The first book group book. About the five victims of Jack the Ripper. Not the sort of thing I would normally read.
Written by a feminist social historian (although most of her books are fairly salacious in content), it is almost a polemic to argue that most of the Ripper’s victims were not prostitutes, but simply poor working class women who had fallen on hard times, mainly following marital breakup and resulting poverty.
Four were murdered rough sleeping in locations they had thought were safe. The fifth, who was a prostitute, was murdered in the room I assume she entertained in, although none were sexually molested.
The book is basically five biographies one of each victim, constructed as far as historical records permit, but interspersed with a lot of (I found) annoying speculation ‘She would have’ been doing XYZ which is what a typically poor Victorian women ‘would’ have been doing.
I’d have enjoyed it more if I had an interest in the Victorian working class, but I don’t, really.
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