51 pages • 1 hour read
Kerri ManiscalcoStalking Jack the Ripper
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Preliminary Incision”
Content Warning: These Chapter Summaries & Analyses refer to violence against women and gore, which are depicted in the novel.
Chapter 1 opens in Dr. Jonathan Wadsworth’s Laboratory, in Highgate, London, on August 30, 1888. The protagonist, Audrey Rose Wadsworth, an aristocratic 16-year-old who is the daughter of Lord Edmund Wadsworth, cuts open a cadaver under the supervision of her uncle, Jonathan Wadsworth. An unknown young man enters as they are examining the liver of the dead body; Audrey’s uncle leaves with him, leaving Audrey to sew up the cadaver. On his way out, Audrey’s uncle concedes that she may attend school the next day (he will be teaching a forensic medicine class) if she dresses as a boy and says nothing aloud.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Blood Vengeance”
Audrey sits in quiet frustration as her uncle asks a question (about the nature of the death of a female murder victim) to the class to which she knows the answer. A boy, whom Audrey believes was the visitor the previous night, suggests that the victim was attacked from behind; he demonstrates on a classmate, miming slitting his throat. Audrey’s uncle enthusiastically congratulates the boy, whom he calls Thomas, on his deductions; he believes that the murderer was seeking the murdered woman’s organs.
Thomas introduces himself to Audrey, and she finds him intriguing. He correctly realizes that she is a girl and is intrigued as to why a girl would be interested in such graphic content. Thomas denies that he saw her the previous night; he explains that he will be apprenticing with her uncle that night.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Tea and Autopsies”
It is Audrey’s 17th birthday. Audrey’s father is reluctant to allow Audrey to go out so Audrey pretends that she is meeting her uncle for tea. Audrey’s brother, Nathaniel, tries to defuse the tension and suggest that Audrey should be allowed to go; he pretends that he had also been invited to tea at their uncle’s home. Reluctantly, Lord Wadsworth allows Nathaniel and Audrey to go.
Nathaniel is worried about their father because Lord Wadsworth has had delusions since the death of his wife, Nathaniel and Audrey’s mother.
Jonathan, Thomas, and Audrey perform an autopsy, removing the organs from the body of Miss Nichols, whom they had been discussing in class that day; they weigh each organ and record details about it before moving on with the autopsy. Jonathan sews the body up, and they discuss theories about her murder; Audrey postulates that the killer might have been a medical student, given the surgical incisions in the body. Thomas points out the mud on the victim’s boots and suggests that she might have been murdered on the banks of the Thames; he attributes the murder to a notorious emerging mass murderer called the Leather Apron. Thomas’s manner is flirtatious toward Audrey; he calls her beautiful.
Audrey’s uncle reveals that Miss Nichols used to work in Audrey’s household.
Chapter 4 Summary: “A Dance with the Devil”
The murderer—called Leather Apron as well as the Whitechapel Murderer—is widely reported on in the press. Audrey’s father becomes more protective of Audrey, and it becomes more difficult for her to attend her uncle’s classes.
Audrey reflects on the death of her mother, for which she feels responsible as her mother contracted scarlet fever from her. Audrey survived the illness, but her mother did not. Audrey feels that she owes the murdered Miss Nichols a debt; her father had fired Miss Nichols (he often fires staff in fear of disease), which pushed her toward sex work.
Audrey sneaks out and walks around the streets of Whitechapel, looking for clues. She goes into a pub that Miss Nichols had frequented before her death. Audrey is grabbed and pulled into an alleyway by a stranger who wants to talk; she is shocked to realize that it is Thomas. He is accompanied by Nathaniel, who grabs Audrey and pulls her away; Nathaniel is furious with Audrey for risking her life when a killer is on the loose. Nathaniel explains that he is a member of a group called the Knights of Whitechapel, who are on the lookout for suspicious activity to try to apprehend the murderer. Nathaniel instructs Thomas to take Audrey home, which he does.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Dark and Hideous Things”
Audrey’s father worriedly counsels her to remain home to avoid disease. He himself looks unwell, Audrey notes. Audrey gets his permission to leave the house later to shop for clothing; she actually plans to go to her uncle’s laboratory.
At Jonathan’s laboratory, he and Audrey wonder about a new murder victim, Annie Chapman, whose intestines were left tossed over her shoulder. Thomas finally joins them; despite looking around the area as part of the Knights of Whitechapel, he has no news or information. Jonathan is scandalized on Audrey’s behalf when Thomas alludes to Miss Chapman being a sex worker, but Audrey is unaffected by the news. Audrey suggests that, given that Miss Chapman was murdered more brutally than Miss Nichols, perhaps the murderer knew Miss Nichols. They wonder whether the murderer is a crusader trying to rid the streets of sex workers or living out a fantasy of playing God. Thomas is so impressed by Audrey’s deductions that he kisses her on the cheek.
A servant arrives in the basement laboratory, saying that Nathanial has arrived and needs to see Audrey urgently.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Den of Sin”
Nathaniel hugs Audrey, relieved that she is alright. Their father was taken into Scotland Yard for questioning that morning; he was found in Whitechapel and was suspected of the murder. He was cleared of wrongdoing but was recommended to take time away from London and has gone to the family’s cottage in Bath. Nathaniel and Audrey understand that he was in Whitechapel procuring opium, to which he has an addiction. Nathaniel instructs Audrey that he will send a carriage to retrieve her later and leaves.
Thomas correctly deduces that Audrey’s relationship with her father has been strained since her mother’s death, that this death also caused the rift between Audrey’s father and uncle (who couldn’t save her using medicine), and that Audrey’s father has an opium addiction. Audrey is shocked and impressed that he worked out so much from his brief observations of her.
Audrey and Thomas study an entry in Jonathan’s diary, which contains details of an autopsy conducted months earlier. Emma Elizabeth Smith died from injuries sustained after an object was rammed inside her vagina, rupturing her peritoneum (abdominal wall). They wonder if this murder was carried out by the murderer of Miss Nichols and Miss Chapman; it fits with their theory of the murderer being motivated by ridding the East End of “sinful” sex workers.
Chapters 1-6 Analysis
The theme of Women’s Roles in Late Victorian England is introduced through Audrey’s struggles with the repressive rules imposed upon her by her father and society. Audrey, who enjoys “seeing [her] scalpel disappearing into bloody tissue,” defines herself in opposition to other girls her age, who “didn’t understand [her] mind” and “found it obscene to dip their butter knives into lemon curd” (26). This anecdote illustrates Audrey’s belief that other girls her age are far too ruled by society’s conventions of manners and decorum. Audrey defies these conventions, which dictate that she should be passive and a homebody; instead, Audrey is intensely curious, particularly about forensic science. Thomas says that it is a “scandalous choice” for Audrey to secretly attend her uncle’s class, echoing societal norms which dictate that Audrey should not be exposed to such gory content (15). Echoing this sentiment, Aunt Amelia, who epitomizes the strict rules of Victorian female decorum, tells her niece that, “girls should be concerned with lace, not moral disgrace” (25). Even Nathaniel, who helps Audrey by fooling their father about a fabricated tea date with their uncle, only does so “because [Audrey’s] modern stance—on why girls were equally capable of having a profession of apprenticeship—offered endless amusement” (18). Nathaniel doesn’t agree with Audrey; he only humors her. In return, Audrey mocks her brother, critiquing the system that represses and patronizes her, further establishing her feminist ideology: “I had no idea my innards were composed of cotton and kittens, while yours were filled with steel and steam-driven parts” (21).
Audrey is aware that the inequities faced by women are experienced more keenly by those from lower classes. She feels for Miss Nichols, whom her father dismissed from their household out of his biased fear of sickness and diseases carried by the lower classes. She resents Jonathan cringing at Thomas’s mention of Miss Nichol’s sex work, angrily asking him: “[W]hat is your issue with sex workers anyhow? It’s not her fault society is so unjust to women” (52). She vows that “I’d do everything in my power to solve this case for Miss Nichols. And for any other voiceless girl or woman society ignored” (28). In these comments, Audrey is characterized as having a strong sense of social justice; she is compassionate and criticizes the inequities suffered by others.
Audrey is naturally outspoken, but has to curb this impulse in order to not risk her uncle excluding her from his work or his classes; when Audrey attends the forensic medicine class, she thinks, “the urge to call out the answer was a miserable beast longing to break free from the cage I’d agreed to lock it in. Instead of exercising that demon, I sat quietly with my lips pressed shut and my hat pulled low” (9). The reader learns that Audrey’s obstinance and determination came from her mother, who encouraged Audrey to “show the world your bravery” (36). Audrey’s mother suggested that physical frailty (she had a weak heart) needn’t hold one back, as “a strong mind and will were fierce to behold as well” (36).
Maniscalco utilizes Gothic fiction tropes to establish setting and mood throughout Stalking Jack the Ripper. Uncle Jonathan’s laboratory basement is depicted as a sinister and macabre space: “The curved, scythe-like blade of the amputation knife, the bone saws, and the imposing glass and metal syringes wouldn’t be out of place in a gothic novel such as both Nathaniel’s and my childhood favorite: Frankenstein” (23). This intertextual reference explicitly calls the reader’s attention to the Gothic nature of the laboratory. This impression is further created in Audrey’s description of the freezing temperature, the smells of formaldehyde and rotting flesh, and the jars of human organs and dissected animals floating in jars around the burgundy wall-papered room; Uncle Jonathan’s servants do not linger in the room because “too many dark and hideous things lurked in glass jars and on stone slabs” (50). These setting and mood details set up plot events that involve secrets, violence, and psychological distress—all challenges Audrey must overcome to achieve her goals.
Another Gothic trope is a character who is both charming and mysterious. Thomas fills this role as Audrey struggles to uncover his intentions. Thomas usually exudes absolute confidence, such as when he addresses his peers as he answers Uncle Jonathon’s question in the forensic medicine class: “The boy cleared his throat and stood, confidence pulling his lean shoulders back, as he faced the class instead of my uncle” (10). This illustrates Thomas’s confidence—bordering on arrogance—as he clearly thinks himself more capable than his classmates. He also correctly deduces intimate details about Audrey’s life and family; he is a discerning observer with an intuition for the truth. A red herring is planted by Maniscalco in Chapter 4 when Audrey invites the reader to consider whether Thomas is, in fact, Jack the Ripper: “Thomas and Uncle were out the evening of the first murder […] they were interested in studying the human body. And Thomas had flat-out lied about it. If I discovered them doing treacherous things, would they harm me?” (37). Thomas’s enigmatic nature and obsession with murder establish him as a logical suspect; this draws the reader’s attention away from the true villain: Nathaniel.
This section introduces the Subverting the Classic Enemies-to-Lovers Romance. Audrey’s attraction to Thomas is clear; she refers to his height and his “handsome face” (31). Occasionally, Audrey sees moments of “boyish vulnerability” cross his face, which she finds “powerful and disarming” (30). This attraction is clearly mutual: “He flashed a roguish grin at my scowl. ‘I’m sure your uncle won’t mind stopping with his investigation to chaperone us’—he turned to Uncle—‘would you, Dr. Wadsworth?‘” (30). Audrey is often scowling, snapping, or otherwise irritated at Thomas in these early exchanges. All the while though, she feels a “crimson wave” (15) wash over her cheeks, which illustrates her attraction to him. Though these interactions are typical of the enemies-to-lovers romantic trope, the laboratories, autopsies, and crime scenes where their flirtations take place subvert traditional genre expectations.
Maniscalco uses foreshadowing to hint at Nathaniel’s identity as Jack the Ripper, which is revealed at the novel’s conclusion, in these opening chapters. Audrey refers to her brother spending “a few months studying medicine” (18). Later, in her uncle’s laboratory, Audrey postulates that the murderer “must have some sort of training in the medical field” (28). Another clue is planted when Audrey contends that, given that Miss Nichols wasn’t as brutally mutilated as Miss Chapman, perhaps the murderer knew Miss Nichols and therefore “couldn’t really let himself go as wild as he’d hoped” (51). Uncle Jonathan had earlier asserted that Miss Nichols used to work in Audrey and Nathaniel’s home; a discerning reader may note that it was therefore likely that Nathaniel knew Miss Nichols. Furthermore, Miss Chapman is murdered on Hanbury Street; this is the street where Nathaniel finds Audrey and sends her home, which places Nathaniel at the location on the night of the murder. Nathaniel’s membership in the group “The Knights of Whitechapel,” which is trying to stop the murders, intentionally draws the reader’s suspicion away from him. Coupled with the suspicion that Maniscalco casts on Thomas’s identity, these facts seed evidence of Nathaniel’s identity as the killer without casting suspicion on him directly.
