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cleann 's review for:
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
by Hallie Rubenhold
informative
If only history textbooks were framed as interestingly as this book. I might've enjoyed history as a subject a lot more back in secondary school.
The book focuses on the lives and stories of Jack's five canonical victims. While centering on these women, the author expands to explore Victorian society more broadly. By diving into their histories, we also learn about the cultural context, social expectations, political events, and how these factors shaped women's roles and beliefs during that era.
It took me so long to get through this book because almost any mention of an interesting historical detail sent me down Wikipedia rabbit holes. I'd get curious and end up jumping from link to link, reading up on supplementary material outside the book. Through this book, I learned about all sorts of random bits of Victorian history, including (to name a few off the top of my head) about Mary Frances Jeffries, the Eliza Armstrong case, the Contagious Diseases Acts, Princess Alice, etc.
The book focuses on the lives and stories of Jack's five canonical victims. While centering on these women, the author expands to explore Victorian society more broadly. By diving into their histories, we also learn about the cultural context, social expectations, political events, and how these factors shaped women's roles and beliefs during that era.
It took me so long to get through this book because almost any mention of an interesting historical detail sent me down Wikipedia rabbit holes. I'd get curious and end up jumping from link to link, reading up on supplementary material outside the book. Through this book, I learned about all sorts of random bits of Victorian history, including (to name a few off the top of my head) about Mary Frances Jeffries, the Eliza Armstrong case, the Contagious Diseases Acts, Princess Alice, etc.
Regardless, I enjoyed the reading experience. Always cool to learn new things. But I did knock down my rating slightly because I felt the author made significant leaps in interpreting the scarce historical records available for some of these women. While presenting historical evidence, I felt she frequently made extrapolations that didn't always feel factually sound or well-grounded.
Overall very informative, but ngl I'm personally uncertain about the accuracy of some of the conclusions drawn by the author about these women's histories.
Overall very informative, but ngl I'm personally uncertain about the accuracy of some of the conclusions drawn by the author about these women's histories.