"Ruth Hall - A Domestic Tale of the Present Time" is an 1854 novel by American writer Fanny Fern. The story revolves around Ruth Hall—a fictionalized version of the author—and follows her happy marriage, destitute widowhood, and eventual success as a newspaper columnist. Sara Payson Willis (1811–1872), also known as Fanny Fern, was an American novelist, humorist, newspaper columnist, and children's writer during the 1850s and 1870s. Fern's novels became incredibly popular and, by 1855, she was the highest-paid US columnist. In 1854, Fern signed a contract to write a full-length novel, and within just a few months, she had finished "Ruth Hall". One of her most celebrated works and a popular subject among feminist literary scholars, "Ruth Hall", is highly recommended for those interested in feminism and feminist literature. Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this classic novel now in a brand new edition complete with the introductory essay "Sara Payson Willis Parton" by Frances Elizabeth Willard & Mary Ashton Rice Livermore.

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.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Fanny Fern, born Sara Willis (July 9, 1811 - October 10, 1872), was an American novelist, children's writer, humorist, and newspaper columnist in the 1850s to 1870s. Fern's popularity has been attributed to her conversational style and sense of what mattered to her mostly middle-class female readers. By 1855, Fern was the highest-paid columnist in the United States, commanding $100 per week for her New York Ledger column. A collection of her columns published in 1853 sold 70,000 copies in its first year. Her best-known work, the fictional autobiography Ruth Hall (1854), has become a popular subject among feminist literary scholars.Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time is a roman à clef, French for novel with a key, A roman à clef is a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. Following on her meteoric rise to fame as a columnist, Fanny Fern 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.