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Spring-Heeled Jack
The Terror
of London •
Spring Heel'd Jack
The Lore of the Land: A Guide to
UK Legends •
Spring-Heeled Jack
• Haunted
Liverpool
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Spring-Heeled Jack
The Terror
of London (Kindle Edition)
by
Anonymous
Long
before the novel Dracula by Bram
Stoker there was the legend of
Spring-heel Jack. originally called
Springald by some media, is a
character from English folklore said
to have existed during the Victorian
era and able to jump extraordinarily
high. The first claimed sighting of
Spring Heeled Jack that is known
occurred in 1837. Later alleged
sightings were reported all over
England, from London up to Sheffield
and Liverpool, but they were
especially prevalent in suburban
London and later in the Midlands and
Scotland.
Spring Heeled Jack was described by
people claiming to have seen him as
having a terrifying and frightful
appearance, that included clawed
hands and eyes that "resembled red
balls of fire". Many stories also
mention a "Devil-like" aspect.
Spring Heeled Jack was said to be
tall and thin, with the appearance
of a gentleman, and capable of
making great leaps.
It was the penny dreadful (the pulp
fiction) magazines where the legend
of Spring Heeled Jack really gained
popularity, owing to his allegedly
extraordinary nature.
This copy of Spring-Heeled Jack -
The Terror of London is one of the
earliest know Penny Dreadful about
Spring-heel Jack still in existence. |
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Spring-Heel'd
Jack was a mysterious figure
reported throughout the nineteenth
century. He was blamed for a number
of violent attacks - including
murder, mainly on young women. His
reign of terror started in London,
and spread throughout Great Britain
covering the period 1837 to 1904.
One terrifying attack, on the
daughter of a wealthy businessman,
was the subject of a Times newspaper
report in 1838. This book is based
on that report. Jack's bizarre
appearance - huge, bulbous red eyes,
pointed ears and claw-like fingers -
and physical peculiarities - his
ability to belch flames at random,
into the face of his victims, and
his ability to leap great distances
- point to a creature not of this
world. He has never been
successfully identified. |
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The Lore of the Land: A Guide to
UK Legends, from
Spring-heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys
by Jennifer Westwood,
Jacqueline Simpson
Where can you find the 'Devil's
footprints'? What happened at the
'hangman's stone'? Did Sweeney Todd,
the demon barber of Fleet Street,
ever really exist? Where was King
Arthur laid to rest? Bringing
together tales of haunting,
highwaymen, family curses and
lovers' leaps, this magnificent
guide will take you on a magical
journey through England's legendary
past. 'A fascinating county-by
county guidebook to the headless
horsemen, bottomless pools, immured
adulteresses and talking animals
that make up the hidden landscape of
the country.' - "London Review of
Books". 'Evokes an England terrified
by screaming skulls, tantalized by
hidden treasure, spooked by the
unearthly clanging of bells,
bewitched by fairies and hobgoblins'
- "Country Life".
'Wonderful...Contains almost every
myth, legend and ghost story ever
told in England' - Simon Hoggart,
"Guardian". |
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Spring-Heeled Jack
by Philip
Pullman (Author), D. Mostyn
(Illustrator)
"The
wisps of fog were whisked aside, and
the girls looked up at the stars and
saw--The devil? Well, if he wasn't
the devil, then who the devil was
he?" Philip Pullman can sure tell a
story. Spring-Heeled Jack,
originally published years ago in
the U.K., is an over-the-top
Victorian romp in the boisterous
vein of the master storyteller's
Count Karlstein and I Was a Rat. All
the ingredients for an edge-of-seat
page-turner are here: three hapless
orphans; the brandy-swigging Mr.
Killjoy and his horrible assistant,
Miss Gasket, at the Alderman Cawn-Plaster
Memorial Orphanage; and the greedy,
murderous Mack the Knife who awaits
them in the dank city of London. Of
course, this is no bad-luck Lemony
Snicket tale. There's a superhero
named Spring-Heeled Jack to save the
day! Pullman is at his
tongue-in-cheek best here, telling
half the happy-ending tale with a
sooty, dramatic Dickensian spin, and
the other half with David Mostyn's
artful cartoons, undercutting the
mock-heavy-handed drama at every
turn. Readers will find plenty of
Pullman's characteristic wit and
wordplay amid the nonstop,
rip-roaring adventure. Excellent! |
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Haunted Liverpool Anthology:
A Selection from Haunted Liverpool 1
to Haunted Liverpool 12
by Thomas Slemen
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Spring-heeled Jack: A Victorian
Visitation at Aldershot
by Roman
Ilmar Golicz
Out Of
Print |
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Springheeled Jack Graphic Novel
by
David Hitchcock
©
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