Ruth Hall


Book Description

In Fanny Fern’s novel Ruth Hall, Miss Ruth Hall must learn to navigate life without her husband, Harry, after he unexpectantly dies from typhoid fever. This follows the death of Harry and Ruth’s eldest daughter, Daisy, who passed tragically by contracting a respiratory illness. In the thick of mourning and with her two youngest daughters to support, Ruth must find a way to make end meet. After she resorts to begging, her father agrees to give her a small amount of money. Unable to afford anything else, Rith moves her family to an unsafe, run-down part of town. Despite the discouragement from her parents and older brother, she decides to pursue writing, as she has exhausted her other job opportunities. Ruth finds an editors, Mr. Lascom and Mr. Tibbetts, who both publish her works. Though readers really enjoy her work which earns the newspapers more subscriptions but neither Mr. Lascom nor Mr. Tibbets will pay Ruth fairly for her contributions. Because of this, she still struggles despite having a job. As Ruth continues her passion, working hard to survive off her modest salary, she meets a new publisher, who promises to pay her more than the other publishers, on the condition that Ruth writes exclusively for him. Ruth Hall is a story of endurance and excellence. Widowed and poor, Ruth is able to pull herself up and become a successful writer, loving mother and find love again after losing her first husband. First published in 1854, Fanny Fern completed Ruth Hall in just a few months, writing with passion that remains evident even to modern day readers. This edition of Ruth Hall by Fanny Fern features an eye-catching new cover design and is presented in a font that is both modern and readable. With these accommodations, this edition is accessible and appealing to contemporary audiences, restoring Ruth Hall to modern standards while preserving the emotion and brilliance of Fanny Fern’s work.




Ruth Hall


Book Description




Melville’s Anatomies


Book Description

"What Otter has done better than most contemporary readers of Melville is to bring Melville's obsession with rhetoric and with authorship into alignment with those political issues and to capture fully the context of Melville's concerns."—Priscilla Wald, author of Constituting Americans




Ruth Hall - A Domestic Tale of the Present Time - The Original Classic Edition


Book Description

Finally available, a high quality book of the original classic edition of Ruth Hall - A Domestic Tale of the Present Time. It was previously published by other bona fide publishers, and is now, after many years, back in print. This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work by Fanny Fern, which is now, at last, again available to you. Get the PDF and EPUB NOW as well. Included in your purchase you have Ruth Hall - A Domestic Tale of the Present Time in EPUB AND PDF format to read on any tablet, eReader, desktop, laptop or smartphone simultaneous - Get it NOW. Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside Ruth Hall - A Domestic Tale of the Present Time: Look inside the book: Ruth, also, remembered when her father came home and found company to tea, how he frowned and complained of headache, although he always ate as heartily as any of the company; and how after tea he would stretch himself out upon the sofa and say, “I think I’ll take a nap;” and then, he would close his eyes, and if the company commenced talking, he would start up and say to Ruth, who was sitting very still in the corner, “Ruth, don’t make such a noise;” and when Ruth’s mother would whisper gently in his ear, “Wouldn’t it be better, dear, if you laid down up stairs? ...Equally astonishing to the unsophisticated Ruth, was the demureness with which they would bend over their books when the pale, meek-eyed widow, employed as duenna, went the rounds after tea, to see if each inmate was preparing the next day’s lessons, and the coolness with which they would jump up, on her departure, put on their bonnets and shawls, and slip out at the side-street door to meet expectant lovers; and when the pale widow went the rounds again at nine o’clock, she would find them demurely seated, just where she left them, apparently busily conning their lessons! ...The doctor regarded it as a little automaton,40 for pleasant Æsculapian experiments in his idle hours; the old lady viewed it as another barrier between herself and Harry, and another tie to cement his already too strong attachment for Ruth; and Betty groaned, when she thought of the puny interloper, in connection with washing and ironing days; and had already made up her mind that the first time its nurse used her new saucepan to make gruel, she would strike for higher wages.




Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time


Book Description

The first novel by Fanny Fern, otherwise known as Sara Payson Willis, is a semi-autobiographical tale of a talented writer who loses her husband and is forced to support herself and two young children in the mid 1800s. Fern writes with biting social commentary on the subject of traditional assumptions of a woman's place in society.




Bibliotheca Californiae


Book Description




Ruth Hall


Book Description

Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time is a roman a clef by Fanny Fern (pen name of Sara Payson Willis), a popular 19th-century newspaper writer. Following on her meteoric rise to fame as a columnist, she signed a contract in February 1854 to write a full-length novel. She finished Ruth Hall within a few months, and it was first published in November 1854. In the first chapter, young Ruth Ellet sits at her window on the night before her wedding, reflecting on her life so far. When her mother died long ago, she was sent away to boarding school, where she excelled at writing compositions. There is no love lost between Ruth and her father, who has plenty of money but begrudges her every penny; and although she adores her talented older brother, Hyacinth, he is a strange, cold-hearted man who slights his sister for her overtures of affection. Ruth, therefore, pins all her hopes on her impending marriage to Harry Hall. She duly marries Harry. He is a good, loving man, and handsome and prosperous, too. At this stage, the only thorn in Ruth's side is Harry's parents: old Mrs. Hall is so bitterly jealous of her son's pretty new wife that she finds fault with her constantly, and both in-laws meddle continually in Ruth's life. When Harry and Ruth move to a farm five miles away, they follow him.