Horror Rymer, J. M.: The String of Pearls or Sweeney Todd, Demon Barber-illus.v2. 17 Jun 18

[GrannyGrump]

The String of Pearls; or, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
By James Malcolm Rymer (1814? – 1884)
With 90 full-page illustrations.


“The String of Pearls” is a very entertaining, macabre Victorian horror story, well-seasoned with ironic humor, and populated with rather Dickensian characters. Sweeney Todd, a Fleet Street barber, murders and robs his customers; and their remains are profitably made into delicious meat pies by his accomplice, Mrs Lovett. This latter fact is only implied until quite late in the book, but the reader will discern the grisly truth almost immediately.

Urban legends involving gruesomely sourced fast-food had circulated for decades before his appearance, but the story of Sweeney Todd has been the most enduring. The tale’s popularity resulted in dozens of variously titled reprints, imitations, and stage adaptations. Today Todd is perhaps best known as the central character of the Stephen Sondheim musical “Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. A Musical Thriller.” (1979), and Tim Burton’s movie adaptation of that musical (2007), starring Johnny Depp.

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Sweeney Todd first appeared in “The String of Pearls: A Romance,” a penny dreadful serial of 39 chapters, beginning in November 1846.

This ebook is based on an Internet Archive scan of the massively expanded (177 chapters) 1850 version, “The String of Pearls, or, The Barber of Fleet Street.” To substantiate Sweeney’s tenancy of this ebook, the title has been modified to “The String of Pearls; or, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

The first 31 chapters of this book are identical to the original 39-chapter penny dreadful; the Appendix presents the remaining 8 chapters. I have added a cross-linked glossary, to assist modern readers with the Victorian slang and expressions; and just for fun, a Cast of Characters.

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OCR and spelling errors were corrected; punctuation, italics and diacritics formatted; spelling and punctuation regularized for consistency. Paragraph breaks from the original serial have been reinstated, and some paragraph breaks added to the “expansion” chapters. Chapters have been renumbered correctly, and some chapter titles relocated or rewritten for clarity. Illustrations have been placed adjacent to their associated text. Embedded font for titling.


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Available in the hefty 2-volume illustrated version; or for readers on a diet, the slender un-illustrated “complete” version, only 1.3mb.

EDIT TO ADD: Uploaded Version 2 with corrections to many punctuation errors, thanks to feedback from Tex2002ans. Previous downloads: Illustrated Volumes, approx. 61 ea; "Single Complete" 46.

Bon Appetite!

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[GrannyGrump]

I just uploaded Volume 2, with the Glossary tweaked with additional cross-links. Not a major change, but maybe you will find the additional links useful.

[radius]

Thanks for volumes. They look great!

Is the glossary your own creation meant for Americans? I had a peek at the first couple of pages, and I had no idea native English readers would have any trouble with the terms (e.g. adieu, agog, ague, apartment, apoplexy, aught, beef-eater, biled, biscuits etc). I thought those were all in regular use still haha.

Maybe I just do too much of my reading from Project Gutenberg and Mobileread

[GrannyGrump]

Yup, I meant it for Americans, and for readers who are not accustomed to 18th & 19th century expressions, (that "just in case" mode). Folks who don't read a lot of vintage or British literature actually might not be familiar with ague, aught, apartment = room, biscuit = U.S. cookie, etc. (as I have found in personal conversations with fairly literate people, but strictly 21st century).

Shocking, simply shocking...

Truly, the most fun was seeing how much Victorian slang still IS in use. I was bemused to find such antique terms as pig = cop, crib = home, nark = tattle/inform on, SNARK! So all our pride in the modern slang we have invented ----- Pffft!

[litemotif]

"Pffft!"

Now there's an archaic expression for you

By the way, superb job on the book, as usual!

[GrannyGrump]

To stay in keeping with the era, I really should have said "Pshaw!"



Thank you for the compliment. Hope you enjoy the tasty read!

[litemotif]

MOAR pie!

[GrannyGrump]

Yum!

[GrannyGrump]

After some great feedback and advice from Tex2002ans, I have corrected a boatload of punctuation errors, and uploaded Version 2.

Hope this makes reading a bit more comfortable, and my apologies for not catching those errors.

[JSWolf]

Thank you very much. Very well done. I look forward to reading this.

[GrannyGrump]

Thank you!
(This was a complicated but fun book to do, and I did not try at all to keep it faithful to the print version.)

Next time you eat a beef pot pie, think of Sweeney!

[BookCat]

Thanks for making this, especially as the gutenberg version has all the images blank. This will make me glad I'm vegetarian!

[GrannyGrump]

Thank *you*. Hope you enjoy it -- (I think I got more chuckles than chills --- very dry humor in spots!)