He MR. GEORGE MOORE, poet, novelist, dramatist and art critic, was born in Ireland in 1857. His father was George Henry Moore, M.P., of Moore Hall, County Mayo, who united considerable literary ability with political activity and was a Nationalist and a member of the Young Ireland party. George Moore was educated at Oscott College near Birmingham, studied art in Paris and early gave proof that his father's taste for letters had descended to him. has produced some twenty books, including, besides fiction, verse, drama, and criticism, and though conventional English critics and timid managers of circulating libraries at first refused to accept his works, he has long been recognized as one of the greatest living writers of fiction. In his 'Confessions of a Young Man' he early showed himself a worshiper of Shelley, and it was he who introduced to English readers several of the writers who created the symbolist movement in French literature, notably Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Jules Laforgue, Gustave Kahn and Stéphane Mallarmé. เ เ 6 · He has also written perhaps the two best essays in English on Balzac, the greatest of French novelists, and on Turgueneff, the great Russian novelist. His first two books were verse, Flowers of Passion' (1877) and 'Pagan Poems' (1881). These were followed by 'A Modern Lover' (1883), 'A Mummer's Wife' (1884), 'Literature at Nurse, or Circulating Morals' (1885), in which he threw down the challenge to Messrs. Mudie and Smith of circulating-library fame, that the support of the libraries was not vital to his existence as an author; 'A Drama in Muslin' (1886), 'Parnell and his Island' (1887), 'A Mere Accident' (1887), 'Confessions of a Young Man (1888), largely a history of his opinions and in part biographical; 'Spring Days (1888), Mike Fletcher' (1889), Impressions and Opinions (1890), a book of fascinating critical interest; 'Vain Fortune' (1890) Modern Painting' (1893), The Strike at Arlingford,' a drama, (1893), 'Esther Waters' (1894), 'Celibates' (1895), Evelyn Innes (1898), The Bending of the Bough,' a play written for the Irish Literary Theater (1900); Sister Theresa,' the sequel of 'Evelyn Innes' (1901), and a collection of short stories dealing with Irish subjects under the title Untilled Fields' (1903). Mr. Moore has also collaborated (1894) with Mrs. Craigie in a little comedy called 'Journeys End in Lovers Meeting,' written for Ellen Terry, and with Mr. W. B. Yeats (1901) in a very successful four-act drama founded on the old Irish epic tale of 'Diarmuid and Grania.' Mr. Moore also wrote a vigorous introduction to the English translation of Zola's 'Pot-Bouille,' published under the name 'Piping Hot' (1885), and a charming preface to Lena Milman's translation of Dostoievsky's 'Poor Folk' (London, 1894), and also an introduction to two plays of Mr. Edward Martyn, 'The Heather Field' and 'Maeve,' which set forth the aims of the Irish Literary Theater (1899). With Mr. W. B. Yeats, Mr. Edward Martyn, Dr. Douglas Hyde, Mr. George W. Russell and others, he contributed to 'Ideals in Ireland' (1901). In 'Parnell and his Island' (1887) he made an attack upon the Irish party of that day, but has seen the error of his ways, and in 1900 gave up his residence in London and left what he termed the "Brixton Empire" for Dublin, where he has since resided. By the "Brixton Empire" Mr. Moore meant "the empire of vulgarity and greed, and materialism and hypocrisy, that is crawling round the whole world, throttling other races and nationalities-all for their own good, of course!-and reducing everything to one machine-made Brixton pattern." In fiction Mr. Moore is a realist and if he has any theory it may perhaps be summed up in the following notable and dignified utterance upon the function of the novel, made by himself in A Drama in Muslin': "Seen from afar, all things in nature are of equal worth; and the meanest things, when viewed with the eyes of God, are raised to heights of tragic awe which conventionality would limit to the deaths of kings or patriots. The history of a nation as often lies hidden in social wrongs and domestic griefs as in the story of revolution, and if it be for the historian to narrate the one it is for the novelist to dissect and explain the other." While Mr. Moore's chief fame rests upon his novels, he has also achieved distinction as one of the ablest of living art critics, his best work of this kind being found in his 'Modern Painting,' which called forth the euology of such an eminent critic as the late Walter Pater. (George Moore as an Art Critic,' Daily Chronicle, June 10, 1893, reprinted in Pater's 'Uncollected Essays,' Portland, 1903.) Perhaps the two best critical estimates of Mr. Moore's work are the appreciation by Mr. E. A. Bennett in his volume of essays Fame and Fiction' (1901) and the long essay by Professor H. T. Peck in his book 'The Personal Equation.' Mr. Bennett gives a candid recognition of Mr. Moore's eminence as a serious novelist, and speaking of perhaps his best known novel, Esther Waters,' sums up his opinion as follows: "It teaches, as all true art must. It is more than a story; it seeks to do something more than please. And this seriousness, this religious devotion to truth, this proud scorn of every prejudice which might limit his scope: these qualities, occurring as they do everywhere in Mr. Moore's work, differentiate that work from that of almost all his contemporaries. Professor Peck gives perhaps an even higher estimate of Mr. Moore's work: "A profound psychologist, a sensitivist who feels to his very finger tips the slightest breath of things, a genius fettered by the chains of pure materialism, yet none the less and with all his limitations and perversities the greatest literary artist who has struck the chords of English since the death of Thackeray.' THE EXILE. FromUntilled Fields."1 I. Pat Phelan's bullocks were ready for the fair, and so were his pigs; but the two fairs happened to come on the 1 Copyright 1903 by J. B. Lippincott Company. By permission. same day, and he thought he would like to sell the pigs himself. His eldest son, James, was staying at home to help Catherine Ford with her churning; Peter, his second son, was not much of a hand at a bargain; it was Pat and James who managed the farm, and when Peter had gone to bed they began to wonder if Peter would be able to sell the bullocks. Pat said Peter had been told the lowest price he could take, James said there was a good demand for cattle, and at last they decided that Peter could not fail to sell the beasts. Pat was to meet Peter at the cross-roads about twelve o'clock in the day. But he had sold his pigs early, and was half an hour in front of him, and sitting on the stile waiting for his son, he thought if Peter got thirteen pounds apiece for the bullocks he would say he had done very well. A good jobber, he thought, would be able to get ten shillings apiece more for them; and he went on thinking of what price Peter would get, until, suddenly looking up the road, whom should he see but Peter coming down the road with the bullocks in front of him. He could hardly believe his eyes, and it was a long story that Peter told him about two men who wanted to buy the bullocks early in the morning. They had offered him eleven pounds ten, and when he would not sell them at that price they had stood laughing at the bullocks and doing all they could to keep off other buyers. Peter was quite certain it was not his fault, and he began to argue. But Pat Phelan was too disappointed to argue with him, and he let him go on talking. At last Peter ceased talking, and this seemed to Pat Phelan a good thing. The bullocks trotted in front of them. They were seven miles from home, and fifteen miles are hard on fat animals, and he could truly say he was at a loss of three pounds that day if he took into account the animals' keep. Father and son walked on, and not a word passed between them till they came to Michael Quinn's public-house. "Did you get three pounds apiece for the pigs, father?" "I did, and three pounds five." 66 "We might have a drink out of that." It seemed to Peter that the men inside were laughing at him or at the lemonade he was drinking, and, seeing among them one who had been interfering with him all day, he |