Drawing on her own experiences - suffering the death of her child and husband, a bitter estrangement from her family, and her struggle to make a living as a writer - the author's heroine, like herself, is forced to create a life that defies traditional assumptions about a woman's place in society.
In Ruth Hall, one of the bestselling novels of the 1850s, Fanny Fern drew heavily on her own experiences: the death of her first child and her beloved husband, a bitter estrangement from her family, and her struggle to make a living as a writer. Written as a series of short vignettes and snatches of overheard conversations, it is as unconventional in style as in substance and strikingly modern in its impact.
