Esther Waters is a novel by George Moore, first published in 1894, but subsequently revised several times. It is widely considered Moore's finest novel. Esther Waters concerns the eponymous heroine, a poor but pious woman whose life takes an unfortunate series of turns that end up pitting her personal conscience against prevailing social standards. Esther Waters begins by describing Esther's upbringing by devout Plymouth Brethren parents in a small town in Devonshire. The Plymouth Brethren was a small, non-conformist evangelical church that others often looked at askance. Esther's father dies while she is young, and her mother moves the family to London. There she remarries to a man who is abusive to both her and Esther. Esther's stepfather pulls her out of school before she learns to read or write – a decision that will haunt her the rest of her life. Esther gets a job working for the Barfields, a family of newly wealthy horse breeders and racers. She takes a position as a kitchen maid. During her tenure with the Barfields, the young – and beautiful – Esther fatefully meets a footman named William Latch, who seduces and impregnates her. William promises to marry Esther, but elopes with the Barfields' niece, with whom he has been having an affair, leaving Esther pregnant and abandoned. Once Esther's pregnancy becomes obvious, Mrs. Barfield – a fellow Plymouth Sister, and a friend to Esther – regretfully fires Esther because, she says, she would make a poor example to the other girls. Esther returns to London, renting a room outside her family home to avoid her stepfather. Her mother dies giving birth to her eighth child at the same time as Esther finally gives birth to her own son, a healthy baby boy named Jack. Esther's younger sister comes to her during her confinement to beg for money for a trip to Australia – the family is going to emigrate. Desperate for money, Esther decides to become a wet nurse, taking a job suckling the child of a wealthy woman. The woman disallows Esther to be in contact with her own child out of fear of disease, so Esther has to place her own son in the care of a baby farmer. When Esther does visit her son, he is sickly, and Esther fears for his life. She immediately reclaims her child, ending her employment with the wealthy woman, and resigning herself to the fact that she will now have to enter a workhouse for food and shelter. She has no other choice. While in the workhouse, Esther meets Mrs. Lewis, who offers to take Jack in so Esther can return to service work. Mrs. Lewis is a widow, lonely but with means. With Jack placed in her care, Esther takes up a number of servant positions, but they are all problematic for one reason or another. In some cases, employers fire her when they find out that she had a child out of wedlock – the deleterious effect of Esther's (undeservedly poor) reputation upon her ability to survive is a perpetual concern of Moore's. Eventually, she finds work with Miss Rice, an unmarried novelist who isn't put off by Esther's situation. It is while working for Miss Rice that Esther meets Fred Parsons, another Plymouth Brethren member, who resolves to marry her and offer her the respectable and stable life she desires. Jack, however, dislikes Fred. At this same time, Esther runs into the man who first started her down the road to her troubles, William Latch. William has moved up in the world; he is now a bookmaker and the owner of a licensed public house in Soho. He is still an inveterate gambler, but fortune, it seems, has been in his favor – he claims to be worth “three thousand pounds.” He has separated from the Barfields' niece and is waiting for a divorce. Claiming to have always loved her, he proposes to Esther. Esther is faced with a classic dilemma: the stolid but stable suitor vs. the passionate but unreliable one – and though Esther would rather marry Fred, who shares her religious devotion, she decides to marry William because Jack likes him much better. Things go well with William at first: Esther is able to afford a servant of her own, and there is money to send Jack to school. However, as a result of gambling, William not only loses most of his money but also the license for his pub (where he was conducting much of the gambling). Further, he soon develops tuberculosis. His poor health makes William less, not more conservative with his money, and days before his death, he places all his remaining fortune on a single bet – and loses it. Widowed and impoverished in the space of days, Esther is again left with no apparent hope, again because of William Latch. She considers returning to work for Miss Rice, but she has died. She contacts Mrs. Barfield, however, and is offered work. Jack remains in London, as he is now old enough to make his own way. When Esther returns to the Barfield estate, it has fallen into ruin. Nonetheless, Esther stays on, bonding with Mrs. Barfield who shares her religion; Esther finds that, for the first time in her life, she is able to practice openly. The women live quietly and piously, and the story ends with Jack, who has joined the military, coming to pay them a visit. Esther Waters is an interesting contrast to the contemporary Tess of the D'Urbervilles, another story that follows the life of a “fallen woman.” Both novels exploit the pathos of their protagonist’s struggles to live morally upright lives in the wake of losing public face – Tess, however, ends very differently than Esther Waters. Nevertheless, both are notable examples of a common literary preoccupation in nineteenth-century Britain: the moral status of women who did not fit neatly into one of the few social roles available to them.

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George Augustus Moore

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