‘Its West End and Its Whitechapel’: Jack the Ripper and Gothic London in John Francis Brewer’s The Curse upon Mitre Square: A.D. 1530–1888 (1888)

Abstract

This article analyses the cultural implications of the representation of Jack the Ripper in John Francis Brewer’s novel The Curse upon Mitre Square: A.D. 1530–1888 (1888). By examining how Brewer’s Ripper is positioned as a curse on London itself, this article maps the impact of the killer’s crimes on subsequent depictions of gothic London and its terrors. It further explores how the religious and national tensions surrounding the killer influenced Brewer’s depiction of Jack the Ripper as a British Catholic, contributing to a departure from both earlier portrayals of gothic villains as largely foreign and contemporary speculation that the actual Ripper was Jewish.