From Hell by Alan Moore Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of From Hell
Book Review: A MASTERPIECE OF LITERATURE
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently saw the movie based on this book (I'm sure you've heard of it). I enjoyed it and thought I'd give the book a shot, since I've been interested for a while anyway...It IS written by Alan "Watchmen" Moore, after all. I haven't even finished it yet and I can already say it is about 150 times BETTER than the movie. This is a work that transcends the notion of what comics are or can be. Had I read this first, I would have thought the movie was (...). This is a work of fiction, but it was so obviously meticulously researched that you almost believe Moore's conjecture about the case of "Jack the Ripper" is true. He certainly makes a strong case. Anyway, I highly recommend this fantastic bit of historical fiction, and can't wait to finish it myself. This isn't the kind of read you want to rush.Book Review: A Masterpiece of Literature
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read most of Alan Moore's oeuvre, but 'From Hell' is the one piece which I have returned to time and time again. I am sure it is Alan Moore's masterwork (to date) and comes with my highest recommendations.
I've just finished reading it this morning, having taken my time really sinking into it, reading other books around the subject and on-line reports and I'm inordinately impressed. The work is dense, moving and seemingly comprehensive. Moore presents the story as a work of fiction, weaving most of the other theories into his narrative in some form, and separates himself from the other 'Ripperologyists' (who he rather shamefacedly finds himself in the company of) by repeatedly inferring that this is a theory, and an entertaining one - not THE solution. By the end of the book you realize that the point isn't to solve the murders by identifying the killer - murder is far more complex than that, as is our fascination of it. The book is going against our need to 'sum up'/ 'break down' or offer information in bite-sized MTV attention grabbing chunks. As he succinctly puts it...
"Detective fictions tell us...Provide a murderer, a motive and a means, you've solved a crime. Using this method, the solution to the Second World War is a follows: Hitler. The German economy. Tanks."
Trust me - its the best book I've read on the murders (I've read a far lot - I was born and live in the East End of London and Jack the Ripper is seeped in the streets here). Its fascinating from a historical point of view, but also as a Swiss watch-like work of fiction. There are wonderful insights and comments from Alan Moore and you can actually feel him approaching the limits of how far he wants to travel into a serial killer's mind and also the guilt he feels as a writer in adding to the annuals of Whitechapel's Black Library. I thought that 'The Silence of The Lambs' was an insight into violent insanity - well, that book and film is like the ladybird books version compared to this, and I don't mean in terms of actual graphic violence - I mean in terms of intelligent thought into the psyche.
This edition collects all the chapters as well as Alan Moore's extensive notes (read them as you go along - its will enhance your experience in the way that a Director's Commentary does on dvd) and ending on 'Dance of the gull catchers' which is an exploration of 'Ripperologists' and the theories which have built up over the last 100 years. Its a particularly funny, cruel and sad note to leave us on -as some very complex theories are here presented in illustrated form - spiritual, metaphysical and mathematical. As you end the book you realize that 'From Hell' wasn't just about Jack The Ripper and Whitechapel, but by drawing you in and keeping you interested and entertained in such a masterful way, the book has also become about YOU - it has captured you into its narrative and is now studying and criticizing not only you but also the society we all live in...and its been found wanting.
"Koch's snowflake: gaze upon it, Ripperologists, and shiver."
Humorous and terrifying, intelligent and moving. You'll see what I mean if you read it.
James
Currently on the bank of the Thames
London
Book Review: A POWERFUL COLLABORATION
Summary: 5 Stars
There could be no more better team than this one: Alan Moore's crazed genius for the story & Eddie Cambell's frenetic drawing for the images. This is a tremendously compelling graphic novel that manages to be about much more than a rash of London murders. It is a well researched book drawn with tremendous energy -- a must read for anyone interested in comics, Jack the Ripper, or, even more importantly, how history is constructed through texts. Don't forget to read the footnotes -- they're half the fun!Book Review: A Perfect Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
Completely, utterly and totally amazing. Moore has crafted a graphic novel that is better than most true novels I have ever read. Sure, it didn't really happen this way back in 1888, but that doesn't matter; this is engaging reading at its best. Campbell's artwork takes about 10 pages to get used to, but once you do, you see how perfectly suited these two creators 9Moore and Campbell) are to each other. Calssic!Book Review: A couple of caveats
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a classic work, as dense and as demanding as any novel, and perhaps the closest to literature a graphic novel has ever come. It could only have flowed from the pen of the great Alan Moore, whose Swamp Thing and Watchmen revolutionized graphic storytelling. He and Eddie Campbell have done wonderful work here. I merely write to correct a couple of errors in other reviews.First, jplatt@webspan.net says this is only the first part of From Hell. The pictured edition does, I believe, contain the entire story, although there are single comics containing single chapters and other trade paperbacks containing fewer chapters than the above pictured edition. If you buy the pictured edition, you are getting a complete story from beginning to end. I read the above edition and found nothing missing -- it goes from before the first murder to after the last.
Second, editor Rob Lightner says that Moore believes, and wants us to believe, that Jack the Ripper was the Queen's physician and part of a Masonic conspiracy to kill the mother of Queen Victoria's grandson. I think this misses the point. Moore loves to make connections between things (see, for instance, his ongoing series Promethea), and the Masonic conspiracy gives him a lot of room to weave in the various aspects of the Ripper legend. I don't know that he necessarily believes it any more than he believes, as shown in From Hell, that the killer was able to predict the future while he was gutting his victims. Moore is a storyteller and his story contains many fantastic elements. It would be a mistake, I think, to attribute to Moore all the opinions expressed in this fine work of fiction.