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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
Polly- it’s always sad to hear how a woman has had to suffer when her male counterpart has only benefited from the situation. Even though her husband was devastated by her death, he got to keep on living, he didn’t have to see the worst of what this world has to offer. If society hadn’t been so against women since the beginning of time then things would’ve undoubtedly been different for her, but as a woman with no way to start a life without a man her downfall was inescapable.
Annie- The fall from grace was so extreme I genuinely had no idea how the inevitable ending was going to come about. It makes it even worse to know that at every obstacle there was a way out but she couldn’t take it simply because of the hold alcohol had on her. It’s not even comforting to know that her marriage was a happy one all the way to the end, if anything that makes it worse. It’s refreshing though to know that her brother was able to break the cycle yet still disappointing that she wasn’t able to do so first.
Elisabeth- when i started reading her section i assumed that things would’ve been different if she had just stayed in Sweden but once again its the constant prejudice towards women that killed her. Even though she was a prostitute it wasn’t by any choice of her own. It was a matter of survival. All of these women fought to survive but especially Elisabeth. She lied and conned people and went against everything that she had been taught as a child but she had no choice. When you live in a world where everything is against you, you have no choice but to do things that are arguably morally wrong.
Kate- this one actually made me cry, not for any particular reason. If anything just reading the way her sister cried for her and the way her family came together even though they had all abandoned her kinda got me. It’s always sad to hear how someone with so much potential and the capability to live a really great life ended up just another forgotten part of history. And once again, not a prostitute.
Mary Jane- I wish we could know more about her life before she became a prostitute to know if there were any significant moments that if altered slightly could’ve prevented her death. Obviously her being trafficked was the moment that altered the course of her life but I don’t think that could’ve been prevented. It’s very obvious that no matter what it was not in her character to deny an opportunity like a trip to Paris, regardless of warnings from anyone else. I was pretty shocked to know she’s buried so close to where I live though, kinda freaky.
Rubenhold has genuinely given readers so much perspective on the ways in which women are simply hated by society. They have been for centuries and continue to be today. These women all had lives and the facts in this book are only a small fragment of them and somehow it’s taken so long for someone to document them. We’ve spent years idolising a criminal and keeping his legacy alive so to speak, when really we should’ve been talking about the lives he took. It also makes these women feel real. They struggle with the same problems that people do today and they live in the same areas we do. They’ve only ever been referred to as a collective, ‘The Ripper Victims’ so by telling their stories it just humanises them. There’s a lot of stigma around non-fiction books and how boring they are but in actuality this took me on the same emotional rollercoaster that any fictional novel would. There’s also something to be said about the way your heart sinks each time one of the women eventually ends up in Whitechapel. It’s obviously the catalyst for their deaths and you know it has to happen at some point but when it does all you can think about is how many things could’ve prevented it.
Annie- The fall from grace was so extreme I genuinely had no idea how the inevitable ending was going to come about. It makes it even worse to know that at every obstacle there was a way out but she couldn’t take it simply because of the hold alcohol had on her. It’s not even comforting to know that her marriage was a happy one all the way to the end, if anything that makes it worse. It’s refreshing though to know that her brother was able to break the cycle yet still disappointing that she wasn’t able to do so first.
Elisabeth- when i started reading her section i assumed that things would’ve been different if she had just stayed in Sweden but once again its the constant prejudice towards women that killed her. Even though she was a prostitute it wasn’t by any choice of her own. It was a matter of survival. All of these women fought to survive but especially Elisabeth. She lied and conned people and went against everything that she had been taught as a child but she had no choice. When you live in a world where everything is against you, you have no choice but to do things that are arguably morally wrong.
Kate- this one actually made me cry, not for any particular reason. If anything just reading the way her sister cried for her and the way her family came together even though they had all abandoned her kinda got me. It’s always sad to hear how someone with so much potential and the capability to live a really great life ended up just another forgotten part of history. And once again, not a prostitute.
Mary Jane- I wish we could know more about her life before she became a prostitute to know if there were any significant moments that if altered slightly could’ve prevented her death. Obviously her being trafficked was the moment that altered the course of her life but I don’t think that could’ve been prevented. It’s very obvious that no matter what it was not in her character to deny an opportunity like a trip to Paris, regardless of warnings from anyone else. I was pretty shocked to know she’s buried so close to where I live though, kinda freaky.
Rubenhold has genuinely given readers so much perspective on the ways in which women are simply hated by society. They have been for centuries and continue to be today. These women all had lives and the facts in this book are only a small fragment of them and somehow it’s taken so long for someone to document them. We’ve spent years idolising a criminal and keeping his legacy alive so to speak, when really we should’ve been talking about the lives he took. It also makes these women feel real. They struggle with the same problems that people do today and they live in the same areas we do. They’ve only ever been referred to as a collective, ‘The Ripper Victims’ so by telling their stories it just humanises them. There’s a lot of stigma around non-fiction books and how boring they are but in actuality this took me on the same emotional rollercoaster that any fictional novel would. There’s also something to be said about the way your heart sinks each time one of the women eventually ends up in Whitechapel. It’s obviously the catalyst for their deaths and you know it has to happen at some point but when it does all you can think about is how many things could’ve prevented it.
This is a great historical nonfiction book that dives into the lives and stories of the five women murdered by Jack the Ripper. If you are looking for something spooky or suspenseful…this is not it. This book shines the light on who these women were and their deaths are told in short paragraphs at the end of their sections. You could take the murders out completely and the book wouldn’t change much. It illuminates the hardships of life in Victorian England for the poor and middle class. We’ll researched and rich in details, this book reads as educational while also engaging. Bigger themes and questions emerge as the author explores how the treatment of these women relates to women even today.
This is not a quick or light read but I recommend if you like history and have time to dig in without rushing.
This is not a quick or light read but I recommend if you like history and have time to dig in without rushing.
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Very interesting read , nice to find out more about the "victims" as actual human beings and the hardships they faced rather than glorifying the ripper as is normally the case.
Definitely recommend .
Definitely recommend .
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
This was interesting because as the Jack the Ripper legend has grown and become a societal reference, I've never been asked to consider the victims. Who they were and where they were in their lives was important to their story, and Rubenhold does a good job of showing the humanity of those involved.
Boy, was this taking me forever to get through. I’m sadly DNF’ing. I was excited when this book came out. I love history and don’t know much about Jack the Ripper and his victims. Apparently Rubenhold is as much in the dark as the rest of us. She’s a good writer. But if your aim is write a book on historical facts for readers to learn about an historical event, what is the purpose of writing and publishing a book on pure conjecture? I find it admirable that Rubenhold set out to write a book on a topic most people, including myself, have little knowledge on. However, it seems a waste of everyone’s time to write a book on an event people know little about, and then add in a lot of conjecture as filler (since I’m guessing there weren’t enough sources to prove the author’s point). (And yes, she had an extensive bibliography at the back, but that doesn’t change the fact that the majority of the writing consisted of her stating “This might have happened,” “We DON’T know for certain, but Polly’s life was probably like THIS if we look at other women in the same social position at the time,” etc.) If there isn’t enough source material to write a full book about, why write the book? It diminishes the reader’s ability to utilize the information presented, because most of it is hearsay and “likely.”
As several reviewers have discussed, Rubenhold’s thesis is clearly “Hey, these women weren’t prostitutes (except maybe kinda one?)!” And then wrote a drawn out, conjecture-filled essay on how none of the women were prostitutes. That’s not what I wanted from this book, not what I gathered this book was going to be about. I wanted to learn about these women as people. What were lives like leading up to the murders. Rubenhold sort of does this but continuously hammers her angle and pushes information like “Still not prostitutes though!” which had nothing to do with her original premise, i.e. who were these women outside of Ripper’s infamy and prostitute/fallen women label? It just didn’t work, and I feel this book has been mismarketed.
I commend Rubenhold for being, I assume, the first writer to write a book on Jack the Ripper’s victims, not Jack the Ripper himself. But I feel I can only take the information Rubenhold presents with a grain of salt.
As several reviewers have discussed, Rubenhold’s thesis is clearly “Hey, these women weren’t prostitutes (except maybe kinda one?)!” And then wrote a drawn out, conjecture-filled essay on how none of the women were prostitutes. That’s not what I wanted from this book, not what I gathered this book was going to be about. I wanted to learn about these women as people. What were lives like leading up to the murders. Rubenhold sort of does this but continuously hammers her angle and pushes information like “Still not prostitutes though!” which had nothing to do with her original premise, i.e. who were these women outside of Ripper’s infamy and prostitute/fallen women label? It just didn’t work, and I feel this book has been mismarketed.
I commend Rubenhold for being, I assume, the first writer to write a book on Jack the Ripper’s victims, not Jack the Ripper himself. But I feel I can only take the information Rubenhold presents with a grain of salt.
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced