Template:POTD/2025-01-31
Advertisement for A Sensation Novel, a comic musical play in three acts (described as "volumes" in the programme, as novels were then generally published in three parts). The play was one of a series written by the dramatist W. S. Gilbert for the Royal Gallery of Illustration, with music composed by Thomas German Reed, though much of the music is lost. It premiered on 31 January 1871. The story concerns an author suffering from writer's block who finds that the characters in his novel are dissatisfied when they come to life and complain about their fate. The piece satirises the sensation novels popular as pulp detective fiction in the Victorian era.Art credit: Robert Jacob Hamerton; restored by Adam Cuerden