Ruth

Ruth

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Ruth by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Published:

1853

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Ruth

By

3
(1 Review)

Book Excerpt

nd they trooped up the wide, dark staircase.

"Oh! how shall I get through five years of these terrible nights! in that close room! and in that oppressive stillness! which lets every sound of the thread be heard as it goes eternally backwards and forwards," sobbed out Ruth, as she threw herself on her bed, without even undressing herself.

"Nay, Ruth, you know it won't be always as it has been to-night. We often get to bed by ten o'clock; and by-and-by you won't mind the closeness of the room. You're worn out to-night, or you would not have minded the sound of the needle; I never hear it. Come, let me unfasten you," said Jenny.

"What is the use of undressing? We must be up again and at work in three hours."

"And in those three hours you may get a great deal of rest, if you will but undress yourself and fairly go to bed. Come, love."

Jenny's advice was not resisted; but before Ruth went to sleep, she said:

"Oh! I wish I was not so cross and impatient. I don't think I use

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A very pious work of redemption. A naive young orphan girl, unhappily apprenticed to a hard-hearted seamstress, is led astray by a wealthy, weak young man, who abandons her. After a minister and his sister rescue her, she leads an exemplary life, rearing her fatherless son to be a Christian, and ultimately winning the regard even of those who know her past. While such a redemption was daring for its time, and the novel subtly condemns the self-righteous casting of stones at "fallen" women, it makes Ruth into such a paragon of goodness that she's hard to take.