![]() ![]() Gaskell made it a "prohibited book" in her own house and some of her friends burnt their copies and expressed "deep regret" for her decision to publish it. It took guts, the kind of guts that it’s hard for a modern reader to really appreciate. Gaskell bravely tackled single motherhood and illegitimacy in 1853, when Victorian sensibilities were at full swing. ![]() And that’s as far as I’ll go with the plot. Benson lives with his sister (named Faith) and an outspoken maid, and it’s at their home that Ruth gives birth to her son and takes on the roll of a respectable young widow. Her rascal lover eventually abandons her, and Ruth, on the verge of suicide, is taken in by a kind middle-aged minister. ![]() When they are both caught in an innocent-but-seemingly-compromising circumstance, Ruth throws herself at the mercy of Bellingham, who quickly whisks her off to Wales (that infamous country!), where The Deed Is Done. There, her angelic beauty caught the eye of Bellingham, the proverbial Victorian Rake.īellingham knows his game: he approaches Ruth carefully, with offers of friendship and kindness, and with time gains her trust. At 16 Ruth was chosen to go to a ball, but had to stay in the background, to assist any ladies with wardrobe malfunctions. Her mistress ran a respectable establishment, but it was more like a sweatshop for young women than a home. When she was 12, Ruth Hilton became an orphan and was forced to leave the comfortable farm she had always lived in to become an apprentice seamstress. ![]()
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