Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell and Gaskell Reading Challenge

Title:  Ruth
Author:  Elizabeth Gaskell
Publisher:  
Date:  March st 1998 (First Published 1853)
Version:  Kindle
Pages:  432

The first thing I should mention about this book is that it is the first time I have read a Elizabeth Gaskell novel, and it was so wonderful that I cannot wait to read another one!  This book took my breath away!  It was so beautifully written that I did not want to put it down.  Elizabeth Gaskell has a way with words that evokes such strong emotions in the reader.  Her words provide such imagery throughout the book that you can actually smell the fragrance in the air, and most importantly, to feel the emotions the characters are experiencing.

The setting is the mid 1800's in England and Ruth Hilton is a twelve year old orphan that has been signed over by her guardian to woman that has a sewing business.  The work conditions are deplorable and Ruth has no relatives or friends in the city.  Ruth is extremely beautiful, however she does not believe that beauty has much value.  Her beauty causes the other working girls to be jealous of her, therefore she is an outcast which makes her even more lonely.  She misses her parents and longs for someone to care for her.

One Sunday, after church she notices a boy playing near a stream.  The boy falls in and is close to drowning.  Ruth screams until a young man comes to help her with the child.  The young man's name is Mr Bellingham and he is immediately enamored by her beauty.  They begin to go on walks after church and become good friends.  One day, Mr Bellingham talks Ruth into going for a long walk to the house where she was born, because she misses it very much.  On the walk back, it begins to get dark and a coach approaches and in it is the woman she works for.  The woman tellsRuth that she cannot have such loose girls working for her and that she is not to go back to work.  Mr. Bellingham convinces Ruth to go traveling with him.  And the rest is history!


You will fall in love with Ruth.  She is such a sweet, loving person that you just have to fall in love with her.  She has an extremely difficult time making her way in the world.  It is interesting to read about the differences between then and now, and to see just how the female has risen above such terrible ideas of how a woman is supposed to act and what is expected of her.