I was excited, but skeptical when I read the description of this book - how would she find enough detail to fill a book about these women who, other than being Jack the Ripper's victims, might have been an oversight to history? But I should not have doubted - Rubenhold found far more detail than I would have expected. She clearly spent a lot of time with primary source materials, including (I am guessing) things like deeds and property records.
She manages to take the small details that make up the lives of these women and spin into an interesting narrative of their lives, but more importantly manages to place them in the context of their time. She punches a huge hole in the idea that all of the Ripper's victims were prostitutes, and does a great job of showing how these 5 very different women wound up in circumstances that allowed them to become his victims. In doing so, she sheds a light on the horrendous conditions in that area of London at the time, but also delves into the challenges women of that period faced, particularly if they lost the man they relied on for support and protection.
Rubenhold really resurrects these women from history and gives them back their dignity, and makes them figures of sympathy - and does so without resorting to the salacious details of their deaths. She focuses almost exclusively on their lives, barely touching on how they died, and in doing so really makes you feel the tragedy and pain of their lives, not just their deaths.
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