19th century
A01=Karl Bell
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Anthropology
Author_Karl Bell
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JBGB
Category=JFHF
COP=United Kingdom
Cultural Geography
Cultural History
Cultural Studies
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Folklore
Folkloric tradition
Gothic
Language_English
Legend
Literary Studies
PA=Available
Penny Dreadful
Popular culture
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
Social history
softlaunch
Street ballads
Victorian
Victorian culture
Product details
- ISBN 9781783271917
- Weight: 406g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 17 Mar 2017
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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An intriguing study of a unique and unsettling cultural phenomenon in Victorian England.
WINNER of the 2013 Katharine Briggs Award
This book uses the nineteenth-century legend of Spring-Heeled Jack to analyse and challenge current notions of Victorian popular cultures. Starting as oral rumours, this supposedly supernatural entity moved from rural folklore to metropolitan press sensation, co-existing in literary and theatrical forms before finally degenerating into a nursery lore bogeyman to frighten children. A mercurial and unfixedcultural phenomenon, Spring-Heeled Jack found purchase in both older folkloric traditions and emerging forms of entertainment.
Through this intriguing study of a unique and unsettling figure, Karl Bell complicates our appreciation of the differences, interactions and similarities between various types of popular culture between 1837 and 1904. The book draws upon a rich variety of primary source material including folklorist accounts, street ballads,several series of "penny dreadful" stories (and illustrations), journals, magazines, newspapers, comics, court accounts, autobiographies and published reminiscences. The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack is impressively researched social history and provides a fascinating insight into Victorian cultures. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in nineteenth-century English social and cultural history, folklore or literature.
Karl Bell is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth.
