Hallie Rubenhold

De verborgen levens van de vrouwen die werden vermoord door Jack the Ripper De vijf van Whitechapel is een fascinerend en bloedstollend geschiedenisboek over victoriaans Londen, en een prijswinnende moderne klassieker over de slachtoffers van de moordzaak die de wereld al anderhalve eeuw in haar greep de zaak-Jack the Ripper Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine en Mary Jane zijn vijf compleet verschillende vrouwen en hebben elkaar nooit ontmoet. Toch zijn ze beroemd om precies dezelfde ze werden allemaal in 1888 vermoord. Hun moordenaar is nooit gepakt, maar de naam die de pers voor hem bedacht kennen we tot op de dag van Jack the Ripper. Het verhaal van Jack the Ripper houdt ons al ruim een eeuw in de ban. Elke dag vertrekken er in de Londense wijk Whitechapel tours langs de plaatsen waar ‘de vijf’ werden vermoord. Maar over de slachtoffers zelf weten we vrijwel niets. Met diepgaand bronnenonderzoek en een geweldige vertelstijl neemt Hallie Rubenhold je mee naar victoriaans Londen, de stad – en het jachtterrein – van Jack the Ripper, en zet ze alles wat je over deze zaak dacht te weten op zijn kop. Na bijna anderhalve eeuw krijgen Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Kate Eddowes en Mary Jane Kelly eindelijk zelf een stem in hun wereldberoemde verhaal.

Londra, 1887: l’anno, recitano i libri di storia inglese, del Giubileo d’Oro, dei festeggiamenti per il cinquantenario dell’ascesa al trono della regina Vittoria. L’anno, però, anche di una storia di cui pochissimi sono a conoscenza, e che i più preferiscono dimenticare: la storia di una senzatetto, Mary Ann Nichols, detta Polly, che bivaccava come tanti a Trafalgar Square. A differenza della monarca, la sua identità sarebbe presto caduta nell’oblio, anche se il mondo avrebbe ricordato con grande curiosità il nome del suo assassino: Jack lo Squartatore. Polly fu la prima delle cinque vittime «canoniche» di Jack lo Squartatore, o di quelle la cui morte avvenne nel quartiere di Whitechapel nell’East End. Al suo omicidio seguì il ritrovamento dei cadaveri di Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes e Mary Jane Kelly. La brutalità degli omicidi di Whitechapel sconvolse Londra, soprattutto perché l’assassino riuscì a darsi alla macchia senza lasciare indizi circa la sua identità. Mentre il cosiddetto «autunno del terrore» volgeva al termine, Whitechapel si riempì di sedicenti giornalisti intenti a cavalcare l’onda. I giornali andarono a ruba e, in mancanza di informazioni certe da parte delle autorità, le pagine furono sommerse di infiorettature, invenzioni e voci infondate, come quella secondo cui i pensionati di Whitechapel fossero «bordelli di fatto, se non di nome», e quasi tutte le donne che vi risiedevano, con pochissime eccezioni, fossero delle prostitute. Per centotrenta anni le vittime di Jack lo Squartatore e le loro vite sono dunque rimaste invischiate in una rete di supposizioni, pettegolezzi e ipotesi inconsistenti, cosicché oggi, le storie di Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Kate e Mary Jane portano ancora impressi il marchio e la forma che i valori vittoriani hanno dato loro: maschili, autoritari e borghesi. Valori elaborati in un’epoca in cui le donne non avevano né voce, né diritti. Ma chi erano queste donne, e come hanno vissuto prima che la loro esistenza venisse barbaramente spezzata dalla mano di un feroce assassino? Attraverso un imponente lavoro di documentazione e una scrittura che lo rende appassionante come un romanzo, Le cinque donne riesce pienamente nel suo obiettivo di dare un volto alle donne che per troppi anni sono rimaste oscurate da un mito, restituendo loro ciò che tanto brutalmente hanno perduto insieme alla vita: la dignità.

Set during a period of revolution and turmoil, Mistress of My Fate is the first book in a trilogy about Henrietta Lightfoot, a young woman who was abandoned as a baby and raised alongside her cousins, noble children of a lord and lady. At just sixteen years old, circumstance and a passionate love affair tear Henrietta away from everything she knows, leading to a new life fending for herself on the streets of 18th century London as a courtesan, gambler, and spirited intellect of the city.

This is the story of a murder, not a murderer . . .   In Story of a Murder, bestselling author of The Five and celebrated historian Hallie Rubenhold reexamines the events leading up to the infamous Crippen murder from the perspectives of the three women at the center of it all. When Belle Elmore’s remains were discovered in the basement of London’s 39 Hilldrop Crescent in July 1910, the larger-than-life vaudevillian performer was launched into stardom she never achieved on the stage. Story of a Murder provides an intricately plotted, intimate look into the lives of three multifaceted women living during a time of electric progress and stifling  Crippen’s first wife, Charlotte, who died under mysterious circumstances; his mistress, Ethel, who claimed ignorance of his crime even as she escaped with Crippen disguised as his son; and Belle, the woman whose life Crippen took.   Throughout the twentieth century, the infamous Crippen murder was told in such a way as to cast doubt on Crippen's guilt and to victim-blame his wife Cora for her own murder. It also astonishingly depicted Crippen's younger mistress, Ethel, as innocent of any involvement in the killing of her love rival.   But new evidence unearthed by Rubenhold completely subverts this famous history, unravelling assumptions about the crime and deconstructing Edwardian beliefs about women, class aspiration, and the transatlantic world, ultimately proving that Charlotte, Belle, and Ethel were so much more than the passive victims history has portrayed them as.

***By the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of THE FIVE*** 'A fascinating expose of the seamy side of eighteenth century life' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Rubenhold's pages practically reek with smelly, pox-ridden Georgian Soho' GUARDIAN ------------------------------------------------------- In 1757 , a down-and-out Irish poet, the head waiter at the Shakespear's Head Tavern in Covent Garden, and a celebrated London courtesan became bound together by the publication of a little Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies. This salacious work - detailing the names and 'specialities' of the capital's sex-workers- became one of the eighteenth century's most scandalous bestsellers. Yet beyond its titillating passages lies a glimpse into the lives of those who lived and died by its profits - a tragicomic opera of the Georgian era, motivated by poverty, passionate love, aspiration and shame. In this modern and visceral narrative, historian Hallie Rubenhold reveals the story behind Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies , and the legion of ordinary women whose lives in the sex trade history has chosen to ignore. 'Scrupulously researched' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Crackles with drama and tension' GUARDIAN ' Compelling and ingenious' INDEPENDENT WHAT READERS ARE 'This book is an absolute 'must'-read for any person interested in English social history' 5 **** 'Fascinating' 5 **** 'Brilliant. Full of intelligent insight which brings this period to vibrant life' 5 ****

The Covent Garden Ladies tells the story of Samuel Derrick, Jack Harris, and Charlotte Hayes, whose complicated and colorful lives were brought together by the publication of Harris' List, an infamous guidebook of prostitutes which detailed addresses, physical characteristics and "specialties." The true history of the book is a tragicomedy motivated by poverty, passionate love, aspiration, and shame. Its telling plunges the reader down the dark alleys of 18th-century London's underworld, a realm populated by tavern owners, pimps, punters, card sharps, and of course, a colorful range of prostitutes and brothel-keepers.

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.  

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. In this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally gives these women back their stories.

She was a spirited young heiress. He was a handsome baronet with a promising career in government. The marriage of Lady Seymour Dorothy Fleming and Sir Richard Worsley had the makings of a fairy tale—but ended as one of the most scandalous and highly publicized divorces in history. In February 1782, England opened its newspapers to read the details of a criminal conversation trial in which the handsome baronet Sir Richard Worsley attempted to sue his wife’s lover for an astronomical sum in damages. In the course of the proceedings, the Worsleys’ scandalous sexual arrangements, voyeuristic tendencies, and bed-hopping antics were laid bare. The trial and its verdict stunned society, but not as much as the unrepentant behavior of Lady Worsley. Sir Joshua Reynolds captured the brazen character of his subject when he created his celebrated portrait of Lady Worsley in a fashionable red riding habit, but it was her shocking affairs that made her divorce so infamous that even George Washington followed it in the press. Impeccably researched and written with great flair, this lively and moving true history presents a rarely seen picture of aristocratic life in the Georgian era.

In this essay, specially written for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Rubenhold offers a powerful critique of the idea that history is only the story of ‘heroes’ – often wealthy, educated men. Instead, she argues, social history can be a form of activism, grabbing us by the lapels and taking us into the fascinating lives of our forebears regardless of rank, class, creed, colour or gender.