"Dime novel" is a term to describe any quickly written, lurid potboiler and as such is generally used as a pejorative to describe a sensationalized yet superficial piece of inexpensive written work.

　　Dime novel指那些快速写成、内容艳俗、粗制滥造的书籍作品，一般用来统指内容耸人听闻又肤浅的廉价作品，具有贬义。

　　Penny dreadfuls and shilling shockers are genres similar to the dime novel, which both refer to inexpensive novels of violent adventure or crime that was especially popular in mid-to-late Victorian England.

　　Penny dreadful和shilling shocker都与dime novel有类似的意思，二者都指那些维多利亚统指的后后期社会上广为流传的那些内容包含暴力和犯罪的廉价小说。

　　这三个表达中的dime，penny和shilling都是英美货币中的小额面值单位，其中，dime指十分之一美元，也就是我们说的“一角”，penny指英国的“便士”，是一英镑的百分之一，相当于我们所说的“一分”，shilling是英国1971年以前的货币单位，相当于一英镑的二十分之一。由此可以看出，用小额面值的货币就能买下的小说，自然就是“廉价小说”了。

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