The Five

The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

By: Hallie Rubenhold

Narrated by: Louise Brealey

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Five devastating human stories and a dark and moving portrait of Victorian London - the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper.

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. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women.

For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness, and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time - but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman.

©2019 Hallie Rubenhold (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Wow

Amazing. That sums it up. One of the best books I’ve listened to in the past 5 years.

Just wow!!

This is definitely a well done book. It puts a personal touch on the victims of Jack the Ripper. The content and narrator did an amazing job. I definitely recommend this one.

A long-needed fresh perspective

This is an astounding work of research and diligence. The author brings to life the culture and world in which these women lived and died. That so much information actually existed about the victims was never known to me, and made me question why I had never looked more into their lives. The truth soon hit me: no one until now had bothered to find out. The information was out there, but scattered and forgotten over a century and a half. That she could locate and put together such a cohesive picture of these women and their society, give them back the humanity that was taken from them, is nothing short of a minor miracle.

The narration will take at least a chapter to get used to, as Louise Brealey’s British accent is heavier than I expected, but she was the perfect choice to read this because you can hear in her accent how the people in the book may have sounded in real life. She has a good ear for the regional dialects and the vocal class distinctions that even today are recognizable on BBC period dramas and in daily English life.

Be prepared to hear some grotesque facts of mid to late 19th century life, though she does not describe the murders themselves in detail, since that has been widely documented and dramatized from police reports, coroner’s reports and sensationalized newspaper accounts. Instead the brutal reality of just finding a place to sleep and enough food, as well as the sanitation situation in Victorian Europe as well as the ugliness of syphillis and the horrors of the workhouses is expounded upon in some depth.

An eye opening account

Amazing and thought provoking work. It has put many things in a different perspective for me. Very detailed and very well performed. I recommend this to anyone interested in the topic and open minded enough to respect the ideas presented.

The Lives of the 5 Victims of Jack the Ripper

We have heard or read so much about Jack the Ripper but little is known about his victims. This author took the time to research each individual woman. Labeled as prostitutes at the time of their deaths, this author not only evaluated these claims and the family events that lead the victims into extreme poverty but also the societal beliefs of men during this time which contributed to the subjection of women. I highly recommend this book and thoroughly enjoyed it!

incredible

a real historical look st the 5 women who were victims of Jack thr Riper. it humanizes the 5 woman who until now were just scratchy old photos . a must read for true crime lovers (storyline only up until death) and history bounding into women of the Victorian age.

Consider me informed.

Others have left much more eloquent reviews but suffice it to say I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of detail discovered about these women’s lives. The attitude and lifestyle of that day and age, it is insane to think people lived in such a manner, but I am sure there are still some places that mirror those circumstances.

Thank you for enlightening me to the lives of Mary Anne, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane before they were so savagely cut down.

Wonderfully written

A beautiful testament to these five women that were killed by Jack the Ripper. A must read.

Man What a Good Book!

I have this book 15 stars because it deserves fifteen stars in a perfect world.

Excellent

This is the first time I’ve listened to an entire audio book and it was a great experience. First of all the book was great. Rubenhold brought to life the world of working class to poor women in late 1800s England, and specifically to the victims of Jack the Ripper. In this book we meet them as they were and understand the precarious position of women of their time. Also Louise Brealey’s voice and accent was perfect for this book and very easy to listen to.