The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures
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.
1110933112
The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures
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.
36.95 In Stock
The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures

The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures

by Karl Bell
The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures

The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures

by Karl Bell

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$36.95 
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Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781783271917
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer, Limited
Publication date: 03/17/2017
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 265
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Introduction 1

Part I The Legend 17

1 The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack 19

2 The Cultural Anatomy of a Legend 47

Part II Cultural Functions 73

3 Spring-heeled Jack, Crime, and the Reform of Customary Culture 75

4 Spring-heeled Jack and Victorian Society 100

5 Spring-heeled Jack and London 122

Part III Cultural Dynamism 143

6 Cultural Nodes: Localities 145

7 Cultural Modes: Oral, Literary and Visual 170

8 The Decline and Demise of Spring-heeled Jack 200

Conclusion: Spring-heeled Jack and Victorian Popular Cultures 223

Bibliography 231

Index 255

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