Written in 1853, ‘Ruth’ is the second novel by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, the activist wife of a reformist Unitarian minister in Manchester, England. 
Controversial in its day, the novel straightforwardly and realistically tracks the fortunes of Ruth Hilton, who is outside the social and political establishment and is victimised by it yet ultimately triumphs over it. The novel is among the first to deal openly and deliberately with the conditions of fallen, downtrodden women in mid-nineteenth century England.