A snippet of the history of “Sweeney Todd”

Sweeney Todd first appeared in the story entitled The String Of Pearls: A Romance. This “Penny dreadful” ( A British Fiction publication from the 19^th century) was published in 18 weekly parts, from the 21st of November 1846 to the 20th of March 1847. Both James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest have been credited as having written parts of the serial. There were several other editions and serials adapted from the original story.

A number of earlier texts with elements of the Todd story were identified around the late 17th century and claims that Sweeney Todd was a real person were first made in the introduction to the 1850 edition of The String of Pearls and have persisted to the present day, therefore making it an example of an early urban legend.

This tale evolved into an 1847 Victorian melodrama, the first surviving film adaptation; a silent film, was made in 1928, in 1959 was made into a ballet and there have been many other versions, for both stage and screen. Tim Burton's version of Sweeney Todd, that I will be studying, is based on Stephen Sondheim's 1979 worldwide stage sensation.