 Page from The String of Pearls; or, The Sailor’s Gift, 1850 | |
| Author | Unknown but probably James Malcolm Rymer and/or Thomas Peckett Prest |
|---|---|
| Working title | The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Sweeney Todd |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Set in | London |
| Published | 1846–47 by Edward Lloyd 1850 as a book |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Penny dreadful) |
| Pages | 732 pp (Book) |
| OCLC | 830944639 |
| LC Class | PR5285.R99 |
| Text | The String of Pearls at Wikisource |
The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance (alternatively titled The Sailor's Gift) is a story first published as a penny dreadful serial from 1846 to 47. The main character of the story is Sweeney Todd, "the Demon Barber of Fleet Street". The story was the character's first literary appearance.
Todd is a barber who murders his customers and gives their corpses to Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime, who bakes their flesh into meat pies. His barber shop is situated in Fleet Street, London, next to St. Dunstan's church, and is connected to Lovett's pie shop in nearby Bell Yard by means of an underground passage. Todd kills his victims by pulling a lever while they are in his barber chair, which makes them fall backward through a revolving trapdoor and generally causes them to break their necks or skulls on the cellar floor below. If the victims are still alive, he goes to the basement and "polishes them off" by slitting their throats with his straight razor.