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The Five
- The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
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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 coffeehouses and 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, 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.
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Russell
- 15-06-20
Stunning!
Amazing performance and a great book. Hallie did these 5 women proud, in all their complexities and sorrow.
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- Amy Midlane
- 16-08-19
A must listen
I've listened to this several times through in the 5 days since I bought it. The last line in the conclusion brings a tear to my eye even after the third listen. Poignant, and thought provoking, especially walking through Central London and seeing the spaces these women experienced. A must listen.
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- Nicole McGarrigle
- 25-09-19
Outstanding
The work that has went into this book is truly commendable. It has been written with so much thought and care for the women who were savagely taken too soon by a notorious killer.
Also, the narration is superb, it really gives life to the voices of women who have silenced for too long.
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- Gabrielle baker
- 12-02-20
Stunning and devastating
What a fabulous book, which is harrowing and fascinating at the same time. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The history of these five women absolutely rips your heart out and Louise Brealey does a fantastic job in narrating this tale. The conclusion, even though you’ve heard all the details will literally make you weep for these poor poor women who should never be forgotten or branded merely as ‘prostitutes’. What an important book. Thank you :)
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- FreebieBean
- 12-07-19
Such an Interesting, Tragic, Alternative Perspective
What a thought provoking & sensitively written book, which serves to remind us all that these were real women, with real lives, murdered by a monster, for no other reason than that he was mad.
It was such an interesting look at social & cultural history, but was never stuffy or boring and I felt it was perfectly read by Louise Brealey.
These women’s stories will stick with me for a long, long time and I loved that He was hardly mentioned. It’s their story, not His.
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- Amazon Customer
- 31-03-20
Outstanding and heartbreaking
A compassionate and alarmingly relevant social history of five women who are famous not for their lives, but for their killer. Rubenhold humanizes these women with her painstakingly researched and heartfelt account of each of their lives, and has you rooting for each of them despite knowing how the story ends. This book takes the focus away from the shadowy figure of Jack the Ripper and instead delves deep into the inner lives of Mary, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary Jane, illustrating what life was like for poor women in Victorian London, and the double standard they faced from the moment they were born. I'm speechless.
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- bookylady
- 29-12-19
Absolutely fantastic.
I had read quite a few bad reviews of this book before listening to it and had few expectations of it. But because of the fact that it had recently won a major book prize I decided to give it a go. I'm so glad I did because it was an absolute revelation.
Before reading this book if anyone had asked me to describe in one word the five women killed by Jack the Ripper, I would probably have said 'prostitute.' But they were so much more than this - wives, mothers, sisters, servants, workers,balladeers, peddlars, breadwinners etc. They were vibrant, intelligent people who were capable of many things and it was poverty, injustice, men who deserted them, in some cases, and social policy that forced them into workhouses, abandoning families, tramping the streets and ultimately alcohol abuse and some prostitution.
The author has done a huge amount of research and she has made these women real, likeable (for the most part) and deserving of respect and sympathy. I asked myself why it has taken over a hundred years for information about these women to become widely known; why have they only ever been dismissed as just victims?
There were times when I raised my eyebrow at some of the claims made by the author and felt that she drew inferences from her research that were purely subjective. But overall, this was a gripping story, well told and it deserves a wide readership.
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- Carol W.
- 07-08-19
Remarkable
A truly remarkable, meticulously researched and thought provoking book, thank you. I would highly recommend it.
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- Metalhead Gill
- 08-08-19
Setting the record straight
This book is a fascinating and well researched piece of social history. It successfully restores the identities of the five women and provides a disturbing window into the restricted, stifling lives of women at this time. The insecure nature of their lives and the dependence upon men is described and analysed. The humanity, resilience and resourcefulness of the five women is what I will take away from this illuminating book.
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- mrs j f
- 12-10-19
A well thought out and researched book
I found this book utterly absorbing and interesting, the stories told in this book are unfortunately still relevant to today, a must read
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