The Gift of the Sailor: The String of Pearls & Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd, the Demon-Barber of Fleet Street is a serial narrative by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Preskett Prest spanning 177 chapters. Set in eighteenth-century London, it concerns Sweeney Todd, a sinister barber operating near St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street, whose connection to disappearances and murders forms the central mystery. The story follows Johanna Oakley, whose betrothed Mark Ingestrie vanishes after being seen entering Todd's shop, bearing a string of pearls intended as a gift. Johanna and her allies—including her cousin Big Ben, Colonel Jeffery, and magistrate Sir Richard Blunt—gradually uncover Todd's crimes and his partnership with Mrs. Lovett, owner of a nearby pie-shop in Bell Yard. The narrative encompasses Todd's arrest and trial, his sensational escape from Newgate, his desperate flight through London and toward Gravesend, and eventual pursuit. Secondary plots involve Tobias Ragg, Todd's tormented apprentice, Mrs. Oakley's misadventures, and the Rev. Mr. Lupin's machinations. The work concludes with Todd's final escape and Mark Ingestrie's rescue from shipwreck.