Once upon a time...

Well, I finished reading Patricia Cornwell’s Jack the Ripper last night at 4:30 AM. The amount of evidence Cornwell was able to discover in a case that is over 114 years old is simply amazing. Through personal papers and correspondence, original police files and photos, Walter Sickert’s own art work which seems to depict Ripper victims, and a partial mitochondrial DNA match between DNA from a Ripper letter and DNA from Sickert’s much beloved painting overalls, I believe that, had the original investigators had such information in 1888, there is a pretty substantial circumstantial case. While Cornwell herself admits that there is no way to know if Sickert really was the Ripper and there is plenty of room for reasonable doubt, I must applaud her efforts. I would also recommend this book to those who enjoy true crime stories. The most damning evidence had to be comparison between Sickert’s art and correspondence and the Ripper’s letter to police along with the crime scene photos. The juxtaposition of Sickert’s art with crime scene photos was pretty damning by themselves in my opinion, especially that of poor Catherine Eddows and Sickert’s painting Putana a Casa.

Now, I’m back to reading Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. I’ve got four more chapters to go and am determined to finish reading it tonight. XD I’m on a roll.

I just finished reading Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore by Bettany Hughes, and I really must recommend it. The book itself is extremely well-written and manages to take a serious look at the mythology of Helen of Troy as well as what might have been her real life as a Bronze Age Spartan queen. Hughes has filled the book with rich details and really takes the reader to the places she's describing by including charming tales of her many trips to these locales. Hughes prevails in her attempt to understand how the figure of Helen of Troy, whether as a force for good, evil, or neutral, has survived over three milenia passed her mortal death without losing her relevance. It truly is a fascinating work, and I suggest picking it up if you have the extra dosh.

Next on my reading list: Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell. It's another historical non-fiction book, which is unusual for me. I've owned a copy for a while, but never got around to reading it. I've heard from sources on the History Channel of the inaccuracies in the book and about the massive leaps Cornwell takes with the evidence, but I'll make my own conclusions about this one.

After that: I hope to finish reading Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics by Eleanor Herman. More historical non-fiction! I've been reading 40-50 pages of this book for an hour in the seating area everytime I visit the local Books-a-Million because I don't have $30 to actually purchase it. ^_^;;; *smoochies*

Just finished reading Wuthering Heights. It's strange that I've had the book forever and just now took two days to read it. Anyway, onto random ramble on all things Austen and Brontë! Spoilers ahead!
You know, sometimes I wish I could just buy translations of the Marquis de Sade's works at Books-a-Million.
( It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire. )