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Ruth is Elizabeth Gaskell's second novel and deals with the "theme of the fallen woman in the mid-Victorian era." The story of the long-suffering heroine, Ruth Hilton, is almost entirely based on a real life case that Gaskell herself encountered and helped resolve during her many charitable works as the wife of a Unitarian minister in Manchester.

Orphaned at a very young age, the strikingly beautiful, gentle-spirited Ruth Hilton ends up as an apprentice at a dressmaker's shop. (A precarious situation that Victorian readers readily believed exposed women to moral temptation.) The innocent and lonely Ruth falls prey to the attentions of Henry Bellingham, a wealthy and worldly man who is swept away by Ruth's naiveté. They leave for London and Wales, where she lives with Bellingham as a "kept woman." Bellingham falls ill.

His morally strict mother is summoned and horrified to learn of her son living in sin. She removes Ruth from her son's life and insists that her son abandon Ruth. He acquiesces, leaves some money, and never looks back.

Completely distraught, Ruth attempts suicide, but is saved, and taken in, by the kind and disfigured Thurston Benson, a dissenting minister, and his equally sympathetic sister, Faith. They learn Ruth is "with child." Faith suggests circulating a lie that Ruth is a widow called Mrs. Denbigh to protect her from a society that would surely ostracize her. Thurston, though going against his moral grain, eventually agrees to Faith's plan.

Ruth gives birth to a beautiful boy named Leonard. In the next six years, ever mindful of her sinful past and the sacrifices made by the Bensons, Ruth strives hard for spiritual strengthening and devotes herself entirely to raising her boy in the utmost manner.

Ruth matures into a steady figure that draws the attention of Mr. Bradshaw, the town's richest businessman, who is full of self-consequence and prides himself in being a morally upright man.

He is taken by Ruth's Madonna-like demeanor and decides to hire her as the model companion and governess for his daughters. Unfortunately, fate catches up with Ruth when Mr. Bradshaw decides to enter politics by supporting a certain "Mr. Donne" in the upcoming elections.

When Ruth meets him for the first time, Mr. Donne turns out to be the feckless lover that abandoned her six years ago.

As events start to unfold, and the lie begins to unravel, the safe haven that Ruth has built around her and her son comes crashing down, with morally disturbing consequences.

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About the Author: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson (29 September 1810 - 12 November 1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. She is perhaps best known for her biography of Charlotte Brontë. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.