Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time, by Fanny Fern (Penguin Classics, £7.99 in UK)

Whether or not this is a classic, it is curiously relevant in a socio-economic sense. First published in 1855, it was praised by Hawthorne, who wrote: "The woman writes as if the devil was in her." It is, in fact, rather a proto-feminist novel, about a young widow, a single mother, who after her husband's early death refuses the easy option of remarriage, and instead makes a career for herself as a writer and journalist. Apparently Fanny Fern drew heavily on her own experiences after the loss of her husband and her first child, though - unlike her heroine - she eventually remarried. It is no masterpiece, but it is no museum piece either. B.F.