Ruth

Ruth

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn

London: Chapman & Hall, 1853

Internet Archive

1853

George Eliot to Mrs. Peter Alfred Taylor, 1 February 1853. “Of course you have read ‘Ruth’ by this time. Its style was a great refreshment to me, from its finish and fulness. How women have the courage to write and publishers the spirit to buy at a high price the false and feeble representations of life and character that most feminine novels give, is a constant marvel to me. ‘Ruth,’ with all its merits, will not be an enduring or classical fiction -- will it? Mrs Gaskell seems to me to be constantly misled by a love of sharp contrasts -- of "dramatic" effects. She is not contented with the subdued colouring -- the half tints of real life. Hence she agitates one for the moment, but she does not secure one's lasting sympathy; her scenes and characters do not become typical. But how pretty and graphic are the touches of description! That little attic in the minister's house, for example, which, with its pure white dimity bed-curtains, its bright-green walls, and the rich brown of its stained floor, remind one of a snowdrop springing out of the soil. Then the rich humour of Sally, and the sly satire in the description of Mr Bradshaw. Mrs Gaskell has certainly a charming mind, and one cannot help loving her as one reads her books.” GEL 2: 86

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, Ruth, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57541

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