The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack

The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack PDF Author: John Matthews
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620554976
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
An extensive investigation of the origins and numerous sightings of the mysterious and terrifying figure known as Spring-Heeled Jack • Shares original 19th-century newspaper accounts of Spring-Heeled Jack encounters as well as 20th and 21st-century reports • Explains his connections to Jack the Ripper and the Slender Man • Explores his origins in earlier mythical beings from folklore, his Steampunk popularity, and the theory that he may be an alien from a high-gravity planet Spring-Heeled Jack--a tall, thin, bounding figure with bat-like wings, clawed hands, wheels of fire for eyes, and breath of blue flames--first leapt to public attention in Victorian London in 1838, springing over hedges and walls, from dark lanes and dank graveyards, to frighten and sometimes physically attack women. News of this strange and terrifying character quickly spread, but despite numerous sightings through 1904 he was never captured or identified. Exploring the vast urban legend surrounding this enigmatic figure, John Matthews explains how the Victorian fascination with strange phenomena and sinister figures paired with hysterical reports enabled Spring-Heeled Jack to be conjured into existence. Sharing original 19th-century newspaper accounts of Spring-Heeled Jack sightings and encounters, he also examines recent 20th and 21st-century reports, including a 1953 UFO-related sighting from Houston, Texas, and disturbing accounts of the Slender Man, who displays notable similarities with Jack. He traces Spring-Heeled Jack’s origins to earlier mythical beings from folklore, such as fairy creatures and land spirits, and explores the theory that Jack is an alien marooned on Earth whose leaping prowess is attributed to his home planet having far stronger gravity than ours. The author reveals how Jack the Ripper, although a different and much more violent character, chose to identify himself with the old, well-established figure of Spring-Heeled Jack. Providing an extensive look at Spring-Heeled Jack from his beginnings to the present, Matthews illustrates why the worldwide Steampunk community has so thoroughly embraced Jack.

The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack

The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack PDF Author: John Matthews
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620554976
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Get Book

Book Description
An extensive investigation of the origins and numerous sightings of the mysterious and terrifying figure known as Spring-Heeled Jack • Shares original 19th-century newspaper accounts of Spring-Heeled Jack encounters as well as 20th and 21st-century reports • Explains his connections to Jack the Ripper and the Slender Man • Explores his origins in earlier mythical beings from folklore, his Steampunk popularity, and the theory that he may be an alien from a high-gravity planet Spring-Heeled Jack--a tall, thin, bounding figure with bat-like wings, clawed hands, wheels of fire for eyes, and breath of blue flames--first leapt to public attention in Victorian London in 1838, springing over hedges and walls, from dark lanes and dank graveyards, to frighten and sometimes physically attack women. News of this strange and terrifying character quickly spread, but despite numerous sightings through 1904 he was never captured or identified. Exploring the vast urban legend surrounding this enigmatic figure, John Matthews explains how the Victorian fascination with strange phenomena and sinister figures paired with hysterical reports enabled Spring-Heeled Jack to be conjured into existence. Sharing original 19th-century newspaper accounts of Spring-Heeled Jack sightings and encounters, he also examines recent 20th and 21st-century reports, including a 1953 UFO-related sighting from Houston, Texas, and disturbing accounts of the Slender Man, who displays notable similarities with Jack. He traces Spring-Heeled Jack’s origins to earlier mythical beings from folklore, such as fairy creatures and land spirits, and explores the theory that Jack is an alien marooned on Earth whose leaping prowess is attributed to his home planet having far stronger gravity than ours. The author reveals how Jack the Ripper, although a different and much more violent character, chose to identify himself with the old, well-established figure of Spring-Heeled Jack. Providing an extensive look at Spring-Heeled Jack from his beginnings to the present, Matthews illustrates why the worldwide Steampunk community has so thoroughly embraced Jack.

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack PDF Author: Mark Hodder
Publisher: Pyr
ISBN: 1616142901
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
London, 1861. Sir Richard Francis Burton - explorer, linguist, scholar, and swordsman; his reputation tarnished; his career in tatters; his former partner missing and probably dead. Algernon Charles Swinburne - unsuccessful poet and follower of de Sade, for whom pain is pleasure, and brandy is ruin! Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age, and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn't exist at all!

Spring-Heeled Jack

Spring-Heeled Jack PDF Author: Philip Pullman
Publisher: Puffin
ISBN: 9780241362310
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Rose and Lily and their little brother Ned live in an orphanage - a terrible place, where the porridge is thin and cold, and nobody smiles. One dark and stormy night, they decide enough is enough, and they run away. But hiding in the shadows, as they make their way through the dangerous back streets of London, is Mack the Knife- the most villainous of villains ... Hiding above the streets, leaping through the air, is Spring-Heeled Jack. He dresses like the devil and his name creates shivers in people, but he is ready for action against the evil-doers and scallywags of the city's dark streets - Mack the Knife included - and he might just be able to save the orphans.

The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack

The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack PDF Author: Karl Bell
Publisher: Boydell Press
ISBN: 1843837870
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
An intriguing study of a unique and unsettling cultural phenomenon in Victorian England. WINNER of the 2013 Katharine Briggs Award NEW LOWER PRICE 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 unfixed cultural 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.

The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack

The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack PDF Author: Peter Haining
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780584102765
Category : Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description


The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man

The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man PDF Author: Mark Hodder
Publisher: Pyr
ISBN: 1616143606
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Mark Hodder's second Burton & Swinburne steampunk adventure, following the acclaimed The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and a deepening mystery. When a clockwork-powered man of brass is found abandoned in Trafalgar Square, Burton and his assistant, the wayward poet Algernon Swinburne, find themselves on the trail of the stolen Garnier Collection--black diamonds rumored to be fragments of the Lemurian Eye of Naga, a meteorite that fell to Earth in prehistoric times. From a haunted mansion to the Bedlam madhouse, from South America to Australia, from séances to a secret labyrinth, Burton struggles with shadowy opponents and his own inner demons. Can the king's agent expose a plot that threatens to rip the British Empire apart, leading to an international conflict the like of which the world has never seen? And what part does the clockwork man have to play? From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack

The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack PDF Author: John Matthews
Publisher: Destiny Books
ISBN: 9781620554968
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
An extensive investigation of the origins and numerous sightings of the mysterious and terrifying figure known as Spring-Heeled Jack • Shares original 19th-century newspaper accounts of Spring-Heeled Jack encounters as well as 20th and 21st-century reports • Explains his connections to Jack the Ripper and the Slender Man • Explores his origins in earlier mythical beings from folklore, his Steampunk popularity, and the theory that he may be an alien from a high-gravity planet Spring-Heeled Jack--a tall, thin, bounding figure with bat-like wings, clawed hands, wheels of fire for eyes, and breath of blue flames--first leapt to public attention in Victorian London in 1838, springing over hedges and walls, from dark lanes and dank graveyards, to frighten and sometimes physically attack women. News of this strange and terrifying character quickly spread, but despite numerous sightings through 1904 he was never captured or identified. Exploring the vast urban legend surrounding this enigmatic figure, John Matthews explains how the Victorian fascination with strange phenomena and sinister figures paired with hysterical reports enabled Spring-Heeled Jack to be conjured into existence. Sharing original 19th-century newspaper accounts of Spring-Heeled Jack sightings and encounters, he also examines recent 20th and 21st-century reports, including a 1953 UFO-related sighting from Houston, Texas, and disturbing accounts of the Slender Man, who displays notable similarities with Jack. He traces Spring-Heeled Jack’s origins to earlier mythical beings from folklore, such as fairy creatures and land spirits, and explores the theory that Jack is an alien marooned on Earth whose leaping prowess is attributed to his home planet having far stronger gravity than ours. The author reveals how Jack the Ripper, although a different and much more violent character, chose to identify himself with the old, well-established figure of Spring-Heeled Jack. Providing an extensive look at Spring-Heeled Jack from his beginnings to the present, Matthews illustrates why the worldwide Steampunk community has so thoroughly embraced Jack.

Taliesin

Taliesin PDF Author: John Matthews
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892818693
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
Taliesin, Chief Bard of Britain and Celtic shaman, was a historical figure who lived in Wales during the latter half of the sixth century. His verse is established as a direct precursor to the Arthurian Legends--and Taliesin himself, is said to be the direct forebear to Merlin. The author presents completely new translations of Taliesin's major poems in their entirety, uncovering the meanings behind these great works for the first time.

The Secret Fiend

The Secret Fiend PDF Author: Shane Peacock
Publisher: Tundra Books
ISBN: 1770492135
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
It is 1868, the week that Benjamin Disraeli becomes Prime Minister of the Empire. Sherlock's beautiful but poor admirer, Beatrice, the hatter's daughter, appears at the door late at night. She is terrified, claiming that she and her friend have just been attacked by the Spring Heeled Jack on Westminster Bridge and the fiend has made off with her friend. At first Sherlock thinks Beatrice simply wants his attention, and he is reluctant to go back to detective work. He also believes that the Jack everyone fears is a fictional figure. But soon he is suspicious of various individuals, several of them close friends. Set at a time when many in England were in a state of fear because a Jew was running the country, Shane Peacock presents a compelling story filled with an atmosphere of paranoia and secrets and surprises played out on late-night London streets. Sherlock gets drawn deeper and deeper into the pursuit of the Spring Heeled Jack, whose attacks grow in number until it seems that there are Jacks everywhere. The Secret Fiend is the fourth book in Shane Peacock's award-winning Boy Sherlock Holmes series, combining brilliant storytelling with fascinating historical detail and a mystery worthy of one of the greatest sleuths in English literature.

Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon

Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon PDF Author: Mark Hodder
Publisher: Pyr
ISBN: 1616145366
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
It is 1863, but not the one it should be. Time has veered wildly off course, and now the first moves are being made that will lead to a devastating world war and the fall of the British Empire. Caught in a tangled web of cause, effect, and inevitability, little does Burton realize that the stakes are far higher than even he suspects. A final confrontation comes in the mist-shrouded Mountains of the Moon, in war- torn Africa of 1914, and in Green Park, London, where, in the year 1840, Burton must face the man responsible for altering time: Spring Heeled Jack! Burton and Swinburne's third adventure is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and bizarre events, completing the three-volume story arc begun in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man. From the Trade Paperback edition.