Ruth (Penguin Classics)

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Jemima is in love with Mr. Farquahar, who is much older and a business partner of Mr. Bradshaw’s. Mr. Farquahar is interested in Jemima as well, though he’s concerned about their age difference. Mr. Bradshaw very much desires the union, figuring it will get Jemima off his hands *and* keep money in the family. I liked the inclusion of Jemima as a character in contrast to Ruth’s. Gaskell doesn’t condemn Jemima for traits that were no doubt considered unbecoming a young Victorian lady. Yes, there’s a sense that she needs to grow up and start behaving better (not the least because her behavior is not getting her what she wants). But her chafing at the sense that she’s being managed into a marriage with Mr. Farquahar is treated as understandable.

a b c Jenny Uglow (1999), "First Publication of Elizabeth Gaskell's Works", Elizabeth Gaskell (2nded.), Faber and Faber, pp.617–19, ISBN 0-571-20359-0 I like books that mix humor with the sad and wisdom with foolishness and stupidity. Such is reality. This is what Gaskell delivers in her book. The daily life into which people are born, and into which they are absorbed before they are well aware, forms chains which only one in a hundred has moral strength enough to despise, and to break when the right time comes–when an inward necessity for independent individual action arises, which is superior to all outward conventionalities.” Ruth Hilton is an orphaned young seamstress who catches the eye of a gentleman, Henry Bellingham, who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. When she loses her job and home, he offers her comfort and shelter, only to cruelly desert her soon after. Nearly dead with grief and shame, Ruth is offered the chance of a new life among people who give her love and respect, even though they are at first unaware of her secret - an illegitimate child. When Henry enters her life again, however, Ruth must make the impossible choice between social acceptance and personal pride. In writing Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell daringly confronted prevailing views about sin and illegitimacy with her compassionate and honest portrait of a 'fallen woman'. Read more Details The ending greatly disappointed me and seemed as if Ruth was the one who had to pay the debts of sin throughout her life. Perhaps this was the only way in which the novel would be accepted by the society of the Victorian times. But it made me feel unsatisfied because of the forced sympathy it tries to evoke in the reader.Secure in his dominion, Bradshaw challenges the Tory hegemony in the town by fielding his own Liberal candidate for Parliament, wealthy Mr. Donne. Confronted with Donne, Ruth finds that he is actually Bellingham (he has changed his name to gain a legacy), and he eventually discovers who she is. Although Ruth knows that he is a scoundrel, she also recognizes that she will always love him. Again, he pursues her, even proposes to her, but she refuses him and forbids him access to their son. Her course is set; her life is dedicated to her son. There is a level of moralizing in Ruth that I *don’t* relate to, as a modern reader. As much as Ruth is clearly as innocent as it’s possible to be (almost unbelievably so, really), even the “good” characters do not see her as blameless. There is a stain of sin on her that must be expunged by good works, chasteness and modesty. Given the time and the place and the reality of Victorian morality (Gaskell was herself the wife of a Unitarian minister), the author’s humanistic and humane approach to her subject matter feels like it is leaps and bounds beyond what it could be. (Not surprisingly, the subject matter of the novel was controversial when it was published.) But I still bristled at the attitudes of the characters towards Ruth, anyway. Chapple JAV, Pollard A, eds. The Letters of Mrs Gaskell. Mandolin (Manchester University Press), 1997 I do think I have a talent for fiction. It is so pleasant to invent and make the incidents dovetail together, and after all if we are to lie, we might as well do it thoroughly or else it is of no use. A bungling lie may be worse than useless, and Thurston, it may be very wrong, but I believe I may enjoy not being fettered by truth.”

Jenny Uglow (1993). Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber & Faber. pp.13–14. ISBN 0-571-20359-0. The Library's buildings remain fully open but some services are limited, including access to collection items. We'reGaskell’s argument is, interestingly, presented in largely religious terms – there are several biblical quotes in the text. One character spends much of the book arguing, with scriptural support, for Ruth’s innocence and right to a peaceful life without social ostracism. By making Ruth inarguably Good, and suffusing the text with religious meditations, Gaskell makes the injustice of Ruth’s situation obvious and irrefutable, while still technically within the confines of the conventional ‘fallen woman’ narrative of suffering and death. Lansbury, Coral. Elizabeth Gaskell: The Novel of Social Crisis. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1975. The first study to show that Gaskell’s Unitarianism was crucial to her writing. Regarding Ruth, however, Lansbury primarily summarizes the plot.

The story tells about a fallen woman of the Victorian era. Ruth Hilton is a young orphan girl who works at Mrs Mason’s reputed sweetshop. Ruth is sent to a ball party to repair dresses and there she meets Henry Bellingham, who is instantly attracted to her. The Gaskell Society Journal, Volume 22". The Gaskell Society. 2008. p.57 . Retrieved 25 April 2017. Meta (Margaret Emily), the second daughter, was sent at about the same age as Marianne to Miss Rachel Martineau, ... {{ cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= ( help)

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Katherine Wootton is a feminist writer and reviewer, and works in television production. She loves literature, theatre, traveling and enthusiastic debate. More of her opinions on politics and culture can be found on her blog By the way, my advice is to read Ruth only if you really enjoy reading Gaskell’s novels. Otherwise, I’d try to read Cranford or The Moorland Cottage as my first attempt. An Elizabeth Gaskell staycation". elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk. 5 August 2020 . Retrieved 27 September 2022. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Gaskell, Elizabeth. Ruth. 1853. Oxford University Press, 1998. Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65) is largely known and loved for her sharply observed social satires, like Cranford. Others like North and South examine the effects of the industrial revolution. While she is similar in style to Jane Austen, she presents greater criticism of the class system, drawing particular attention to the cruel standard of living inflicted on the working classes, and the personal and moral results of hardship, as well as the discrepancy in living standards and attitudes between and among classes. Her heroines are generally intelligent, moral, responsible women who observe the injustice of their milieu, often acting as much as possible to correct imbalance as and when they can.