Pages From Hell

Treat this as a graphic-novel equivalent of those “cherished extracts” I sometimes post. Here are two pages from one of my favourite passages in From Hell, from a chapter that contrasts the day-to-day lives of London’s privileged classes (represented here by Sir William Gull, the Queen’s physician) with those of the poor women of the East End (Jack the Ripper’s victims, the prostitutes of Whitechapel), living in the most squalid, unhygienic conditions.

Gull wakes and stretches languorously in his plush bedchamber, while the unfortunates of Whitechapel sleep in the cold, sitting up against a wall, with a rope stretched out in front of them to prevent them from falling forward. (In the morning, when it’s time for them to get up and go about their work, the rope is pulled away, rudely awakening them – as depicted in the third panel of the first page.)

(Click the images to enlarge)



Update: for more illustrations from the book (especially from the "symbols of London" section), artist notes and other work by Eddie Campbell, see his wonderful blog.