ZLAC Book Club — May 2023
Members and their guests
This meeting will be in-person at ZLAC!
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
Historical, nonfiction, true crime without glamorizing it: This account of the five women murdered by Jack the Ripper put the victims at the forefront, sharing their lives through the lens of Victorian London.
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, 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.
You do not need to have read the book to attend!
If you're looking to support small businesses during these difficult times, consider shopping locally with Mysterious Galaxy Books, Warwicks Books, La Playa Books, and Bluestocking Books--most have free or discounted shipping, no-contact pick up, and in some cases free local delivery. Purchases from Bookshop.org also support small bookstores.