The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

Dear participants,
This is only a tentative schedule for our upcoming Gaskell read ‘Ruth’. My idea is to start on Friday, May 3, 2013. Although it is not the beginning of the week, but it will help us to finish on the last day of May, and we will have four complete weeks of discussion.
Week 1 (May 03 – May 9) Chapters I- X
Week 2 (May 10 – May 16) Chapters XI – XX
Week 3 (May 17 – May 23) Chapters XXI – XXVI
Week 4 (May 24 – May 31) Chapters XXVII – XXXVI

As I have already mentioned, this is just a general idea, but I tried to split the book into four roughly equal sections, but because of the size of individual chapters, you might read four or five pages less or more per week.

I am open to your suggestions. It looks like that I am going to moderate the discussion, but I will be traveling across the world, so I will go online according to the time-zone I am in. I might also be late to open threads, but Silver and Deborah will do it for me. I promise to moderate and lead the discussion, but you have to be a little bit patient if it is somewhat irregular.

Zulfiya - I am so grateful that you are moderating. I will be happy to post the threads for you as the time arrives. I'll try to post them the day before the first date, i.e. so May 2 for Week 1. That way it should help with any time zone differences. If you needed the thread posted earlier than that, just let me know.

This looks good-I've started already as I enjoyed our previous 2 novels so much.

I just got the book yesterday, and am excited to read a 'new' Gaskell!

Purchased this book a few months ago and am eager to read another Gaskell book.

I don't recall having read this one so am looking forward to it. I am posting the background material below now because I am in Devon from 4-6th at a birthday party for my son's 300 year old cottage:).

Possible spoiler: (view spoiler)[Ruth (1853) was the first mainstream novel to make a fallen woman its eponymous heroine. It is a remarkable story of love, of the sanctuary and tyranny of the family, and of the consequences of lies and deception, one that lays bare Victorian hypocrisy and sexual double-standards. Shocking to contemporary readers, its radical utopian vision of "a pure woman faithfully presented" predates Hardy's Tess by nearly forty years. (hide spoiler)]

Here is a map showing the Eastern Counties of England where Ruth is set. They are flat, agricultural counties on land rescued from the sea in the 16C by Dutch engineers:-

http://www.british-towns.net/england/...

The novel begins 'There is an assize-town in one of the eastern counties...': Assize towns were established by the Assize of Clarendon 1166, when King Henry II established trial by jury by a grand assize of twelve knights in land disputes, and provided for itinerant justices to set up county courts for the trial of criminals. Justices of the Court of King's Bench, Justices of the Court of Common Pleas, and Barons of the Exchequer of Pleas travelled around the country on five commissions, upon which their jurisdiction depended. Minor offences were dealt with summarily by Justices of the Peace in petty sessions (also known as Magistrates' Courts).

York still has some narrow Tudor streets with the sort of architecture described in Chapter 1:-

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A...

And Chester has some superb examples of balconies and oriels, with 'projections and advanced stories above'. (Oriels are protruding windows supported by brackets or stone corbels, often carved with the Tudor rose.):-

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images...

Happy to see Zulfiya is moderating! Since we are between books with Dickens and this is the only major novel of Gaskell's that I haven't read, I am happy to participate.

Robin wrote: "Happy to see Zulfiya is moderating! Since we are between books with Dickens and this is the only major novel of Gaskell's that I haven't read, I am happy to participate."

Thank you, Robin.

As we are having a little break in our Dickens read I will try to join in as well, which, unfortunately, did not work out with Cranford and North and South. However, hopefully the month of May will not be as busy for me as the months of April and March were. :-)

Zulfiya, thanks for moderating again and I hope you will have safe intercontinental trips.

Hedi wrote: "As we are having a little break in our Dickens read I will try to join in as well, which, unfortunately, did not work out with Cranford and North and South. However, hopefully the month of May will..."

Thank you, Robin. I do not mind flying, but I hate catching the connecting flights :-((((((

Zulfiya wrote: "...I do not mind flying, but I have catching the connecting flights :-(((((( ..."

Hopefully, over U.S. air space, Congress has helped relieve the aggravation. My kids experienced the ubiquitous two hour delays last week.

Deborah wrote: "Zulfiya - I am so grateful that you are moderating. I will be happy to post the threads for you as the time arrives. I'll try to post them the day before the first date, i.e. so May 2 for Week 1...."

Deborah, thank you so much. Your help will be very appreciated. I am leaving on May 9, so if I am stranded somewhere (I hope it will not happen), please help me to open the thread.

Lily wrote: "Zulfiya wrote: "...I do not mind flying, but I have catching the connecting flights :-(((((( ..."

Hopefully, over U.S. air space, Congress has helped relieve the aggravation. My kids experienced ..."

This is the thing I am not looking forward to: -( Out of three recent trips with layovers, I was stranded overnight twice. Well, statistically, this time, it is not possible, but you know there is a saying attributed to Disraeli, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Zulfiya wrote: "...Out of three recent trips with layovers, I was stranded overnight twice..."

Ouch! Better fortune in the weeks ahead!

"... a saying attributed to Disraeli, 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'"

Thanks for this! I had always associated that quotation with Mark Twain. Wiki tells me he popularized it in America.

MadgeUK wrote: "I don't recall having read this one so am looking forward to it. I am posting the background material below now because I am in Devon from 4-6th at a birthday party for my son's 300 year old cotta..."

Thanks Madge, these were very interesting links. I remember visiting Chester many years ago, very striking architecture.

There must be a great deal of travel in the novel, for Ruth and Mr Bellingham to travel from the Eastern Counties into Wales.