Scan barcode
A review by geraldinerowe
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
An extraordinarily well researched book which really brings to life the five women it documents. It is both fascinating and utterly heartbreaking, not because of their tragic ends, but because hundreds of thousands of other women lived in similar conditions (and the men's lives weren't much better). None of these five women started life in the doss houses of Whitechapel. They all spiralled downward, mostly through no fault of their own, but all due to the way society and the law was weighted against the poor and especially against women. They all had turned to drink, but who wouldn't be tempted to numb the pain of such an awful existence with a bit of gin-induced oblivion, even if it meant sleeping on the streets that night? This book taught me so much about the lives of the working classes in late Victorian London, which I thought I already understood. I did not.
I've read two criticisms of this book. Firstly that it's all conjecture. It's not, it's just very well researched. I suspect much of the detail comes from newspaper reports of the character witnesses' statements at the victims' inquests (I'm afraid I'm not a great reader of footnotes, but the author does reference her sources in detail). Newspaper coverage of trials and the like were very detailed at that time and reported almost word for word (although the author must have had a job filtering out the more sensational reporting). The other criticism I've heard is that, by putting so much emphasis on the fact that most of the victims, contrary to popular belief, were not prostitutes, the author was part of that section of society which believes sex workers' lives are less valuable or not worthy of saving. I agree that most of the book does have this feel, but it's clearly not what the author believes, as her conclusion makes clear.
This is THE book to read about the Whitechapel Murders (unless, of course, you just want to get off on reading about violence against women, which most Ripper books seem to pander to). Looking at the victims not only gives them the much overdue respect they deserve, but also shows us that their murderer was far more likely to have been one of the frequenters of the doss houses in the Flower and Dean Street area than a royal, a surgeon or a mysterious American.
I don't believe in an afterlife, but if I'm wrong I hope the five unfortunate women we meet in this book are finally finding some comfort by having their stories told so sympathetically. Five stars.
I've read two criticisms of this book. Firstly that it's all conjecture. It's not, it's just very well researched. I suspect much of the detail comes from newspaper reports of the character witnesses' statements at the victims' inquests (I'm afraid I'm not a great reader of footnotes, but the author does reference her sources in detail). Newspaper coverage of trials and the like were very detailed at that time and reported almost word for word (although the author must have had a job filtering out the more sensational reporting). The other criticism I've heard is that, by putting so much emphasis on the fact that most of the victims, contrary to popular belief, were not prostitutes, the author was part of that section of society which believes sex workers' lives are less valuable or not worthy of saving. I agree that most of the book does have this feel, but it's clearly not what the author believes, as her conclusion makes clear.
This is THE book to read about the Whitechapel Murders (unless, of course, you just want to get off on reading about violence against women, which most Ripper books seem to pander to). Looking at the victims not only gives them the much overdue respect they deserve, but also shows us that their murderer was far more likely to have been one of the frequenters of the doss houses in the Flower and Dean Street area than a royal, a surgeon or a mysterious American.
I don't believe in an afterlife, but if I'm wrong I hope the five unfortunate women we meet in this book are finally finding some comfort by having their stories told so sympathetically. Five stars.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism
Minor: Trafficking, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Death, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Child death, and Misogyny