Book Review: The String of Pearls AKA Sweeney Todd

We have all heard of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The famous musical adaptation for 2007, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman, directed by Tim Burton. However, not everyone is aware of the origin. The story of Sweeney Todd was originally called The String of Pearls: A Romance. The authors often sited are James Malcolm Rymer or Thomas Peckett Prest, although the actual author is unknown since this book was printed anonymously in the 1840s.

This nineteenth-century novel begins with Sweeney Todd, already killing his first victim of the book within just the first few pages. The book switches viewpoints, focusing between Sweeney Todd, with his habit of murdering his clients; and Johanna, whose lover has gone missing and her belief that he is dead; and Colonel Jeffery’s search for his missing friend, Thornhill.

I am going to be honest; this book was quite difficult to get through. I did a lot of skimming when I was reading this because the author uses a lot of descriptive text for every little thing that is happening. This causes the book to be much longer than it really needs to be. The plot is drawn out and does not move on with a pace that most modern books are written with.

The String of Pearls also has a weird narrational shift in a few spots. At the very end of chapter three, the last line addresses the audience and then the next chapter is back in the third person; as well as, in chapter twenty six, when the author uses the term “we” a lot when the story is in third person, these shifts in the point of view really threw me off.

The author also uses an off-putting style, not just how the characters speak but the way the descriptions are written in the vernacular of this time period. For example, the author uses the term “beefeater” which he uses to refer to a man, but not explain why he calls him this. Another instance would be referring to a chair as “a chair of state” when a doctor sat down in it, but the author does not tell us what this means. Was it a type of chair? A chair that people of authority sat in since he was the doctor? Was it an emotional state? He never really explains, only mentions that the doctor sat in that chair.

There is also a touch of textual echoes. When someone would go by Sweeney Todds’ shop, there were sometimes suspicious noises. When they would ask Todd what it was he would say that it was just his laugh. At the very beginning of the book is the first instance we see this echo when a customer asks, “‘What the devil noise was that?’ ‘It was only me,’ said Sweeney Todd; ‘I laughed’”(5). This echo appears again when a new customer asks, “‘What odd noise was that?’ ‘Oh, it was only I who laughed’”(54). This occurred a few times throughout the book and always made me feel like I had déjà vu when reading it.

With this novel being from the 1840s, the book was a very hard read. I personally did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The writing style was not what I was comfortable with, which made it difficult to focus on and enjoy the plot. With that being said, I did thoroughly enjoy the plot because it was a very different take on Sweeney Todd than I am familiar with, which gave me a different outlook with it being the story’s origin.

I would only recommend this book to you if you are up for a challenging read, or if you are used to reading older books with a very different writing style than the styles we see today. I have mixed feelings about this book. I hated the way it was written, but the plot interested me enough to keep me reading the book even though I struggled for a little.

I would like to point out that not all books are better than the movie. I think I will just stick with the Tim Burton adaptation because his musical has a much more interesting, fast-paced plot than its origin story.

Rymer, James Malcolm, and Thomas Peckett Prest. Sweeney Todd: The String of Pearls: the Original Victorian Classic. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 2015.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2007.