Cover of Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell Audiobook Ruth
Audiobook · Sovereign

Ruth

Author
Elizabeth Gaskell
Read by
James Harrington
Language
English
Length
15 hours 12 minutes
ISBN
9781802563580
Published
10 March 2025
Imprint
Sovereign
  • Orphan
  • seamstress
  • dressmaker
  • poverty
  • love affair
  • societal pressure
  • social class
  • gender roles
  • fallen woman
  • judgment

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Description

"Ruth" by Elizabeth Gaskell is a poignant novel exploring morality and societal judgment in 19th-century England. Ruth Hilton, an orphaned seamstress, is seduced and abandoned by wealthy Henry Bellingham. Shunned after giving birth out of wedlock, she finds kindness from Mr. and Mrs. Benson, who offer her refuge. As Ruth strives for redemption through hard work and compassion, her past haunts her, threatening her newfound life. Gaskell challenges Victorian hypocrisy, portraying Ruth as a sympathetic victim of circumstance rather than a sinner, while emphasizing the power of forgiveness and humanity.

Author

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865) widened the Victorian novel's moral imagination. Published by Dickens in Household Words and admired by contemporaries from Ruskin to George Eliot, she wrote fiction that refused to look away from social suffering — child labour, class division, the hidden cost of industrial progress — while never losing warmth or narrative pleasure.

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