Esther Waters

By George Moore

Book Overview

Here is the only available paperback edition of George Moore's powerful novel, Esther Waters. Controversial and influential on its first appearance in 1894, the book opened up a new direction for the English realist tradition. Unflinching in its depiction of the dark and sordid side of Victorian culture, it remains one of the great novels of London life and labor in the 1890s. The novel depicts with extraordinary candor Esther's struggles against prejudice and injustice, and the growth of her character as she determines to protect her son. Her moving story is set against the backdrop of a world of horse racing, betting, and public houses, whose vivid depiction led James Joyce to call Esther Waters "the best novel of modern English life."

The new introduction by Stephen Regan examines the novel's vivid depiction of Victorian sub-culture, horse-racing and gambling, the London tavern, and the life of working-class women, and he also explores the stylistic influences of French naturalism and Impressionist painting. The new edition includes considerably expanded explanatory notes that provide helpful glosses on unfamiliar expressions and define a range of horse racing and betting terms. In addition, there is an improved chronology and a new bibliography.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199583013
• ISBN13: 9780199583010
• Release Date: October 2012
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A nice little time capsule of the period

A nice insightful look into the life of a working class umarried mother of the late victorian period who copes with her misfortune of falling in with the WRONG PERSON and struggles to rise from the situation towards her self redemption. Everyone can identify with this main character. It is cold and unsentimental. Very Victorian in its writing and very very real in its view. Absolutely unflinching in its view. I got this novel to give me insights into the period. I found more than I was looking for and am very very well pleased as will anybody who cares to sit down and read this delightful novel. Good look for the student of history interested in Victorian England. A joy for anyone interested in the life of women. And a very good moral novel that anyone will enjoy reading.

An unflinching survey of poverty and survival

An unsentimental (nearly unemotional) survey of poverty’s crushing dehumanization. Born impoverished, the title character is nonetheless raised with a carefully defined sense of morality and self-respect. This is wrung out of her over years of economic exploitation and casual sadism by the moneyed class. By the end of the novel she’s accepting the most degrading misfortune as almost a birthright. The Victorian writing requires careful reading. The paragraph where Esther has premarital sex is so opaque that it’s uncertain what exactly happened until later when the pregnancy is revealed. And certainly the word ‘pregnancy’ isn’t used ("Yes Ma’am, I’m 7 months gone"). Finally a pet peeve about phonetically spelling dialects. Reading dialogue like " ‘e went ‘ome to see ‘is wife, but she locked ‘im out o’ the ‘ouse. " gets mighty tiresome.

First major English realist novel

George Moore was an Irish landowner who received his indoctrination into the world of art and literature in France. His encounter there with the realist movement led to the first three truly realistic (defined as against the prevailing moralism and/or melodrama of Victorian fiction) novels in English literature proper: A Modern Lover, A Mummer's Wife and Esther Waters.Of the three, Esther Waters is the most fully developed and it is certainly the most engaging for a modern reader. In it, a woman has a child out of wedlock, and not only survives (through a variety of trials that are dispassionately but unflinchingly depicted) but in a manner of speaking prospers (Compare this for example with Elizabeth Gaskell's *Ruth*, written some 40+ years earlier).A great read. An important milestone in the transition from moralism to realism in English fiction. An Irish writer who played an important role in the Irish literary renaissance in the early years of the 19th century.Well worth the read.