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Author Mack, Robert L.

Title The wonderful and surprising history of Sweeney Todd : the life and times of an urban legend / Robert L. Mack.

Imprint London ; New York : Continuum, 2007.

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe 2nd Floor Stacks  820.9351 M19w 2007    ---  Available
Description xx, 375 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. 355-364) and index.
Contents pt. 1. Contexts, themes and background -- 1. Du Cote de Chez Todd: man eating, meat pies and the macabre -- 2. Aren't there butchers enough?: The roots of myth and meaning in the Tale of Sweeney Todd -- 3. Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner: true lies and the life of an urban legend -- pt. 2. Text and sources -- 4. Fiends in human shape: the string of pearls and the earliest histories of Fleet Street's 'Cannibalic Pastries' -- 5. I shall have to polish him off: proto-myths and precedents -- pt. 3. Visions and revisions -- 6. Way of all flesh: Sweeney Todd, Melodrama and the theatre -- 7. Proper artist with a knife: Sweeney on celluloid -- 8. Swing your razor wide, Sweeney: further adventures of a legend -- Appendix: Sweeney Todd: a genealogy, history and chronology.
Summary Traces the history of the Todd narrative from its earliest "proper" appearance as a "penny dreadful" in 1846-47, and then as a popular melodrama, through to its twentieth-century manifestation in film, ballet, musicals and opera, up to current and future productions including the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp film. Each successive generation has found a compelling fascination in the story's themes of avarice, ambition, desire, appetite, retribution, justice, and cannibalism. Following in the footsteps of the myth, this book takes the reader on a journey from the roots of the story in the alleyways and pie-shops of Victorian London to its modern incarnations on stage, screen and in popular culture.--From publisher description.
Note 35902012213753 c.1 Gift of Earl Lee.
Subject Prest, Thomas Peckett -- Characters -- Sweeney Todd.
Todd, Sweeney (Legendary character)
Prest, Thomas Peckett -- Influence.
Popular literature -- England -- History and criticism.
ISBN 9780826497918
0826497918

 
    
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