Sweeney Todd: The Real Story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
by Peter Haining

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Book Reviews of Sweeney Todd: The Real Story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Book Review: Fascinating Life Story of Mass Murderer
Summary: 4 Stars

Perhaps the prose is a little cliched and the facts somewhat thin on the ground, but the familiar street names and sheer audacity of the main protagonists (Mrs Lovett was his pie-maker accomplice) make for riveting reading. Haining draws together many sources to paint a grim picture of crime-ridden 18th century London and the grotesque dysfunctional barber-surgeon at the centre of these awful acts.

What the book does not attempt to do is offer questions for Todd's deeds - psychoanalysis is absent from the gaudy melodrama here described. Just what did Todd hope to achieve by murdering so many clients? Was he twisted by his appalling childhood? Why did he not sell any of the purloined valuables and rise to a higher class of living? What was Mrs Lovett's motivation? Why was she attracted to him in the first place? These queries sadly go unanswered, and, whilst answers must surely be speculative, an appreciation of them would not have gone amiss.

Overall, however, a fascinating story well told.

Mark Campbell (Freelance Writer)

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