From Hell by Alan Moore Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of From Hell
Book Review: EXCELLENT!! AWESOME!! OUTRAGEOUS!!
Summary: 4 Stars
This book was a great book! i enjoyed the suspense, in which the book is filled with. It is about a guy who did something and then they did something else with another person and then it got better but one person dies so its sad, but its a good book!!! through it all...my friend had to sit here with me because i got a little scared. But, its a good book!! some parts can scare you like that one part with that one guy in that one place. but its a good book!! REMEMBER: ITS A GOOD BOOK!!Book Review: Erudite, horrifying, and masterfully illustrated fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
This "comic" dissects the most famous unsolved crimes in history, peeling away their layers of misogyny, class stratification, abject poverty, imperial machinations, conspiracy, magic, and madness like so much flesh and sinew. Each chapter approaches the topic from a different angle, focusing here on the hidden Masonic architecture of the British capital, looking there in detail at the lives of the Ripper's victims. The basic plot is that the Ripper is one Sir William Gull, royal physician and Masonic magician, who is killing these women to keep them from blackmailing the Queen's grandson, Prince Eddy. To reduce the story to this plot, though, is to miss its incredible richness and intelligence.
Those looking for the definitive Ripper "solution" need to continue their searches elsewhere. As author Alan Moore notes in the second appendix, "Jack is not Gull or Druitt. Jack is a super-position." Instead of presenting the typical cops and robbers version of a played-out murder story, Alan Moore uses the Ripper to reveal the banal horrors of everyday life for the poor women and children of Victorian England and to indict a male culture whose callousness and brutality was matched only by its religious and aristocratic hypocrisy. In Moore's novel, the Ripper is not merely a doctor conducting Masonic rituals whilst ostensibly ridding the Crown of a handful of blackmailing whores. Rather, the Ripper is the entire miasma of modernity, the calculated technological horrors of 20th century condensed into four murders, one year, one decade. Jack is the man who leaves his wife and two children to be with their midwife, he is the royal brat whose dalliances have disastrous consequences for the little people, he is the media bent on selling papers by peddling gore and hysteria.
The erudition of the cultural commentary in the volume is staggering. A review of the 42 page monstrosity of an appendix reveals the manifold reasons behind each frame of each page of the story. It all boils down to this: "Five murdered paupers, and one anonymous assailant. This reality is dwarfed by the vast theme-park we've built around it. Truth is, this has never been about the murders, or the killer nor his victims. It's about us, our minds and how they dance. Jack mirrors our hysterias. Faceless, he is the receptacle for each new social panic."
This book is a work of literature, easily on par with such other classic graphic novels as Maus, Persepolis, or Fagin the Jew.
Book Review: Fantastically Goth
Summary: 4 Stars
From Hell is a magnificent, dark, obsessively researched masterpiece. The illustrations veer from images you might find scrawled on a napkin in a Whitechapel pub, to cinematic spreads that are as good as any in comics today. The book is sprawling and claustrophobic, and reading it is too close to walking down a dark strange alley for comfort.Book Review: From Hell
Summary: 2 Stars
This book was a struggle for me. The lettering is awkward and makes it hard to read. The story is painful and moves very slowly. I kept losing interest and having to restart. Finally, I gave it to the library.Book Review: From Hell Review
Summary: 4 Stars
From Hell by Alan Moore proves that graphic novels can join the ranks of sophisticated literature. His well researched engaging novel sheds light on the idea that a well off Free Mason Sir William Gull was the infamous Jack the Ripper. This graphic novel has all the aspects of a beautifully drawn comic and also that of appealing historical fiction novel. From Hell intertwines facts and educated guesses in a pleasurable reading experience.
The art style of the book is dark and gruesome. Panels often reveal much more than their respective dialogue. When reading the novel I often found myself staring at the panels for long after I read all the dialogue. Although this novel is defiantly not the best starter for someone knew to the ideas of graphic novels. It is not like an easy read comic book like Spiderman or other graphic novels like Maus. Once you have conquered other graphic novels From Hell is lovely read.
Although From Hell's plot type is like Maus, talking about a gross part in our history, they have little in common. If you were not a fan of Art Spigelman's very bank clear panels and would like something more dark and sinister, Alan Moore's From Hell is a perfect fit for you. It's style if hard to understand a first I admit since his characters don't keep the same cloths on through the novel, also for the fact that time and settings jump around from panel to panel.
When I was reading From Hell I often found it necessary to study and analyze each picture, which may be time consuming but is very enjoyable. Each picture is dark and detailed to using only black and white; one could say it uses a sort of ink pen style. The pictures really get the message across and you can really feel what the author wants you to feel without paragraphs and paragraphs of boring details.
This graphic novel uses lewd an inappropriate images as well as gruesome Jack the Ripper scenes. Showing scene with hookers is some times needed when they are your villain's primary target. In the book Moore speaks of the Free Masons (which is an underground society for the wealthy and long ago the Free Masons had members like Thomas Jefferson) as assort of dark and creepy organization, Sir William Gull, the proposed evildoer belongs to this group. We see Sir William's childhood and his entry to the Free Masons.
On the whole Alan Moore's From Hell is a well drawn, well written through provoking historical fiction novel which will excited most. As I said before if you are on of those people who have never picked up a comic book in their life, and you are interested in From Hell I would highly recommend it. Yet if you are willing to get into the whole graphic novel scene do not start with this book. It is very hard to understand for a new comer and after I've finished it I can't decided weather its From Hell's greatness or depth that is calling me back to read it again!