By the end of 1851, this version had gained a final title, The String of Pearls, or the Barber of Fleet Street, a Domestic Romance.ĭuring the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Sweeney Todd became the protagonist of a vibrant transmedial storyworld, that holistically incorporated many variations by different authors and in different media, and expected audiences to arrive knowing something of the basic story (Haugtvedt 2016). In 1850-1, Lloyd published an expanded edition, initially in penny parts (instalments sold for a penny each.) Upon its first appearance, this version was titled The String of Pearls, or the Sailor's Gift, a Domestic Romance. The first stage adaptation of The String of Pearls, by George Dibdin Pitt, opened in 1847, before the serial had finished its run. The tale of Todd immediately captivated the London public. Lovett made their first appearance in 1846 in The String of Pearls, A Romance, a novel serialized in the populist publisher Edward Lloyd’s People’s Periodical and Family Libraryand now conclusively attributed to James Malcolm Rymer (1814-84). Todd and his resourceful pie-maker accomplice Mrs.

So has Sweeney Todd, the fictional London barber who in Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 contribution to the mythos, “ shaved the faces of gentlemen / Who never thereafter were heard from again.” Frankenstein’s Creature, Edward Hyde, and Count Dracula have captivated generations of readers. Attend the Tale: Sweeney Todd and The String of PearlsĪ number of nineteenth-century literary monsters haunt the contemporary imagination.

Sweeney Todd by James Malcolm Rymer