The Five
The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
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4.5 • 161 Ratings
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- £0.99
Publisher Description
THE MULTI AWARD-WINNING NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'Terrific' Ian Rankin
'Gripping' NEW YORK TIMES
'At last, the Ripper's victims get a voice... An eloquent, stirring challenge to reject the prevailing Ripper myth' MAIL ON SUNDAY
WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION
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Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met.
They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers.
What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888.
Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become far more famous than any of these five women.
Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, and gives these women back their stories.
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PRAISE FOR THE FIVE
'Devastatingly good. The Five will leave you in tears, of pity and of rage.' LUCY WORSLEY
'Fascinating, compelling, moving.' BRIDGET COLLINS, author of The Binding
'An angry and important work of historical detection, calling time on the misogyny that has fed the Ripper myth. Powerful and shaming.' GUARDIAN
'Haunting' SUNDAY TIMES
'What a brilliant and necessary book' JO BAKER, author of Longbourn
'Beautifully written and with the grip of a thriller, it will open your eyes and break your heart.' ERIN KELLY
'An outstanding work of history-from-below ... magnificent' SPECTATOR
'Deeply researched' THE NEW YORKER
**PRE-ORDER THE BRAND NEW WORK: STORY OF A MURDER BY HALLIE RUBENHOLD
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Social historian Rubenhold (The Covent Garden Ladies) more than justifies another book about the 1888 Jack the Ripper murders by focusing on the killer's five victims: Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elisabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. This unique approach not only restores humanity to the dead and counters glorification of the Ripper but also enables Rubenhold to offer some original insights into the crimes. In her careful parsing of the available accounts of the inquests from newspaper reports, she convincingly argues that three of the victims were not prostitutes, and thereby undermines numerous theories premised on the killer's targeting members of that profession. Rubenhold reconstructs their sad lives, which, for some, included struggles with alcoholism and domestic abuse. She believes that the women found dead on the streets of London's East End may have been sleeping rough, and that all were slaughtered while asleep, a theory that explains the absence of outcries or defensive wounds. The lack of grisly forensic details highlighted in other books on the subject will be a relief to many readers. This moving work is a must for Ripperologists.
Customer Reviews
Interesting and hard to put down.
This book helped to paint a picture of life in the 1800’s through the heart wrenching stories of the women’s lives before their unfortunate endings. I would recommend.
Full of passion and grief
I did not expect to enjoy this book so much!
I still got yet to finish it however, I can tell you the beauty and hardships this story talks about in the difficulties of being a woman in the 19th century, as well as the unfairness, unequally and how flawed society was, which lead to the unfortunate deaths of theses women.
Absolutely a great read (especially if your into feminism which you should do) and definitely recommend!
Thanks for reading my little review which is also my first, have a great day 😁.
Couldn’t put it down
Brilliantly told, a vivid idea of how hard life was at the time for women, and a chance to have their stories told. Well worth a read