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Article: The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd: The Life and Times of an Urban Legend
- Article from:
- Gothic Studies
- Article date:
- May 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Manchester University Press May 2009. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd: The Life and Times of an Urban Legend, by Robert L. Mack (London: Continuum, 2007), 375pp., £25 hb; ISBN 978-0-8264-9791-8.
Sweeney Todd presents a fascinating and probably unique story in terms of its origin, legacy and cultural reinvention. An extremely potent urban legend, it still has advocates, most notably Peter Haining who, in his own 1993 study (revised in 2007), insist that it is a true story. An anonymously published 'Penny Dreadful' in the 1840s The String of Pearls was inevitably dramatised and George Dibdin Pitt's play became a favourite melodrama on the Victorian stage. In the twentieth century it continued to have a stage ...