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2025-02-17T05:33:49Z

Literary history

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{{Short description|Book by James Malcolm Rymer}}
{{About|the Sweeney Todd novel|similar uses|String of pearls (disambiguation){{!}}String of pearls}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title = 
| name = The String of Pearls
| image = Sweeney Todd, o barbeiro demoníaco de Fleet Street.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Page from ''The String of Pearls; or, The Sailor’s Gift'', 1850
| author = Unknown but probably<br /> [[James Malcolm Rymer]]<br />and/or [[Thomas Peckett Prest]]
| audio_read_by =
| title_orig =
| orig_lang_code =
| title_working = The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance
| translator =
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = [[United Kingdom]]
| language = [[English (language)|English]]
| series =
| release_number =
| subject = [[Sweeney Todd]]
| genre = [[Fiction]]
| set_in = [[London]]
| published = 1846–47 by [[Edward Lloyd (publisher)|Edward Lloyd]]<br />[[1850 in literature|1850]] as a book
| publisher =
| publisher2 =
| pub_date =
| english_pub_date =
| media_type = Print ([[Penny dreadful]])
| pages = 732 pp (Book)
| awards =
| isbn =
| isbn_note =
| oclc = 830944639
| dewey =
| congress = PR5285.R99
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
| native_wikisource =
| wikisource = The String of Pearls
| notes =
| exclude_cover =
| website =
}}

'''''The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance''''' (alternatively titled '''''The Sailor's Gift''''') is a story first published as a [[penny dreadful]] serial from 1846 to 47. The main character of the story is [[Sweeney Todd]], "the Demon Barber of [[Fleet Street]]". The story was the character's first literary appearance.

Todd is a barber who murders his customers and gives their corpses to [[Mrs. Lovett]], his partner in crime, who bakes their flesh into [[meat pie]]s. His barber shop is situated in Fleet Street, London, next to [[St Dunstan-in-the-West|St. Dunstan's church]], and is connected to Lovett's pie shop in nearby Bell Yard by means of an underground passage. Todd kills his victims by pulling a lever while they are in his [[barber chair]], which makes them fall backward through a revolving [[trapdoor]] and generally causes them to break their necks or skulls on the [[Basement|cellar]] floor below. If the victims are still alive, he goes to the basement and "polishes them off" by slitting their throats with his [[straight razor]].

==Synopsis==
The story is set in London during the year 1785. The plot concerns the strange disappearance of a sailor named Lieutenant Thornhill, last seen entering Sweeney Todd's establishment on Fleet Street. Thornhill was bearing a gift of a [[Pearl#In jewelry|string of pearls]] to a girl named [[Johanna (character)|Johanna Oakley]] on behalf of her missing lover, Mark Ingestrie, who is presumed lost at sea. One of Thornhill's seafaring friends, Colonel Jeffrey, is alerted to the disappearance of Thornhill by his faithful dog, Hector, and investigates his whereabouts. He is joined by Johanna, who wants to know what happened to Mark.

Johanna's suspicions of Sweeney Todd's involvement cause her to dress as a boy and become Todd's employee after his last assistant, a young boy named [[Tobias Ragg]], has been incarcerated in a [[Lunatic asylum|madhouse]] for accusing Todd of being a murderer. Soon, after Todd has dismembered the corpses of his victims, Mrs. Lovett [[Cannibalism in literature|creates her meat pies from leftover flesh]]. While the bodies are burning in the oven, a ghastly and intolerable smell reeks from the pie shop chimney. Eventually, the extent of Todd's activities is uncovered when the dismembered remains of hundreds of his victims are discovered in the [[crypt]] underneath St. Dunstan's church. Meanwhile, Mark, who has been imprisoned in the cellar beneath the pie shop and made to work as the cook, escapes via the [[Dumbwaiter|lift]] used to bring the pies up from the cellar into the pie shop. Here he makes the following startling announcement to the customers of that establishment:

:"Ladies and gentlemen – I fear that what I am going to say will spoil your appetites; but the truth is beautiful at all times, and I have to state that Mrs. Lovett's pies are made of ''human flesh!''"<ref name="Sweeney Todd 2007">''Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' edited by Robert L. Mack (2007). Oxford University Press: 280</ref>

Mrs. Lovett is then [[Poisoning|poisoned]] by Sweeney Todd, who is subsequently apprehended and hanged. Johanna marries Mark.

==Literary history==
''The String of Pearls: A Romance'' was published in 18 weekly parts, in [[Edward Lloyd (publisher)|Edward Lloyd]]'s ''The People's Periodical and Family Library'', issues 7–24, 21 November 1846 to 20 March 1847. It is frequently attributed to [[Thomas Peckett Prest]], but has been more recently been reassigned to [[James Malcolm Rymer]];<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Helen R.|title=New light on Sweeney Todd|date=2002|publisher=Jarndyce|location=London|page=28}}</ref> other names such as E.P Hingston have also been suggested. E.P. Hingston, at the time, was a resident of London. It is written like so many of his other works. E.P. Hingston at the time of this writing was looking for a way to make money until he set off on one of his new escapades. The story was then published in book form in 1850 as "''The String of Pearls''", subtitled "''The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance''". This expanded version of the story was 732 pages long, and its conclusion differs greatly from that of the original serial publication: Todd escapes from prison after being [[Capital punishment|sentenced to death]] but, after many further adventures, is finally shot dead while fleeing from the authorities. In later years, there were many different literary, [[Theatrical adaptation|stage]] and eventually [[film adaptation|movie adaptation]]s which renamed, further expanded and often drastically altered the original story.<ref name="Sweeney Todd 2007"/>

A scholarly, [[annotated edition]] of ''The String of Pearls'' was published in 2007 by the [[Oxford University Press]] with the title ''Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'', edited by Robert Mack.

[[Industrialisation]] is a theme that contributes to the story. Sweeney Todd owns a barber shop in the middle of one of the busiest industrial parts of the growing city of London. Industrialism resulted in an increasing crime rate, which was exploited by the penny dreadful stories.

==Historical background==
While the author of ''String of Pearls'' is unknown, there are many theories surrounding its influences. During the 19th century, when this story was first written, a semi-common trade was what was termed a [[Barber surgeon|barber-surgeon]]. Barber-surgeons were medical practitioners trained not by schooling but by [[apprenticeship]], and they were sometimes [[Literacy|illiterate]]. [[History of surgery|Surgery]] eventually became an established profession of its own and the two were separated legally by [[George II of Great Britain|King George II]] in Britain during 1745.<ref>"Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine." Barber-surgeons. Web.</ref>

==Speculated influences==

===Le Théâtre des Antiquités de Paris===
The 1612 French historical nonfiction book ''Le Théâtre des Antiquités de Paris'' by Father {{ill|Jacques du Breul|lt=Jacques du Breul|fr}} contains a section titled ''De la maison des Marmousets'' (''From the house of the Marmousets'') that mentions a "murderous pastry cook" who incorporates into his pie the meat of a man he murdered due to its alleged dietary benefits.<ref name="Mack, Robert L 2007">Mack, Robert L. The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd: The Life and Times of an Urban Legend. London: Continuum, 2007. Print.</ref>

===Historical basis for Sweeney Todd===
It has been speculated that, "[[Joseph Fouché]], who served as Minister of Police in [[Paris]] from 1799 to 1815, had records in the archives of police that explored murders committed in the 1800s by a Parisian barber".<ref name="pbsPenny">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/kqed/demonbarber/penny/truecriminals.html# |title=True Criminals |author= |website=pbs.org |publisher=KQED, Inc |access-date=12 November 2016}}</ref> Fouché mentioned that the barber was in league with "a neighbouring pastry cook, who made pies out of the victims and sold them for human consumption".<ref name="pbsPenny"/> There is question about the authenticity of this account, "yet the tale was republished in 1824 under the headline ''A Terrific Story of the Rue de Le Harpe, Paris'' in ''The Tell Tale'', a London magazine. Perhaps Thomas Prest, scouring publications for ideas, read about the Paris case and stored it away for later use."<ref name="pbsPenny"/>

Sweeney Todd's story also appears in ''[[The Newgate Calendar]]'', originally a bulletin of executions produced by the keeper of [[Newgate Prison]], the title of which was appropriated by [[chapbook]]s, popular [[pamphlet]]s full of entertaining, often violent criminal activities.<ref name="Guardian08">{{cite magazine |last=Welsh |first=Louise |date=19 January 2008 |title=On A Knife Edge |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jan/19/classics.film |magazine=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=12 November 2016 }}</ref> Despite this, there is no mention of Todd's trial or execution in official records, and thus no real evidence that he ever existed.<ref name="Guardian08"/>

No [[public records]] prove any existence of a London barber by the name of Sweeney during the 18th century or of a barber shop located on [[Fleet Street]]. There were many [[Word of mouth|word-of-mouth]], [[true crime]] and horror stories at the time however, reported in "[[The Old Bailey]]" section of the ''[[The Times|Times of London]]'' as well as other [[daily newspaper]]s. News also commonly travelled by word of mouth as the majority of the population was still illiterate, and could become embellished in the retelling from person to person. Such news might still be assumed factual because there was no way of proving otherwise at the time.<ref>Suer, Kinsley. "PCS Blog - The Real Sweeney Todd? From Penny Dreadful to Broadway Musical." Portland Center Stage. N.p., 4 Oct. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. <http://www.pcs.org/blog/item/the-real-sweeney-todd-from-penny-dreadful-to-broadway-musical/>.</ref>

===Charles Dickens===
In [[Charles Dickens]]' ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]'' (1836–37), Pickwick's [[cockney]] servant Sam Weller states that a pieman used cats "for [[beefsteak]], [[veal]] and [[Kidney pie|kidney]], 'cording to the demand", and recommends that people should buy pies only "when you know the lady as made it, and is quite sure it ain't kitten".<ref>Dickens, Charles. The Pickwick Papers. Oxford: Oxford Classics. pp. 278, 335</ref> Dickens expanded on the idea of using non-traditional sources for meat pie in ''[[Martin Chuzzlewit]]'' (1843–44). This was published two years before ''The String of Pearls'' (1846–47) and included a character by the name of Tom Pinch, who feels lucky that his own "evil genius did not lead him into the dens of any of those preparers of cannibalic pastry, who are represented in many country legends as doing a lively retail business in the metropolis" and worries that John Westlock will "begin to be afraid that I have strayed into one of those streets where the countrymen are murdered; and that I have been made into meat pies, or some such horrible thing".<ref>Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ed. [[Margaret Cardwell]] (1982). Oxford, Clarendon Press: 495</ref><ref>[[Sweeney Todd]]</ref> [[Peter Haining (author)|Peter Haining]] suggested in a 1993 book that Dickens was inspired by knowledge of the "real" Sweeney Todd, but that he chose not to mention him, in case some of his victims' relatives were still alive.<ref name="Guardian08"/>

== Adaptations ==

===Theatre===
* 1847: The String of Pearls, or The Fiend of Fleet Street is a play by [[George Dibdin-Pitt]].
* 1970: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a play by [[Christopher Bond]]
* 1979: ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'' is a Broadway musical by [[Stephen Sondheim]] and [[Hugh Wheeler]].
* 1982: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is an official filmed recording of the Broadway musical, starring [[Angela Lansbury]] as Mrs. Lovett.

===Film===
* 1926: ''Sweeney Todd''
* 1928: ''[[Sweeney Todd (1928 film)|Sweeney Todd]]'' is an adaptation of the 1847 play.
* 1936: ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936 film)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'' is an adaptation of the 1847 play.
* 1970: ''[[Bloodthirsty Butchers (film)|Bloodthirsty Butchers]]''
* 2007: ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'' is an adaptation of the 1979 musical, and is directed by [[Tim Burton]].

===Television===
* 1970: [[Mystery & Imagination]], a British anthology series on [[Thames Television]] featuring an adaptation of [[Sweeney Todd]] starring [[Freddie Jones]].
* 1997: [[The Tale of Sweeney Todd]] is a T.V. movie by [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]], starring [[Ben Kingsley]]. It uses the characters Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett and the general premise, but is an original story.
* 2016: In [[Salem (TV series)|Salem]], Thomas is a Sweeney Todd-like character who is a barber and mortician. He has implied that he uses human meat in his meat pies.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal |Children's literature}}
*{{commons category-inline|The String of Pearls|''The String of Pearls''}}
*{{wikisource-inline|The String of Pearls|''The String of Pearls''|single=true}}
*[http://www.victorianlondon.org/mysteries/sweeney_todd-00.htm The original penny dreadful featuring SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET]
* {{librivox book | title=The String of Pearls | author=UNKNOWN}}
*[https://archive.org/details/TheStringOfPearlsTheGiftOfTheSailorTSweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet The String of Pearls featuring SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET] at [[Internet Archive]]
*[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59828 The String of Pearls] full text ebook at [[Project Gutenberg]]

{{Sweeney Todd}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:String of Pearls}}
[[Category:Sweeney Todd]]
[[Category:Penny dreadfuls]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1785]]
[[Category:1850 British novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1780s]]
[[Category:Fiction about cannibalism]]
[[Category:Novels set in London]]
[[Category:Novels set in Georgian England]]

The String of Pearls - Revision history

2600:8803:2400:9700:1D80:FE79:1384:14C9: /* Literary history */