Elizabeth Gaskell 
Ruth (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) 

Published in 1853, this novel features a young orphan girl named Ruth, who works in a sweatshop and is seduced by Henry Bellingham, a wealthy rake. Eventually abandoned by Bellingham, Ruth gives birth to a son, Leonard, whom she tries to raise in ignorance of the circumstances of his birth. But her past pursues her to a tragic end.

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Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) was a prominent Victorian novelist. She wrote lasting gothic ghost stories such as “The Old Nurse’s Story, ” as well as prominent industrial fiction, including North and South. She even took inspiration from her close friends, Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens, writing Brontë’s biography as she focused on the role of women in society to create classic works of all kinds.