p><p>The extensive introduction explores how the serial transforms criminal folklore into heroic romance blending Gothic sensationalism with historical myth-making. The figure of <strong>Spring-Heeled Jack</strong> glimpsed as a spectral protector amid highway skirmishes bridges the gap between supernatural horror and patriotic adventure. Through Mackley's annotations this volume illuminates how Victorian readers re-imagined earlier centuries as moral theatre where even the outlaw could embody virtue.</p><p></p><p>Drawing on British Library copies and previously inaccessible materials this is the <strong>first collected edition</strong> of <em>Dandy Dick</em> and its sequel <em>Dandy Dick's Double</em>. It offers modern readers both a thrilling glimpse of Edwardian serial fiction and a critical reappraisal of Britain's enduring fascination with gallant crime and Gothic justice.</p>