SOLVED. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell. A classic book, centred around romance.

[sam]

I read this book in 2019. It's a classic, I know that.

A poor young woman, possibly a teenager works in some kind of a cloth-making or tailoring shop? Then one day, she goes to this gathering with her shopmates to sell cloth to the rich upper class. A rich handsome young man falls in love with her and urges her to come with him. The owner of the shop, a strict matronly woman, gets to know of this and warns her not to see him again but she does anyway.

They travel far away from that place and start living in a hotel or sth without getting married. The girl becomes pregnant. The mother of the man gets to know of this and persuades him to leave her. So he does. And the girl's left alone.

An older man pities her and takes her to his house, where he lives with his sister. His sister isn't exactly encouraging. The girl starts to work for a rich family as a governess and befriends a daughter of the family. The daughter was initially courted by an older man, but she rejects him. Then the man starts to court the main character, which makes the daughter resent the mc. Mc isn't encouraging towards the man, just polite.

The child is born and the brother and the sister (who take care of the mc) tell everyone that the mc is a distant relative whose husband died before the child was born. Things go on as usual, except the daughter becomes increasingly cold towards mc.

Then rumours start to spread that the mc had engaged in premarital relationships and that the child is illegitimate. Mc loses her job, eliciting empathy from the daughter. Then a friend of the brother (who takes care of the mc) visits them one day and talks to them about his life. He is a doctor and talks about a particular patient.


SPOILER ALERT








The patient was the man the mc fell in love with before. He was very sick and the disease was contagious so nurses weren't willing to take care of him. The mc gets to know of this and rushes to take care of him. He's saved. The MC's dead.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Samadrita, please add some plot details to your topic header (title) using the edit link. It's too vague now. Pack as many details as will fit, excluding spoilers.

[Kris]

Sam, I notice your request is in a Solved folder. Just to confirm, did you find your book?

[sam]

Yeah it's solved.

[Rainbowheart]

Ruth for the link.