Elizabeth Gaskell will forever remain a favourite Victorian writer of mine. She knows how to write an engaging and truthful story of life. I really enjoyed this one! As expected, we sympathised with Ruth as a fallen woman, rather than scorn her like most books from this time do.
SpoilerJust can’t believe it ended that way. Ruth decides to care for a man who deserted her, and ends up catching his illness, which eventually kills her. Brutal, unnecessary and just cruel. It kind of takes away from the overall sympathetic tone of the story. Kinda makes me question if Gaskell was trying to end the book in a way that society would expect?
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