The vintage girl's novel I chose to read for the month of May was Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time by Fanny Fern. As I had never heard of either the novel or the author before, I looked forward to finding out more about both. As a girl's novel this title fit the category only marginally, as the main character's youthful years are covered rather quickly. The story focuses mainly on her young adult life, especially after the death of her husband when she must struggle to find a way to earn a living for herself and her two young daughters. I did enjoy reading this semi-autobiographical work which incorporates many of the author's same difficulties in life during a time when women were not expected or encouraged to earn a living.
The author became a successful writer first as a newspaper columnist, at one time being the highest-paid columnist in the United States. Ruth Hall is her most successful novel, and was very popular when it came out, although it is less well known now. While the novel starts out strong and the story is well written and cohesive throughout the middle portion, I found the last portion of the novel a bit weak. After her heroine achieves financial success, the succeeding chapters seem a bit more haphazardly thrown together, almost as if the author had a few more bits from her own life she wanted to include in her novel whether they enhanced the narrative or not. For example, Ruth Hall and her daughters spend some time in a seaside hotel before moving to their new home. While they are there, a fire starts in the hotel which they just barely manage to flee with their lives. This may add an exciting tough to the story, but it just seems to have been thrown in to the story for no particular reason. While the novel's conclusion is not as strong as it could have been, the book is still a worthwhile read for the character descriptions as well as an insight into how difficult life was at the time for a woman with children who had no husband (sadly, it seems that not much has changed for a lot of women even now).
The reading challenge for June is to read a classic novel by an African-American author. I have decided to read Beloved, the 1987 novel by Toni Morrison. This is a genre that I have yet to experience, and it is high time I changed that. Unlike the older classics I have read thus far, this newer book is not available free online, so I will have to buy or borrow a paper copy.
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