From Hell
by Alan Moore
List Price:
Our Price: $21.65
You Save: $13.35 (38%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $14.84 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Alan MooreIllustrator: Eddie Campbell
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-02-23
ISBN: 0958578346
Number of pages: 572
Publisher: Top Shelf Production
Book Reviews of From Hell
Book Review: Very good stuff, this.
Summary: 4 Stars
Alan Moore, From Hell (Top Shelf, 2000)
From Hell, which was finally completed and released in book form in 1999, was snatched up by Hollywood almost overnight and delivered, after some tinkering by Terry Hayes and Rafael Yglesias, into the hands of Hollywood's latest (at the time) enfants terribles, the Hughes Brothers. It was an interesting, if doomed, project from the outset. The Hughes Brothers were at the time well-known as crime film directors (even their documentary American Pimp focuses on criminal behavior, in a sense), and Hayes (Dead Calm) and Yglesias (Death and the Maiden) were both bona fide mystery writers. (The film, ultimately, had more of the Hayes/Yglesias stamp than anything else; it is a straight mystery flick.) But the original source material, Alan Moore's huge graphic novel, is in no way a mystery, and it is only tangentially a crime novel, in that the Ripper murders are the connecting thread of all these lives. It is, instead, a psychogeography, or perhaps a holistic history. There's a great deal of talking, as Sir William Gull, aka Jack the Ripper, expounds to his associate Netley on why, exactly, he's doing the things he's doing in the way he's doing them. At one point after the final murder (which takes up an entire chapter on its own, as Gull enters an extended dream state during which he sees the future--there's a striking image of Gull holding the ravaged body of Mary Kelley with a seventies-style computer terminal outlined in the background), Gull remarks to Netley, "the Twentieth Century--I have just given birth to it." That line gives you a very good idea of what Moore was trying to accomplish here. Hayes and Ygleslias, and through them the Hughes Brothers, tossed all that out and made a mystery. I am one of the few media critics who actually thought it was a good mystery; in my original review I started off by revealing a predilection for both Johnny Depp and the Hughes Brothers, and hoped that neither of those things would sway me overly. It's almost ten years later now, and I still don't think they did; while the film bears almost no resemblance to the graphic novel, and I can certainly understand the resentment of those who were expecting a treatment even a little faithful to the book, there are some movies which have to be looked at as separate works of art rather than as adaptations to truly understand how good they are. The obvious example, and the one I use every time I bring this up, is Tobe Hooper's brilliant adaptation of Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot. It is as similar to the novel as is a pomegranate to a banana, but they both taste pretty darned good. In the same way, Alan Moore wrote a book, and the Hughes Brothers made a movie, and if you look at them as two entirely separate beasts, you can see the good qualities in both. (Hollywood couldn't; the Hughes Brothers did not make another film for nine years, and they left the crime world behind.)
There is no mystery to Alan Moore's graphic novel; we know almost from the outset (there are a couple of chapters of setup, and a prologue that will seem irrelevant until much later) that Jack the Ripper, in Moore's retelling of the tale, is Sir William Gull, the Royal Physician. We also find out why relatively soon. Prince Albert (here known as Eddy; if you're not up on your royal history, that may throw you like it did me), while under the tutelage of the artist Walter Sickert, meets and falls in love with a sweet-shop girl. They secretly marry and have a child together. When Albert's behavior is discovered, he is hauled back to Buckingham, and his wife is taken to an asylum, where Gull neutralizes her as a threat through the removal of her thyroid gland. (Moore notes that Gull was, in fact, the first person to put forth the theory of hypothyroidism.) The crown rests easy until four of her friends, in need of money to pay a protection gang, decide to blackmail the crown for the princely sum of ten pounds sterling, or they'll reveal the existence of Annie, the baby. Queen Victoria dispatches Gull to take care of the problem. The following chapter is the heart of the book, a walking-and-carriage psychogeographic tour of Whitechapel where Gull lays out his grand design to Netley. Soon after, he gets to work. The police have been notified, and told, basically, that they're not allowed to catch the killer. Thus, one of Gull's Masonic brothers is tagged to head the investigation (though he expresses his horror at the idea of the cover-up and goes off to holiday on the continent for a month), and the detective put on the case is perhaps the least suited for the job--Fred Abberline, who just the month before made Detective Sergeant and got transferred out of Whitechapel, at which point, he laments to his wife, "I thought I'd never have to go back." While he seems like the perfect guy for the job because he'd been a beat cop there for fourteen years, that refrain is repeated throughout; he doesn't want to be there. Godley, his second-in-command, is eager but green, and acts as a symbol for the incompetence of the investigation more than anything. The longer the investigation goes, the more it spirals out of control. The kicker, to Abberline, is the appearance on the scene of Richard Lees, psychic advisor to Victoria, who claims to have seen the killer in a series of visions. (It might be a minor spoiler, but I'll tell you anyway: pay very close attention to the prologue. If you're at all familiar with the case, you'll immediately know one of the two men reminiscing on the beach is Fred Abberline. I didn't realize until about 90% of the way through the book that the other is Richard Lees.)
The main piece of advice I offer you is this: don't go into From Hell expecting a crime novel. If you do that, you're bound to be disappointed. It's very good stuff, though not Moore's best work (I am now firmly convinced that he will never top Watchmen), and well worth your time. And I may be one of the few to think so, but so's the movie. *** ½
Summary of From Hell
FROM HELL is the story of Jack the Ripper, perhaps the most infamous man in the annals of murder. Detailing the events leading up to the Whitechapel killings and the cover-up that followed, FROM HELL is a meditation on the mind of a madman whose savagery and violence gave birth to the 20th century. The serialized story, presented in its entirety in this volume, has garnered widespread attention from critics and scholars. Often regarded as one of the most significant graphic novels ever published, FROM HELL combines meticulous research with educated speculation, resulting in a masterpiece of historical fiction both compelling and terrifying. This new edition, which has been completely re-mastered, is certainly the finest edition of the book produced to date.The mad, shaggy genius of the comics world dips deeply into the well of history and pulls up a cup filled with blood in From Hell. Alan Moore did a couple of Ph.D.'s worth of research into the Whitechapel murders for this copiously annotated collection of the independently published series. The web of facts, opinion, hearsay, and imaginative invention draws the reader in from the first page. Eddie Campbell's scratchy ink drawings evoke a dark and dirty Victorian London and help to humanize characters that have been caricatured into obscurity for decades. Moore, having decided that the evidence best fits the theory of a Masonic conspiracy to cover up a scandal involving Victoria's grandson, goes to work telling the story with relish from the point of view of the victims, the chief inspector, and the killer--the Queen's physician. His characterization is just as vibrant as Campbell's; even the minor characters feel fully real. Looking more deeply than most, the author finds in the "great work" of the Ripper a ritual magic working intended to give birth to the 20th century in all its horrid glory. Maps, characters, and settings are all as accurate as possible, and while the reader might not ultimately agree with Moore and Campbell's thesis, From Hell is still a great work of literature. --Rob Lightner
Horror Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Horror Books
X-Men: Schismby Jason Aaron
Marvel; Published: 2012-01-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops:
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures - The Complete Editionby Laurell K. Hamilton, Jessica Ruffner, Stacie Ritchie
Marvel; Published: 2009-10-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.01
Price in other shops:
The Stand 1: Captain Tripsby Stephen (creator); Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto King
Marvel Enterprises; Published: 2011; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.40
Haunt of Horrorby Richard Corben
Marvel; Published: 2009-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.26
Price in other shops:
Ghost Rider, Vol. 2: The Last Standby Jason Aaron
Marvel; Marvel; Published: 2009-08-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.90
Price in other shops:
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The First Deathby Laurell K. Hamilton, Jonathan Green, Brett Booth
Marvel; Published: 2008-02-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.49
Price in other shops:
From Hellby Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell
Turtleback Books; Published: 2000-04; School & Library Binding; Book
Price in other shops:
Dreadby Clive Barker
Harpercollins; Published: 1993; Paperback; Book
Black Holeby Charles Burns
Pantheon; Published: 2005-10-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.75
Price in other shops:
Parasyte 2by Hitoshi Iwaaki
Del Rey; Published: 2007-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.35
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Saga of the Swamp Thing, Book 1by Alan Moore
Vertigo; Published: 2009-02-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.45
Price in other shops:
Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)by Grant Morrison
DC Comics; DC Comics; Published: 2005-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.06
Price in other shops:
Black Holeby Charles Burns
Pantheon; Published: 2008-01-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.48
Price in other shops:
Batman: The Killing Jokeby Alan Moore, Brian Bolland
DC Comics; DC Comics; Published: 2008-03-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.61
Price in other shops:
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2by Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill
WildStorm; Published: 2004-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.94
Price in other shops:
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1by Alan Moore
America's Best Comics; Published: 1999; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Batman: Year Oneby Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli
DC Comics; DC Comics; Published: 2007-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.38
Price in other shops:
Batman: The Dark Knight Returnsby Frank Miller
DC Comics; DC Comics; Published: 1997-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Watchmenby Alan Moore
DC Comics; DC Comics; Published: 1995-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops:
V for Vendettaby Alan Moore
DC / Vertigo; Vertigo; Published: 2008-10-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.23
Price in other shops: