Get Your Free Audiobook

  • The Five

  • The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
  • Written by: Hallie Rubenhold
  • Narrated by: Louise Brealey
  • Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)

Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.
The Five cover art

The Five

Written by: Hallie Rubenhold
Narrated by: Louise Brealey
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹1,328.00

Buy Now for ₹1,328.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.

Publisher's 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.

©2019 Hallie Rubenhold (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

What listeners say about The Five

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • NP
  • 11-10-20

Such an important book!!

I absolutely LOVED this book. So heartbreaking and such an eye opening account.

Jack the Ripper has achieved cult status, at the expense of his victims. Even today, most of us wrongfully believe the maligned and prejudiced account of the victims' lives - that there were "fallen women" or "prostitutes".

This book sheds light on the true biographies of the victims and proves without a shadow of a doubt, the double standards of the Victorian era - attitudes that are common even today across the world.

This book is a must read. While the narrator was good, I really recommend that you take the physical/Kindle version. The narrator has a very thick British accent and there were times I missed what she said, because I couldn't understand her through the accent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!