MOORE, George, English author: b. Ire land, 1853. He studied art in London under Luyten, but completed his education in France and became thoroughly imbued with a Gallic spirit. Apart from a few contributions to periodicals, his first literary work was con tained in two volumes of quasi-French verse, 'Flowers of Parnassus' (1877) and 'Pagan Poems> (1881). With his entry into fiction he allied himself immediately with the French realistic or naturalistic school, as may be seen in 'A Mummer's Wife' (1884), a story of the degeneration of a farmer's wife, her elopement with a strolling player, and the sufficiently squalid sequel; in 'Mike Fletcher' (1891), in which a gay young Irishman wins a fortune by his wits and his social success, and then swings from his riotous living to remorse and back again, only to commit suicide at the end; or in 'Esther Waters> (1894), a detailed sketch of life among the servant class and in a country inn, the theme being the allurements of gam bling. 'Evelyn Innes> (1898) and its sequel, 'Sister Teresa' (1901), are a keen analysis of a musical and sensuous temperament under the successive influence of social temptation and of convent life. What he exemplified in these nov
els he stated abstractly but over-eagerly and passionately in 'Confessions of a Young Man' (l;:') and 'Impressions and Opinions' (1890), both urging the dead level of mediocrity or worse in English literature of the day as con trasted with French. His desire to found an English Theatre Libre* and his growing con viction that the English stage and English novel were far gone led him to assist in founding the Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin and to take a prominent part in the movement styled the Irish Renaissance, a movement of which his