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George Moore

George Augustus Moore (24 February 1852 – 21 January 1933) was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo.[1] He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s. There, he befriended many of the leading French artists and writers of the day.

As a naturalistic writer, he was amongst the first English-language authors to absorb the lessons of the French realists, and was particularly influenced by the works of Émile Zola.[2] His writings influenced James Joyce, according to the literary critic and biographer Richard Ellmann,[3] and, although Moore's work is sometimes seen as outside the mainstream of both Irish and British literature, he is as often regarded as the first great modern Irish novelist.

George Moore's family had lived in Moore Hall, near Lough Carra, County Mayo, for almost a century.[4] The house was built by his paternal great-grandfather—also called George Moore—who had made his fortune as a wine merchant in Alicante.[5] The novelist's grandfather—another George—was a friend of Maria Edgeworth, and author of An Historical Memoir of the French Revolution.[6] His great-uncle, John Moore, was president of the Province of Connacht in the short-lived Irish Republic of 1798[7] during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

George Moore's father, George Henry Moore, sold his stable and hunting interests during the Great Irish Famine, and from 1847 to 1857 served as an Independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Mayo in the British House of Commons.[8] George Henry was renowned as a fair landlord, fought to uphold the rights of tenants,[9] and was a founder of the Catholic Defence Association. His estate consisted of 5000 ha (50 km2) in Mayo, with a further 40 ha in County Roscommon.

Early life

Moore was born in Moore Hall in 1852. As a child, he enjoyed the novels of Walter Scott, which his father read to him.[10] He spent a good deal of time outdoors with his brother, Maurice George Moore, and also became friendly with the young Willie and Oscar Wilde, who spent their summer holidays at nearby Moytura. Oscar was to later quip of Moore: "He conducts his education in public".

His father had again turned his attention to horse breeding and in 1861 brought his champion horse, Croagh Patrick, to England for a successful racing season, together with his wife and nine-year-old son. For a while George was left at Cliff's stables until his father decided to send him to his alma mater facilitated by his winnings. Moore's formal education started at St. Mary's College, Oscott, a Catholic boarding school near Birmingham, where he was the youngest of 150 boys. He spent all of 1864 at home, having contracted a lung infection brought about by a breakdown in his health. His academic performance was poor while he was hungry and unhappy. In January 1865, he returned to St. Mary's College with his brother Maurice, where he refused to study as instructed and spent time reading novels and poems.[12] That December the principal, Spencer Northcote, wrote a report that: "he hardly knew what to say about George." By the summer of 1867 he was expelled, for (in his own words) 'idleness and general worthlessness', and returned to Mayo. His father once remarked, about George and his brother Maurice: "I fear those two redheaded boys are stupid", an observation which proved untrue for all four sons.

Moore returned to London in 1911, where, with the exception of frequent trips to France, he was to spend much of the rest of his life. In 1913, he travelled to Jerusalem to research for his next novel, The Brook Kerith (1916). The book saw Moore once again embroiled in controversy, as it was based on the supposition that a non-divine Christ did not die on the cross but instead was nursed back to health and repented of his pride in declaring himself Son of God.[3] Other books from this period include a further collection of short-stories called A Storyteller's Holiday (1918), a collection of essays called Conversations in Ebury Street (1924) and a play, The Making of an Immortal (1927). Moore also spent considerable time revising and preparing his earlier writings for new editions.

Partly because of Maurice's pro-treaty activity, Moore Hall was burnt by anti-treaty forces in 1923, during the final months of the Irish Civil War.[33] Moore eventually received compensation of £7,000 from the government of the Irish Free State. By this time George and Maurice had become estranged, mainly because of an unflattering portrait of the latter which appeared in Hail and Farewell. Tension also arose as a result of religious differences: Maurice frequently made donations to the Roman Catholic Church from estate funds.[34] Moore later sold a large part of the estate to the Irish Land Commission for £25,000.

Moore was friendly with many members of the expatriate artistic communities in London and Paris, and had a long-lasting relationship with Maud, Lady Cunard. Moore took a special interest in the education of Maud's daughter, the well-known publisher and art patron, Nancy Cunard.[35] It has been suggested that Moore, rather than Maud's husband, Sir Bache Cunard, was Nancy's father,[36] but this is not generally credited by historians, and it is not certain that Moore's relationship with Nancy's mother was ever other than platonic.[37] Moore's last novel, Aphrodite in Aulis, was published in 1930.

He died at his address of 121 Ebury Street in the London district of Belgravia in early 1933, leaving a fortune of £70,000. He was cremated in London at a service attended by Ramsay MacDonald among others. An urn containing his ashes was interred on Castle Island in Lough Carra in view of the ruins of Moore Hall.[3] A blue plaque commemorates his residency at his London home.

Courtesy-wikipedia

- George Moore

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