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solaria's review against another edition
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Violence, and Murder
georgesreadingcompanion's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
katiescho741's review against another edition
5.0
Jack the Ripper has become such an icon of London that people forget he actually murdered innocent women. This book seeks to remind people about those women and shine a light on who they might have been. It's interesting that history has left us with the image of five prostitutes, as the author says, it's easier to swallow all the Jack the Ripper fandom when his victims were "just prostitutes"
The fact that the evidence of their lives is so thin means that Rubenhold has to fill in the gaps, which she does in an excellent way. Rubenhold tells us all that is known about each woman and then provides general information about what life would have been like for them and other women born in similar circumstances. The main thing to learn from this book is how much being a working class woman in the Victorian era sucked.
Minimal education, expectations of looking after younger siblings, sent out to work as a servant as soon as possible, and then having to rely on the men in your life for validation. All five of the women lived complex and tragic lives. Each one seems to have experienced some happiness, but many of them seemed to have turned to drink thanks to violent men, too many children, and the general horrors of poverty.
Rubenhold takes us on a journey through life in the Victorian period, mostly focussed on London, but we do stray to Wales, the Midlands, and Sweden. This was a period of no job security, easy-to-access alcohol, and constant judgement of the poor and the female.
What I appreciated was that the author does not talk about their murders. There are no gory descriptions of their bodies or the wounds inflicted and so they are separated from what makes them infamous and they stay as wives, mothers, friends, and sisters.
This is not an uplifting book but there is some positivity in that fact that these five are finally having their stories told.
The fact that the evidence of their lives is so thin means that Rubenhold has to fill in the gaps, which she does in an excellent way. Rubenhold tells us all that is known about each woman and then provides general information about what life would have been like for them and other women born in similar circumstances. The main thing to learn from this book is how much being a working class woman in the Victorian era sucked.
Minimal education, expectations of looking after younger siblings, sent out to work as a servant as soon as possible, and then having to rely on the men in your life for validation. All five of the women lived complex and tragic lives. Each one seems to have experienced some happiness, but many of them seemed to have turned to drink thanks to violent men, too many children, and the general horrors of poverty.
Rubenhold takes us on a journey through life in the Victorian period, mostly focussed on London, but we do stray to Wales, the Midlands, and Sweden. This was a period of no job security, easy-to-access alcohol, and constant judgement of the poor and the female.
What I appreciated was that the author does not talk about their murders. There are no gory descriptions of their bodies or the wounds inflicted and so they are separated from what makes them infamous and they stay as wives, mothers, friends, and sisters.
This is not an uplifting book but there is some positivity in that fact that these five are finally having their stories told.