TITLE: The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack
AUTHOR: John Matthews
PUBLISHER: Destiny Books
ISBN: 978-1620554968
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Mark Norman
Spring-Heeled Jack, the scourge of the London Streets (maybe) is certainly one of the most popular and most-enduring of urban myths from the Victorian Era. The elusive figure of a man with bat wings (perhaps), clawed hands (or gloves, or not) and breathing blue flame (or spitting, or nothing) first appeared in 1838 in Victorian London.
But Jack is an interesting figure because he has parallels elsewhere. He has been seen in Sheffield. And Liverpool. He has been a comic book character and a figure of anti-Nazi propaganda. One theory even suggests that he an alien, stuck on Earth and able to jump so high due to gravity differences between our planet and his.
Over the years that Jack was active, many hundreds of column inches of news print were generated about his appearances, speculations about his character and who he might be, and more.
This title is split into two parts, with the first being a focus on the legend of Jack. It attempts to reproduce much of this reportage in chronological order, providing some analysis and text to tie everything together. The second part of the book looks at Jack's mythos and travels to other locations to look at similar figures which may (or probably are not) Jack. Again, a significant amount of reportage is included for context.
The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack is a fair attempt at collating much of the lore about this figure and is certainly an enjoyable read. People seeking more analysis may be left lacking at times, as this is often little more than slightly expanded marginalia. Much of the word count of the title is given over to the original primary sources - not a bad thing but more contextualization and expansion could have been attempted. There are also some rather dangerous leaps of faith at times, particularly surrounding ideas about the connections between this Jack and Jack the Ripper.
Matthews is a prolific author, having written more than 60, or 100, or 200 books depending on the source you are looking at. This is, to be fair, over a long writing career, but in cases such as this title more analysis alongside the original articles would have been beneficial.
I enjoyed this title, and I think you would too, but it is useful to know what to expect before you launch in. Maybe use this as a springboard (no pun intended) to further study.
AUTHOR: John Matthews
PUBLISHER: Destiny Books
ISBN: 978-1620554968
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Mark Norman
Spring-Heeled Jack, the scourge of the London Streets (maybe) is certainly one of the most popular and most-enduring of urban myths from the Victorian Era. The elusive figure of a man with bat wings (perhaps), clawed hands (or gloves, or not) and breathing blue flame (or spitting, or nothing) first appeared in 1838 in Victorian London.
But Jack is an interesting figure because he has parallels elsewhere. He has been seen in Sheffield. And Liverpool. He has been a comic book character and a figure of anti-Nazi propaganda. One theory even suggests that he an alien, stuck on Earth and able to jump so high due to gravity differences between our planet and his.
Over the years that Jack was active, many hundreds of column inches of news print were generated about his appearances, speculations about his character and who he might be, and more.
This title is split into two parts, with the first being a focus on the legend of Jack. It attempts to reproduce much of this reportage in chronological order, providing some analysis and text to tie everything together. The second part of the book looks at Jack's mythos and travels to other locations to look at similar figures which may (or probably are not) Jack. Again, a significant amount of reportage is included for context.
The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack is a fair attempt at collating much of the lore about this figure and is certainly an enjoyable read. People seeking more analysis may be left lacking at times, as this is often little more than slightly expanded marginalia. Much of the word count of the title is given over to the original primary sources - not a bad thing but more contextualization and expansion could have been attempted. There are also some rather dangerous leaps of faith at times, particularly surrounding ideas about the connections between this Jack and Jack the Ripper.
Matthews is a prolific author, having written more than 60, or 100, or 200 books depending on the source you are looking at. This is, to be fair, over a long writing career, but in cases such as this title more analysis alongside the original articles would have been beneficial.
I enjoyed this title, and I think you would too, but it is useful to know what to expect before you launch in. Maybe use this as a springboard (no pun intended) to further study.