Ruth

Description

The book is a social novel, dealing with Victorian views about sin and illegitimacy.

It is a surprisingly compassionate portrayal of a ‘fallen woman’, a type of person normally outcast from respectable society.

The title of the novel refers to the main character Ruth Hilton, an orphaned young seamstress who is seduced and then abandoned by gentleman Henry Bellingham.

Gaskell as always is brilliant.

Also by this author: North and South. Sylvia’s Lovers

The opening words:

Drop, drop, slow tears!
And bathe those beauteous feet,
Which brought from heaven
The news and Prince of peace.
Cease not, wet eyes,
For mercy to entreat:
To cry for vengeance
Sin doth never cease.
In your deep floods
Drown all my faults and fears;
Nor let His eye
See sin, but through my tears.

Phineas Fletcher.
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