ElizabethGaskell

julieclair

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

#HauntedShelf #BookScavengerHunt Team #HexesandCrows @Catsandbooks

Prompt: Desolate

PuddleJumper Good choice! 3mo

dabbe Boy, I\'ll say! 🖤🧡🖤 3mo

Catsandbooks 👏🏼👻🧡 3mo

20 likes3 comments

Ruthiella

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

#WondrousWednesday

Thank you for the tag @Eggs and @Deblovestoread 😊

💛 Tagged!
💛💛 Paper!
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Eggs Thx for playing 💛🧡💛 3mo

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currentlyreadinginCO

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

pick

Got behind but finally finished this after the #hashtagbrigade and I must say, I loved this book. It's from 1863 & is the first mainstream novel w a "fallen woman" heroine so you know this thing is devastating, BUT I got the point and always think it's cool when someone from the mid-nineteenth century writes a female character that goes against the grain.

BarkingMadRead I‘m so glad you liked it!! 3mo

currentlyreadinginCO Getting caught up on The Hotel shortly! 🧐 @BarkingMadRead 3mo

BarkingMadRead The Hotel is a much easier read! 3mo

53 likes3 comments

dabbe

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

pick

RUTH? pub. 1853
MADAME BOVARY? pub. 1856
ANNA KARENINA? pub. 1873
TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES? pub. 1891
All four are about women adulterers (referred to as “whores/harlots/wicked women“ in some of these novels, thanks to the societies they lived in). Gaskell paved the way for the other (perhaps) more famous novels. Her writing? Exquisite. Ruth's story? Tragic. Do I want to read more Gaskell? Absolutely.

mjtwo I read North and South last year and loved it. It had a lot more depth than many more renowned 19th century novels. (edited) 3mo

dabbe @mjtwo Good to know! I've only read CRANFORD and this one, so I'm adding it to the TBR list. Thanks! 🤩🤗😀 3mo

Texreader Well, another excellent review. Stacked 3mo

dabbe @Texreader I read it with the lovely #hashtagbrigade ... I can't wait to read what you think about it! 🤩🤗😘 3mo

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Clare-Dragonfly

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

pick

Mrs. Gaskell broke my heart with this one! I was wondering why I liked this so much when Tess of the D‘Urbervilles just pissed me off. Both are trying to show the humanity in a “fallen” woman. I think Tess just gets really bleak while Ruth‘s life has good things in it (like Leonard), and the only characters who really condemn Ruth are generally unsympathetic.

34 likes

Librarybelle

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

pick

I‘m in the minority of the #HashtagBrigade to say I liked the novel. Gaskell, whose husband was a Unitarian minister and lived near the factories and mills of England, sets as her MC a “fallen” woman and her path to redemption. This was a bit controversial at its initial publication, and it certainly is darker and more rooted in faith and redemption than her other novels. But, I get the sense that she is shaming her Victorian audience ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Librarybelle ⬆️⬆️⬆️ for their judgement of character on someone who has lived through a perceived sinful time. Ruth, a truly good person whose naivety (and the Victorians of certain classes did shelter their daughters from the world, so think of this another moment of Gaskell pointing out the inconsistencies of morality) brought her down to a “bad sinner” level, shows the true Christian values, along with the Bensons. I think Gaskell is showing how quickly ⬇️ 4mo

Librarybelle ⬆️ the populace tends to cast the first stone without knowing all the details or are quick to judge a good person for one bad action. There are the layers too of sympathy tugging at the reader, and I can almost see a Victorian reader wondering at how this sympathy changes their thoughts about a person they know in a similar situation. I do prefer Gaskell‘s more sweeping novels—North and South and her studies of Cranford—but kudos to her for this! 4mo

Librarybelle Thanks for leading us through this, @BarkingMadRead #PemberLittens 4mo

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Cuilin Wonderful review!!!! I agree I do think she is trying to shame Victorian readers into rethinking some of their belief systems. I also think that in order not to alienate her readers, she had to add penance. Our modern sensibilities struggle with this. 4mo

Librarybelle Thanks, @Cuilin ! And yes…our modern sensibilities definitely struggle with this! 4mo

dabbe A wowza review! 🤩🤩🤩 4mo

julieclair Excellent review! I liked this novel, too, for a lot of the same reasons. 4mo

quietjenn I completely agree! 4mo

Librarybelle Thanks, @dabbe and @julieclair ! 4mo

Librarybelle @quietjenn 😁 4mo

69 likes1 stack add10 comments

BarkingMadRead

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

Ch 36: Donne 🙄 #ihatehim #whataselfcenteteredass #peaceoutloser #leonardwillberaisedbythevillage #theend #hashtagbrigade

BarkingMadRead @librarybelle @ruthiella @currentlyreadinginCO @amor4libros @bookwormjillk @catlass007 @mcctrish @indoordame @rubyslippersreads @thebookhippie @dabbe @crinoline_laphroaig
@clare-dragonfly @julieclair @aimeesue @quietjenn @kao @bklover @alldebooks @jewright @cuilin @willaful 4mo

mcctrish Victorian justice is a sham! #donneisadouche 4mo

IndoorDame Somewhat surprised to learn he has no legal rights to the kid at this time. Still such a creep!!!!! 🤬🤬🤬🤬 4mo

See All 18 Comments

Ruthiella But kudos to Mr. Benson for dressing Donne/Bellingham down and shutting the door in his face. I think Gaskell wrote the whole novel so she could get away with that condemnation of the penis that started it all. 4mo

BarkingMadRead @Ruthiella 🤣🤣🤣 4mo

Cuilin @Ruthiella Yes!!!! I loved the dress down!! 4mo

Clare-Dragonfly @Ruthiella Hahaha, yes! Benson is perfection in this chapter. Still so sad though 😭😭😭 Definitely makes me want to read the rest of Gaskell‘s books—I‘ve only read two others. 4mo

Bookwormjillk @Clare-Dragonfly me too. I think next year will be a Gaskell binge year for me. 4mo

BarkingMadRead @Clare-Dragonfly @Bookwormjillk we will have to add some to next year‘s schedule 4mo

rubyslippersreads @Ruthiella 👍🏻 4mo

dabbe I'm going to try to look at this positively. The hero of a story usually saves or changes the community for the better. Look what Ruth did and how her village changed because of her--even Bradshaw! Unfortunately, she was a sacrificial hero, but Leonard will be okay and turn out well. I hope. 🤞 4mo

Bookwormjillk @BarkingMadRead woo! 4mo

julieclair @dabbe I love your positivity! 😊 4mo

dabbe @julieclair 🤩😂😘 4mo

Clare-Dragonfly @BarkingMadRead Excellent! 4mo

KAO Thanks to all for helping me to get through this one! The tragedy was almost too much to bear. @dabbe I like your take though! 4mo

dabbe @KAO I tried, but I‘m still all 😭! 4mo

currentlyreadinginCO I just finished because I was vacationing and got behind and you have to be kidding me! Definitely agree w @dabbe though 3mo

34 likes1 stack add18 comments

BarkingMadRead

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

Ch 35: nooooooo #ripruth #thatsallihavetosayaboutthat #hashtagbrigade

willaful Soooooo depressing! Damn Victorians! 4mo

rubyslippersreads I knew it was coming. There was no other way Ruth could atone for her “sins” in a book written during this era. 😠 4mo

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Cuilin @rubyslippersreads yep!! 4mo

Bookwormjillk So the man recovers and the woman dies after committing the same sin. Got it. (edited) 4mo

mcctrish But #bellingshit gets to live #motherfucker Victorian morals are ridiculous #ffs 4mo

rubyslippersreads @Bookwormjillk @mcctrish Boys will be boys. 🤬 4mo

mcctrish @rubyslippersreads argh that saying infuriates me 4mo

AllDebooks Not the ending we hoped for, but all saw coming. 🙄 4mo

Clare-Dragonfly 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 4mo

rubyslippersreads Someone needs to write fan fiction where Donne dies a horrible death, but not before being publicly shamed. 😏 4mo

dabbe See? Just like Puritan philosophy. You died, so you must not be a witch. I mean whore. Whatever. I wish she had done to Donne what Tess did to the D'urberville dude. 😭 4mo

BarkingMadRead @dabbe @rubyslippersreads 💯 4mo

Aimeesue @rubyslippersreads Yep. Still made me very sad though. 4mo

julieclair Yup. Gaskell went there. As we all suspected she would but hoped she wouldn‘t. 😭 4mo

IndoorDame I was so mad about the sermon at her funeral! She can be absolved and go to heaven, but only after she‘s died to pay for her crimes!? (and spent a dozen years living a ridiculously saint like life). WTF is that!? 4mo

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Cuilin

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

pick

There‘s no doubt that Elizabeth Gaskill is a beautiful writer. Ruth appears to be a cautionary tale for young women. Women are the guardians of virtue because boys will be boys. And I think that is to malign men and women. Though it fits with Victorian values, the redress of “the fallen woman” to make it palatable in 1853, is excessive. It‘s definitely a pick, but I will not one I‘d easily recommend.
#HashtagBrigade @BarkingMadRead

46 likes

IndoorDame

Ruth | Elizabeth Gaskell

so-so

Gaskell is a great writer, but it was impossible for me to enjoy this the way I enjoyed her other books because it was way over my quota of infuriating Victorian morality.

TheBookHippie WORD. 🥴 4mo

dabbe 🎯. 4mo

53 likes2 comments

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