Moore's tale of a "fallen woman" necessarily bears comparison to Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. However, whereas Tess is freed from the stigma of raising an illegitimate child because her boy dies in infancy, in Moore's novel one sees the struggles of a working-class woman who has to raise her child to adulthood. Tess is confronted with some painful choices and ends up paying the ultimate penalty for her one act of determined rebellion and vengeance. With Moore's heroine, Esther, though, we see a woman confronted with very different but equally difficult choices all resulting from her child living. Esther must overcome loss of employment, extreme poverty, and the despised workhouse. The reader gets a real glimpse into the difficulties of a single woman raising an illegitimate child in late Victorian England. Those difficulties notwithstanding, the reader also gets to see the determination of a devoted mother to her son.

George Moore certainly does not rise to the top of the list of inspired writers. He is neither as descriptive nor as elegant a writer as Thomas Hardy; the telling of his tale suffers as a result. As an example, the rape scene in Tess is written with such sublime inspiration as to leave the reader in awe of the act. Moore manages to pass over the deed in a few quick sentences. Further, although Moore talks of Esther's time in the workhouse, he never adequately describes the horrors of the place. The reader can be forgiven for thinking that the hell of these workhouses was not all that bad.

The most striking difference between these two novels comes at the end. In Tess we are confronted with the image of Tess at the end of the hangman's noose after murdering her assailant, but Moore takes Ester to a completely different place. We see her at the end of the book with her former and current employer, Mrs. Barfield, working as a maid at Woodview where the story began. The closing scene is of Esther's son, Jack, coming to visit and embracing his mother. it comes as the fitting end for a woman who had endured such privation but showered such love on her son, Jack, in order to raise him. She is rewarded with his love as he embarks on his own adult life. In this way Esther is triumphant, almost redeemed. As such, George Moore's novel can be read as an uplifting book expounding the virtues of hard work and sacrifice in the service of familial devotion. ( )

This book really bowled me over. It deserves a place as one of the greatest works of Victorian fiction. I loved the way Moore was able to realistically portray not only a woman but a working-class woman. I wept at her struggle to keep her illegitimate child, shared her determination and felt the difficulty of her choices. Yet it is neither downbeat nor sentimental. A much more true to life portrait of a Victorian girl who bears an illegitimate child than Mrs Gaskell's Ruth (much as I admire and enjoy Mrs G's works). And certainly better than Tess of the D'Urbervilles (but I have never been a big Hardy fan. Thomas or Oliver...) ( )

799. Esther Waters An English Story by George Moore (read 11 Mar 1965) I was at the time I read this book immersed in 19th century English literature and asked a friend (who subsequ ently went on to obtain a doctorate in the field) for suggestions and he named this book as the book to read by George Moore. I did and think I felt it was well worth reading. ( )

Fascinating and disturbing picture of life for poor women in late 19th-century England. Baby-farming and other horrors are vividly portrayed. Were women back then really all that self-sacrificing or is this Victorian stereotyping? Still, heroine is enduring and book is worth reading. ( )