George Moore

Moore, George

Moore, George, 1852–1933, English author, b. Ireland. As a young man he lived in Paris, studying at various art schools. Inspired by Zola, Flaubert, Turgenev, and the 19th-century French realists, Moore turned to writing, publishing his first novel, A Modern Lover, in 1883. A Mummer's Wife (1885), in portraying the degradation of a woman through alcohol, introduced naturalism into the Victorian novel. Moore's most famous novel, Esther Waters (1894), poignantly relates the poverty and hardships valiantly endured by a religious girl. Included among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Young Man (1888), Evelyn Innes (1898), Sister Teresa (1901), The Brook Kerith (1916), and Héloise and Abelard (1921); and the volumes of short stories Celibates (1895) and The Untilled Field (1903), the latter reminiscent of Dostoevsky. About 1900, Moore returned to Ireland and became associated with William Butler Yeats, George Russell (A. E.), and others in the Irish literary renaissance. His famous three-volume semiautobiographical work, Hail and Farewell (1911–14), is a highly entertaining account of his experiences in Ireland.

Bibliography

See his letters, ed. by H. E. Gerber (1968); biographies by S. L. Mitchell (1916), J. Hone (1936, repr. 1973), and A. Frazier (2000); studies by J. Egleson (1973), R. A. Cave (1978), J. E. Dunleavy, ed. (1983), and J. Egleson, ed. (1983).

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Moore, George

 

Born Feb. 24, 1852, in County Mayo, Ireland; died Jan. 21, 1933, in London. Irish writer.

The son of a landowner, Moore studied painting in London and Paris. His first novels, A Modem Lover (1883) and A Mummer’s Wife (1885), and the autobiographical novella Confessions of a Young Man (1888) are written in a naturalistic manner. The novels A Drama in Muslin (1886; Russian translation, 1887) and Esther Waters (1894; Russian translation, 1895) deal with social problems. The short-story collection The Untilled Field (1903), the novel The Lake (1905), and the autobiographical trilogy Hail and Farewell (1911–14) are about life in Ireland. Moore’s short stories show the influence of I. S. Turgenev, with whom Moore was acquainted.

WORKS

Works [vols. 1–20]. London, 1936–37.
Letters to Lady Cunard: 1895–1933. London, 1957.
In Russian translation:
Potustoronnie iskaniia. Moscow, 1904.

REFERENCES

Istoriia angliiskoi literatury, vol. 3. Moscow, 1958.
Hone, J. The Life of G. Moore. New York, 1936.
Brown, M. G. Moore: A Reconsideration. Seattle, Wash., 1955.
Cunard, N. Memories of G. Moore. London, 1956.
Williams, I. A. G. Moore: A Bibliography. London, 1921.
Noël, J. C. G. Moore. Paris, 1966. (Bibliography, pp. 553–647.)
Gilcher, E. A Bibliography of G. Moore. Dekalb, 111., 1970.

A. P. SARUKHANIAN

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.