Sensation fiction

Sensation fiction -- sometimes better known as "sensation novels", but also including serial novels and short fiction -- was a Victorian-era English literary genre, popular both in England and in the US. It can be seen as a type of early pulp fiction, with similar preoccupations on the criminal and the horrific; it is also a precursor to mystery and crime fiction. The particular hallmark of sensation fiction was the use of some shocking ("sensational") subject matter in a Victorian middle-class or upper-class setting; such as, bigamy, seduction, insanity, adultery, murder.