Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Adapted by Sean Michael Wislon & Declan Shalvey, Classical Comics
THE ORIGINAL story of The String of Pearls story, from which this book is adapted, “links well into the school curriculum for Victorian Gothic horror” apparently. The fact schools now study such subjects, let alone include a tale that in its day was pretty much akin to a News of the World style scandal comes as a shock to old fogies like me.
No one knows if Sweeney Todd ever existed, and it’s pretty unlikely; more so that it was a one-off wholly invented news story that attracted readers and so was spun out for as long as it could be and then got later adapted to other forms as it became urban folklore.
The part of the legend that we all recall? That a rapscallion barber killed his clients, chopped them into bits and then by proxy sold them off as meat pies that everyone enjoyed.
As the accompanying text feature in the book reveals, The String of Pearls, possibly written by Thomas Peckett Prest though no-one’s sure, was serialised in The People’s Periodical and that version of the tale became the most popular one, franchised off in book form as well as a play, then a movie, then at the dog-end of the last century was the basis for a musical that got turned into a film a few years back.
The String of Pearls tells the tale of Sweeney Todd killing off his wealthy clients to rob them of their riches, most notably a string of pearls that leads to his eventual capture and imprisonment. Initially the story revolves around Sweeney’s assistant, a lad called Tobias, who begins to suspect his master of foul deeds. It then shifts to Miss Joanna Oakley and her extended relations and allies as she seeks to uncover the whereabouts of her missing lover. In between we have tales of pie-makers locked in the cellars of Miss Lovett’s across the road from the barbers, shifts in scene to past ship voyages and excursions to the madhouse, plus a bit of family strife between Mr and Mrs Oakley.
The truth of the matter is, that by its very serialised newspaper-gossip mongering style of storytelling some scenes tend to repeat and as you’re reading it takes no great detective to start wondering some serious gaffes in plot continuity. The reality being that the previous week or even month’s periodical’s revelations may have had some of the more specific details half-forgotten by the next instalment. As a current reader of this adaptation the fact that the original chapters are maintained does it some service, for one can also dip in and out of it at one’s own leisure, find your place again at a suitable new juncture and begin once more.
The story itself isn’t that great, in fact we might say that by today’s standards it’s rather padded out. It’s possible that a more gross-out version could pull in more of the horror fan crowd but with this being intended primarily for school children all the murderous mayhem takes place pretty much off panel.
Where it gains marks, and possibly of particular interest to those on school curriculum boards is that while possibly being a sensationalised news story rather than intended as literature of the time, the reporter’s observant eye for detail (even if fabricated in this instance) is brought to bear on the story, and it’s more the things it says about social injustice of the times that I found appealing, for instance an interesting correlation between the mental institutions of long ago (as outlined in this tale) and our current care homes for the elderly might make interesting article comparison. There are also interesting titbits I worked out for myself (see, I’m not completely dumb, it just takes me a few decades sometimes), like the term “Polish you off!” – probably out of date these days, but when I was growing up it was still criminal slang for killing someone; now I realise it must originate from the use of cut throat razors in shaving, or the Sweeney Todd story itself.
I would rather think that reading the original The String of Pearls book would be far too dry a read for today’s kids, even with the promise of gore inside, but as a comic book adaptation like this it could gain a more varied readership.
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