George Moore

Esther Waters George Moore Illustrated edition

Esther Waters is a novel by George Moore first published in 1894. Set in England from the early 1870s onward, the novel is about a young, pious woman from a poor working-class family who, while working as a kitchen maid, is seduced by another employee, becomes pregnant, is deserted by her lover, and against all odds decides to raise her child as a single mother. Esther Waters is one of a group of Victorian novels that depict the life of a "fallen woman".

Written in a Zola-like naturalistic style, the novel stands out among Moore's publications as the book whose immediate success, including Gladstone's approval of the novel in the Westminster Gazette, [1] brought him financial security. Moore's fellow late nineteenth century novelist' George Gissing, wrote there was "some pathos and power in latter part, but miserable writing. The dialogue often grotesquely phrased".[2] Continuously revised by Moore (1899, 1917, 1920, 1931), it is often regarded as his best novel.