diff --git a/src/Literate.jl b/src/Literate.jl
index c461015..932d2cf 100644
--- a/src/Literate.jl
+++ b/src/Literate.jl
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ mutable struct CodeChunk <: Chunk
 end
 CodeChunk() = CodeChunk(String[], false)
 
-function parse(content)
+function parse(content; allow_continued = true)
     lines = collect(eachline(IOBuffer(content)))
 
     chunks = Chunk[]
@@ -86,6 +86,30 @@ function parse(content)
         last_code_chunk = i
     end
 
+    # if we don't allow continued code blocks we need to merge MDChunks into the CodeChunks
+    if !allow_continued
+        merged_chunks = Chunk[]
+        continued = false
+        for chunk in chunks
+            if continued
+                @assert !isempty(merged_chunks)
+                if isa(chunk, CodeChunk)
+                    append!(merged_chunks[end].lines, chunk.lines)
+                else # need to put back #'
+                    for line in chunk.lines
+                        push!(merged_chunks[end].lines, rstrip("#' " * line))
+                    end
+                end
+            else
+                push!(merged_chunks, chunk)
+            end
+            if isa(chunk, CodeChunk)
+                continued = chunk.continued
+            end
+        end
+        chunks = merged_chunks
+    end
+
     return chunks
 end
 
@@ -354,8 +378,10 @@ function notebook(inputfile, outputdir; preprocess = identity, postprocess = ide
     nb["nbformat"] = JUPYTER_VERSION.major
     nb["nbformat_minor"] = JUPYTER_VERSION.minor
 
+    # parse
+    chunks = parse(content; allow_continued = false)
+
     ## create the notebook cells
-    chunks = parse(content)
     cells = []
     for chunk in chunks
         cell = Dict()
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index 340dd66..82ebee7 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -413,18 +413,8 @@ end
             """
                "source": [
                 "for i in 1:10\\n",
-                "    print(i)"
-               ]
-            """,
-
-            """
-               "source": [
-                "some markdown in a code block"
-               ]
-            """,
-
-            """
-               "source": [
+                "    print(i)\\n",
+                "#' some markdown in a code block\\n",
                 "end"
                ]
             """,