New Year, New Fallen Woman: Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth Readalong

[BishyBarnyBee]

Following the very successful Madame Bovary readalong, we have decided to explore another woman who refused to be bound by contemporary mores.
So shocking at the time, two of Gaskell's friends burnt their copies.

"Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth (1853) was the first mainstream novel to make a fallen woman its eponymous heroine. It is a remarkable story of love, of the sanctuary and tyranny of the family, and of the consequences of lies and deception, one that lays bare Victorian hypocrisy and sexual double-standards. Shocking to contemporary readers, its radical utopian vision of a pure woman faithfully presented predates Hardy's Tess by nearly forty years."

We will aim for two chapters a week - a weekend chapter and a mid week chapter. If I have time, I'll try and do a ChatGPT chapter summary, but anyone else is welcome to jump in if I haven't got there first.

We start 1st Jan, so if you are up for a bit of Victorian passion, guilt, regret and redemption, sign up here!

Maybe Thursday for the midweek chapter & Sunday for the weekend one? Or earlier?
I've always just avoided the readalong threads if behind.

Thursday and Sunday works for me, and yes, expect spoilers for that chapter from that day.

So I agree it's probably best to avoid the thread if you want to preserve the full reading experience.

But equally, if we do manage quick chapter summaries, should be possible to catch up and get the gist so you can keep going if you get a bit behind.

That sounds perfect.

Thursday and Sunday sound great.

I haven't done a MN readalong before. Is there a reminder of which chapters are being discussed?

I think the bi-weekly chapter summaries will keep us on track, cariadlet. We usually do one chapter per day starting on January 1st. This will be similar but slower. Chapters 1-8 for the month of January.

I would love to join you!
Mrs Gaskell's wives and Daughters is a favourite of mine.

Ordering a copy of Ruth now.

Ordered mine 😊

So - we'll start with Chapter 1 on New Year's Day, then Chapter 2 on Thursday 4th. Sundays and Thursdays from then on. I'll aim to post first thing in the morning, but if I haven't managed to do that, anyone else is welcome to chip in and start off the next chapter. If you've read it before, try not to get ahead of the current chapter, but you won't be chucked off the thread if you accidentally drop a massive spoiler.

Drop, drop, slow tears,
And bathe those beauteous feet
Which brought from Heaven
The news and Prince of Peace.

Cease not, wet eyes,
His 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

Thanks for the updates @FFuzzyCaoraDhubh and @BiBishyBarnyBee

I would like to lurk please. I go to an English Lit class every week which I joined in September and am loving. They have previously read some Elizabeth Gaskell and it comes into our discussions, but I haven't read any. However I also battle an addiction to psychological and murder thrillers, so its a struggle to keep up with my reading homework for that class and I don't think I would be able to manage all the reading.

Lurking is fine! And feel free to add the odd random comment if you are moved to do so.
That sounds like a lovely class, but absolutely understand the need for the less highbrow thrillers as well, we all need our low effort downtime reading.

I've also ordered a copy and will probably lurk for a while.

Thank you for organising this, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm in! Looking forward to some disciplined reading!

Happy New Year, lovely readers! Kicking us off with our first chapter summary - I really enjoyed doing it but it did take some close attention, so I'm not promising they will be this long every time. Please do chip in, and I'll add my own thoughts later - just wanted to get this up for any early birds. Next chapter on Thursday.

Chapter 1

In which we are introduced to an anonymous eastern town (Easson suggests Norwich), which has sadly declined since its Tudor hey-day. The powerful locals now go to London for the season and the grand old houses have been bought by speculators and turned into smaller dwellings.

Our heroine, Ruth Hilton, is an apprentice in one of these once fashionable buildings. We meet her, and a dozen others, at 2 in the morning, wearily sewing ballgowns for the "older and tougher" seamstress, Mrs Mason. While the others doze or huddle round the fire, Ruth, who is newer to the work and "not yet inured to the hardship of a dressmaker's workroom", gazes out of the window, dreaming of days gone by and yearning to walk out in the snowy winter's night.

Ruth returns to her seat, which she has chosen because that part of the room is still paneled with beautiful flowers, which remind her of home.

The girls are working late to complete all the dresses for the hunt ball the following evening. Mason announces that her four most diligent young ladies will go to the ball to attend any last minute repairs.

Ruth is exhausted and cries that she cannot bear five years of this. But her father has paid a premium for her apprenticeship and she decides she must persevere for the sake of her younger siblings.

She cries her self to sleep, dreaming of her mother. Next morning, she is bewildered to be chosen to attend the ball, as she knows she is not the most hard working. It becomes evident that she has been chosen for her striking looks and not her diligence.

Oh, we're we meant to read a chapter before 2024? I'll get cracking!

Ooh, maybe I should have checked how it normally works - I haven't lead a read along before so I'm going on what I remember from the ones I've done.

I was assuming - chapter summary posted on the day, you can read it any time over the next few days, and add your thoughts at any point before the next chapter is posted. So no pressure!

Yes, that's right @BishyBarnyBee
Lovely chapter summary :)

I enjoyed the first chapter. I felt sorry for the young girls having to work through the night to make the deadline. And Ruth's friend sounds very unwell.

No rules! You're in charge! I just remembered the Thursday/Sunday thing and thought it was Chapter One by Thursday.

Never fear .. Chapter One was short and I have now read it. Excellent summary.

I noticed the good old Victorian caged bird analogy, also much beloved of Hardy in Tess. Ruth presses her forehead against the window 'like a bird presses against the bars of its cage'.

We learn a lot about labour exploitation of Victorian workers - but boteh this and the other readalong Nicholas Nickleby throw into relief the exploitation of young women in the fashion industry, which is a more unusual angle. The same is seen briefly in A Christmas Carol via Martha and , later, Eva Smith in An Inspector Calls.

Thank you @BishyBarnyBee

I read the first chapter yesterday. I enjoyed the rich opening description of the street architecture, and felt for the tired young seamstresses. Looking forward to discovering more about how Ruth came to be one of them.

Great summary @BishyBarnyBee .

Not the cheeriest of starts to a book but I did enjoy it. I loved the descriptions of the town and how it’s changed, and also the wallpaper that Ruth stares at to cheer herself up slightly.

Yes, I thought it was wonderfully descriptive too. Gloomy, but beautiful.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Thanks Bishy!
Started last night, until my eyes started crossing ...
Lovely beginning, wanted to go out into the snow with her.
The description of the tree stuck with me - how it used to stand in amongst grass, but was now hemmed in with paving and messy buildings.
I often think that about old trees and the changes that have happened around them. Bit like our lives, as we get older.
Happy New Year to all here! x

i would like to try a read along.

i have tried suggesting one for my book club but I am not sure how that is going to go. I will oder the book tomorrow and catch up

I enjoyed the first chapter and I was shocked by the girls working until 2am to get a ball gown finished. Next time I read a Victorian novel where the heroine is talking about her magnificant gown I will remember Ruth and her friends hard at work sewing into the night.