The Legend of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

"Ladies and Gentlemen — I fear that what I am going to say will spoil your appetites; but the truth is beautiful at all times, and I have to state that Mrs Lovett's pies are made of human flesh!"

When I first saw Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in the local bookstore I honestly thought they had taken a great musical and simply put it in words, but after reading the introduction I found that it was the musical (and then the movie) that was actually based off of this book. Published over the winter of 1846-47 in a series of 'penny novels', Sweeney Todd because the terror of the good people's minds - a terror he still remains even today. He inspires people like Stephen Sondheim to write musicals about him, and actors like Johnny Depp to play him in movies.

Sweeney Todd is the tale of a barber in Fleet Street of London, who is very, very, very odd. His hair is always in a raving twist above his head - a good place for him to store his combs - his face is long and hideous, and his laugh is the sound of the very devil himself. Mr. Todd is a very successful barber with a reputation of really "polishing off" his customers. He has a good relationship with Mrs. Lovett who makes the most extraordinary pies down the street, and he has an almost loyal, rather suspicious apprentice, Tobias Ragg.

Johanna Oakley, a side character in this book, is in love with one Mark Ingestrie, who a year ago promised her his heart and went off to sea to seek his fortune. But sadly after the year is up, no word from Mark has left Johanna in tears, until a sailor named Colonel Jeffery comes to seek her opinion on a very strange matter. A friend of his - Lieutenant Thornhill - went to London a few days earlier, leaving the ship, and hasn't returned, nor was ever heard of after hitting Fleet Street. Not baring to just leave him for dead, Colonel Jefferey seeks out Johanna, whom Thornhill was going to meet before he stopped at the barbers in Fleet Street, to find out if she heard anything from him. When she said no, Colonel Jefferey told her the story of a ship that had caught on fire, no survivors were found other than Thornhill and his dog. Johanna tells that she has heard of the ship for it was the very one that Mark left on the year before.

Thus Johanna gets involved in the story.

Mrs. Lovett makes the best pies in London - despite what the song says - and everyone is dying to know her secret, the craving for knowledge falling short once a fresh batch of pies comes up from the cellar. Her secret is only known by her and the worker who makes them in the furnaces below the shop. She hires a wandering man who is in desperate need to a job and it is then that we find out the some what mysterious basement of Mrs. Lovett's pie shop.

As the story unfolds we follow the footsteps of each character, Mr. Todd, Mrs. Lovett, Tobias Ragg - who lands an unfortunate spot in Mr. Fogg's madhouse - Johanna Oakley, and Colonel Jefferey through the spots of London as they figure out what happened to lost friends and how to cut off any resource of information.

The book is far different from the musical and the movie. To reiterate, when I first saw it I thought it would be the same story I knew only on paper, but I'm glad to say that I was proved wrong. They are alike with the plot - kinda - Sweeney Todd is a barber in Fleet Street who kills his clients, chops them up into meat, and gives them to Mrs. Lovett who then makes them into pies. The difference is that Johanna is not his daughter in the book, she is a side character who is connected to him by a string of pearls - the original name for the book. Tobias was never in relation to Pirelli - who is never mentioned - but is put to work for Todd by his mother on an agreement that they would never tell the secret of who stole the candle stick, and no, Mrs. Lovett does not fancy Sweeney Todd as much as she does in the musical.

Even though it was different and rather difficult to read - the author is one of those long winded types; kind of like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein or anything written by Charles Dickens - is was a very, very, very good book. It was one that even though I died a little on the inside when I picked it up, I was very glad that I read it. It gets a 3 1/2 out of 5 from me, the reason it's down is because it took me two months to read it..... Blah.

This book is for anyone who enjoyed the movie or the musical, or for anyone who loves a mystery with a fun little kick - eating people... fun little kick right? It's also for people who enjoy spooky legends from Fleet Street or from London in general.

So, if you're looking for a book that will "polish off" your collection this is one I recommend.