Moore & Campbells "From Hell" - (OPEN SPOILERS!)

Cafe Society
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I’ve just finished reading Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s graphic novel “From Hell” and I have to say that I am gobsmacked. I mean, this is a work of genius, in any medium. If it weren’t for the graphic depictions of sex and violence, I would say it should be taught in schools.

I have one question, though. I get the impression that Moore is trying to suggest an alternative fate for Mary Kelly, the final victim of the Ripper, whose body we see Gull patiently mutilating in Chapter 10. (I’ll have to admit, I had to skim this chapter – too much for me!)

We see Inspector Abberline forming a relationship with a prostitute named “Emma” at the Britannia. At first, I thought that Emma was Mary Kelly, but then there were indications that it was someone else. Abberline lends Emma some money but on the day she’s supposed to return it, she leaves a note saying she has to go away.

However, in investigating Mary Kelly’s death, Abberline comes across a witness who says that Mary Kelly was in the pub with her common-law husband and another friend hours after Gull murdered her in her lodging house room. This witness is dismissed as being mistaken.

Then, at the end, when Gull is dying in a madhouse, he experiences several visions in several points in time, mostly instances of other historical serial killers, from 1788 to the present. However, in one scene, Gull sees a scene on a (Irish?) hillside, where a mother is calling her three daughters in for dinner. The daughters have the names of the first three of Gull’s victims – Polly, Liz, and Annie – and then the mother turns to the reader (Gull’s perspective) and says something like “You won’t get these!”

Remembering that Mary Kelly was Irish, I wonder if Moore is trying to suggest that (in his story, anyway), that Mary Kelly actually was the same person as Emma (which I thought at first) and that she used Abberline’s money to get away from London, and that the woman killed in Kelly’s room was someone else, perhaps her friend Julia, who was sharing her room since the argument between Joe Barnett and Mary Kelly?

Gull mutilated the body so thoroughly that perhaps no one noticed that the dead woman wasn’t Mary Kelly at all and Inspector Abberline didn’t realize that his “Emma” and Mary Kelly were the same person?

What do you think?

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I think that’s exactly the suggestion.

I also think that a spoiler warning would make a better thread title than the current, somewhat spoilery one.

That said, I’m not sure that this is a particularly spoilerable work. It’s pretty fantastic, and I highly recommend other work by Moore.

Daniel

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I agree the OP shouldn’t have put a spoiler in the thread title.

And, what I’d like to know is, who is the Irish woman with the four little girls at the end? I have guesses, but Moore and Campbell won’t say anything for sure.

The bit with the television really creeped me out. Moore put in just enough non-fiction to make this book an nonpareil horror story.

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I believe that the movie of the same name, based on this graphic novel, takes exactly this position as to the ultimate end of Mary kelly.

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To be more specific, there are a lot of clues pointing to this conclusion. I’ve not read the author’s notes that far, but I read the book recently, and I think the following stuff makes his intent clear:
-Julie clearly slept in Mary’s bed when Mary wasn’t around.
-Mary is seen after she’s supposedly been killed.
-Mary leaves word for the inspector that she’s bugging out.
-We never see the undestroyed face of Jack’s last victim.
-Later on, a woman who knows the names of the other victims tells Jack’s phantom that he can’t take them.

I don’t really think there’s any other conclusion but that Moore is suggesting Mary Kelly survived.

Daniel

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In Moore’s own words in the appendix:

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Could the thread title please be changed, perhaps to something like –
Question about outcome of Moore & Campbells “From Hell” (SPOILERS)

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Done. It’s faster when you do REPORT BAD POST. Just posting something here assumes that a Moderator will see it, and that’s not likely. You can’t report your own post, but you could report any other post in the thread and explain the situation. The REPORT BAD POST button is the little exclamation point [ ! ] in the upper corner of each post (excluding your own posts.)