Yellow-back

A yellow-back or yellowback is a cheap novel which was published in Britain in the second half of the 19th century.

[1] Developed in the 1840s to compete with the "penny dreadful", yellow-backs were marketed as entertaining reading.

They had brightly coloured covers, often printed by chromoxylography, that were attractive to a new class of readers, thanks to the spread of education and rail travel.

By the late 19th century, yellow-backs included sensational fiction, adventure stories, "educational" manuals, handbooks, and cheap biographies.

[4] Two typical examples of authors of yellow-backs include James Grant and Robert Louis Stevenson.