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List Price: $10.95 | | Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Salesrank: 39161
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
A sensational story of murder and pie-making, Sweeney Todd is a classic of British horror writing, widely adapted in print and on stage, most famously by Stephen Sondheim, whose unlikely "musical thriller" won eight Tony awards. This edition offers the original story with all its atmospheric Victorian trimmings. The story of Todd's murderous partnership with pie-maker Margery Lovett--at once inconceivably unpalatable and undeniably compelling--has subsequently set the table for a seemingly endless series of successful dramatic adaptations, popular songs and ballads, novellas, radio plays, graphic novels, ballets, films, and musicals. Both gleeful and ghoulish, the original tale of Sweeney Todd, first published under the title The String of Pearls, combines the story of Todd's grisly method of robbing and dispatching his victims--by way of Mrs. Lovett's meat pies--with a romantic sub-plot involving deception, disguise, and detective work, set against the backdrop of London's dark and unsavory streets. Editor Robert Mack 'fleshes' out the story with a fascinating introduction touching on the origins of the tale, the growth of the legend, and a history of its many retellings. Mack also includes explanatory notes that point out interesting aspects, plus a full chronology of the many versions of Sweeney Todd.
Since Sweeney Todd first entered the public imagination in the mid-nineteenth-century, his exploits have chilled and fascinated audiences around the world. This new edition allows modern readers to savor the ghastly original in all its gruesome glory.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, US & Canada Ed. Reviews:
Like candy that turned into Broccoli. 
2008-08-30 - This book was in my opinion marketed under false pretenses. I did enjoy it, but like a lot of people quickly realized this was not the story we saw in the movies.
It's a chopped and edited story from over a hundred years ago, so right there the structure was hard to identify with. I've read plenty of classics, but I feel that this book was purposely misleading, especially for people who aren't used to this type of stylized writing.
The original story was called 'The String of Pearls'. The relationships between the characters weren't even the same, and I felt that although the story itself was good, I couldn't identify with it.
K.K. Jolliffe
Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Margery Lovett Walk Right Out of a Silly Romance 
2008-07-09 - "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," a book by Robert L. Mack, who's evidently an expert on the subject of Sweeney Todd, as he's also author of "The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd: The Life and Times of an Urban Legend," comes to us as a rather odd tie-in with the recent major movie on the subject, Tim Burton's, starring Johnny Depp. And, it does tie in with the subject of the infamous Sweeney Todd, in fact. Just not in the way a reader might anticipate.
For the author has edited the earliest-known major literary treatment of the subject. That happens to be an anonymously-written Victorian-era British "penny dreadful," published as an 18-part serial that ran from November 21, 1846 to March 20, 1847, called, "The String of Pearls: A Romance." And the very modern horror tale of the murderous barber and his partner in crime, the cannibalistic Mrs. Margery Lovett, who owned a meat pie shop, is but a subplot in a fusty, melodramatic, rather conventional tale of the romance of Johanna Oakley and Mark Ingestrie.
However, as the writer Mack points out in his very interesting introduction, before the serial had even been completely published, the story of the barber and the pie shop owner had already been lifted from it and used for a wildly popular stage play that would be followed by many more such throughout the Victorian era. And these, of course, were followed by the 1979, multi-award winning, landmark Broadway musical production, by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, that was the basis for Burton's recent movie musical. Mack also tells us that, though there is some slight documentation that a somewhat similar crime might have been committed in 18th century Paris, the story of Sweeney Todd might, at that time, be considered more a rural legend than an urban one: apparently many countrymen, in the big smoke of London for the day, selling livestock or whatever, scared themselves to sleep with tales of a big city barber who would murder them for their money.
The tale itself, which owes a lot, around the edges, to the Charles Dickens' novel also being serialized at the time, is fun to read, although the story is, certainly, told Victorian-style, and therefore won't be to everyone's taste. But the reader can, to a degree, share in the author's thrill of discovery, as Todd and Mrs. Lovett walk right out of this silly romance, into our imaginations, and onto the world stage. Mack has also footnoted the book for its modern-day readers: as several other reviewers have complained, the footnotes are somewhat inconveniently located at the back of the book, rather than on the page, and vary from the informative, to the self-explanatory, to the extraneous.
But it helps to know, in understanding the emergence of these early 19th century icons of horror, that London at the time was a place we'd consider fairly horrible today, stinking, dirty, and unsanitary. And the Fleet Street area, as I mentioned in my review of the recent movie, was particularly bad. Before it was covered over, the Fleet River had become so polluted that it burned, and became known as the Fleet Ditch, an open sewer. The network of underground caverns used by the sinister pair to conduct their business was undoubtedly what remained of that troubled body of water.
All in all, it's got to be highly interesting for those who like to know the background of what they're seeing.
NOT the Sondheim Version! But still a delight!
2008-06-20 - Having already watched the movie version and Broadway production, I was ready to delve into the story of Sweeney Todd. Knowing that the versions would be quite different, I also chose to avoid reading the introduction and anything else irrelevant to the actual story (which I might suggest to anyone who wants to read this version as well). In choosing to disregard everything I gathered from the movie and Broadway versions, I was able to fully encompass the story of "The Strong of Pearls: A Romance." I absolutely enjoyed the book and would classify this story with a rating of 4.5 because there were definitely moments in the book that became tedious to get through at times.
The story follows multiple characters' lives that become intertwined when the mysterious disappearances of people continues. There is the nervous Tobias, who is unfortunate enough to work for the cruel Sweeney Todd but smart enough to know that Mr. Todd is performing questionable things. Sweeney Todd, who is wicked, is the barber who takes a liking to expensive items. There are the victims of which Mr. Todd happens to gather their belongings after they visit him which is how the reader becomes familiar with the clever Johanna. Johanna happens to spin the story together and brings multiple characters to the story as well. And somewhere, we learn of Mrs. Lovett who plays the devilish role of constantly flirting with her male customers and never allowing more than one cook! The end was a miraculous surprise to me and would make any reader giggle with pleasure!
It's unfortunate that the reviews are casting this story in a bad light and I would like to again mention that this is NOT the Sondheim version people are learning to appreciate firstly. With regards to the asterisks, I simply ignored them for the sake of not wasting time. Should you have already seen the movie/Broadway production, I would recommend you disregard any of that information; it will not be useful to you and makes reading the story more pleasurable. With that said I do hope people enjoy the story and not criticize the fact that it is not the movie version Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter made so infamous.
Not the Johnny Depp movie version 
2008-05-06 - This is one of the 1800's Sweeney Todd stories, originally titled, "The String of Pearls". It has 39 chapters, and although a good story, different from the Sondheim version. The Johnny Depp movie poster bookcover is very misleading. You can get this story free online because it is in the public domain.
Good but not what I was expecting...
2008-03-17 - When I first saw this book I was happy seeing so many pages thinking it was an extended version of the movie with Johnny Depp. It even has the cover from the movie and all.
Instead it was very different and much of the book was spoiled because of the Introduction and all.
I didn't like all the asterisks popping up in my face.
I'm trying to read and get into the mood for Pete's sake.
I will be keeping this book, but I will be buying the other one done by Mark Salisbury and Tim Burton.
I would recommend it but I seriously think the title and cover should be changed so as not to confuse any other readers
