Hester (novel)

Last updated

Hester
Hester (novel).png
Title page for Hester: A Story of Contemporary Life (1883)
Author Margaret Oliphant
Publication date
1883

Hester: A Story of Contemporary Life is an 1883 novel written by Margaret Oliphant. [1] It examines the cycle of history through the lives of the Vernon family. The book was published in three separate volumes corresponding to three parts of the story. The novel was adapted (and the story reoriented) by Kate Clanchy and Zena Forster for broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2013, showing Hester as a determined organizer successful for years but ultimately defeated by the male world of Victorian business. [2]

Contents

Plot

Part 1

The Vernon's Banking House is a thriving bank in England. After Mr. Rule, a clerk in the bank, hears rumours about a potential collapse of the bank, he seeks out bank owner John Vernon, but finds that Vernon has disappeared. Mr. Vernon's wife has no information about his disappearance or matters of the bank. However, Catherine, a part-owner of the bank, uses her fortune to stop a run on the bank.

Decades later, Mrs. Vernon and her 14-year-old daughter Hester move back to Redborough. When Hester meets Catherine, she forms an unfavourable impression, but she makes friends with Edward, who is Catherine's confidant and protégé.

Five years later, Hester befriends the elderly Morgans, suffers through family dinners, and rebuffs a marriage proposal from Harry, another of Catherine's protégés.

Part 2

The Morgans' grandson Roland, briefly introduced in Part I, is developed as a love interest for Hester. The Morgans express their concern about his character in part due to his job as a speculator.

Ellen starts hosting tea dances, which allow the youths to mingle unsupervised and Hester to 'come out' in society. Mrs. John Vernon is excited to help her daughter Hester come out. Additionally, Mrs. Vernon's pearls, which she gives to Hester, provide a point of contention.

Roland's sister Emma then comes to stay with the Morgans. She tries to get herself invited to the dances so that she may also 'come out' and marry. Meanwhile, Edward makes his interest in Hester known and his discontent with Catherine grows.

Hester nearly finds out about her father at one of Catherine's parties.

Part 3

Hester's love life is revisited and marriage is discussed, while Roland talks business with Edward and Harry. Harry is opposed to speculating with the bank's money, but Edward seems enthusiastic.

Edward's betrayal hurts Catherine, as well as harming the bank's business. Edward runs away and marries Emma.

Afterwards, Catherine and Hester work together to retain the bank's status and stability.

The name Hester is a Persian name. It means "Star".

Characters

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<i>Jane Eyre</i> 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.

<i>Emma</i> (novel) 1816 novel by Jane Austen

Emma is a novel written by English author Jane Austen. It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls and Donwell Abbey, and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families. The novel was first published in December 1815, although the title page is dated 1816. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian–Regency England. Emma is a comedy of manners.

<i>Our American Cousin</i> Play by Tom Taylor

Our American Cousin is a three-act play by English playwright Tom Taylor. It is a farce featuring awkward, boorish American Asa Trenchard, who is introduced to his aristocratic English relatives when he goes to England to claim the family estate. The play premiered with great success at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York City in 1858, with Laura Keene in the cast, the title character played by Joseph Jefferson, and Edward Askew Sothern playing Lord Dundreary. The play's long-running London production in 1861 was also successful.

<i>The Age of Innocence</i> 1920 novel by Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence is a novel by American author Edith Wharton, published on 25 October 1920. It was her eighth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. Though the committee had initially agreed to give the award to Sinclair Lewis for Main Street, the judges, in rejecting his book on political grounds, "established Wharton as the American 'First Lady of Letters'". The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded Age" New York City. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she was already established as a major author in high demand by publishers.

<i>Lady Susan</i> Novella by Jane Austen

Lady Susan is an epistolary novella by Jane Austen, possibly written in 1794 but not published until 1871. This early complete work, which the author never submitted for publication, describes the schemes of the title character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Oliphant</span> Scottish novelist, 1828–1897

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. Her fictional works cover "domestic realism, the historical novel and tales of the supernatural".

Miss Marjoribanks is an 1866 novel by Margaret Oliphant. It was first published in serialised form in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine from February 1865. It follows the exploits of its heroine, Lucilla Marjoribanks, as she schemes to improve the social life of the provincial English town of Carlingford. The late nineteenth century English novelist George Gissing, who read the novel in September 1896, thought it "excellent".

<i>The Pallisers</i> 1974 British TV drama series

The Pallisers is a 1974 BBC television adaptation of Anthony Trollope's Palliser novels. Set in Victorian era England with a backdrop of parliamentary life, Simon Raven's dramatisation covers six novels and follows the events and characters over two decades.

<i>The Watsons</i> Unfinished novel by Jane Austen

The Watsons is an abandoned novel by Jane Austen, probably begun about 1803. There have been a number of arguments advanced as to why she did not complete it, and other authors have since attempted the task. A continuation by Austen's niece was published in 1850. The manuscript fragment itself was published in 1871. Further completions and adaptations of the story have continued to the present day.

<i>Adventure in Manhattan</i> 1936 film by Edward Ludwig

Adventure in Manhattan is a 1936 American screwball comedy thriller film directed by Edward Ludwig and starring Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea. The screenplay was written by Sidney Buchman, Harry Sauber, Jack Kirkland, and John Howard Lawson. The story was written by Joseph Krumgold, suggested by the novel Purple and Fine Linen by May Edginton. The supporting cast features Reginald Owen and Thomas Mitchell, and the film was a Columbia Pictures production.

<i>The Manchester Man</i> (novel) British novel

The Manchester Man is a novel by the British writer Isabella Banks. It was first published in three volumes in 1876 under her married name, Mrs G. Linnæus Banks. The story follows the life of a Manchester resident, Jabez Clegg, during the nineteenth century and his rise to prosperity in the booming industrial city. It depicts a number of real historical events such as the Peterloo Massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mr William Collins</span> Fictional character from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Mr William Collins is a fictional character in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. He is a distant cousin of Mr Bennet, a clergyman and holder of a valuable living at the Hunsford parsonage near Rosings Park, the estate of his patroness Lady Catherine De Bourgh, in Kent. Since Mr and Mrs Bennet have no sons, Mr Collins is also the heir presumptive to the Bennet family estate of Longbourn in Meryton, Hertfordshire, due to the estate being entailed to heirs male. Mr Collins is first introduced during his visit to Longbourn.

<i>Anne of Windy Poplars</i> (film) 1940 film by Jack Hively

Anne of Windy Poplars is a 1940 film based on the novel of the same name by Lucy Maud Montgomery. A sequel to the 1934 film Anne of Green Gables, it features Anne Shirley returning from the first film in the title role.

Henry Mildmay St John (1820–1899) became 5th Viscount Bolingbroke on the death of his father, the 4th Viscount, in 1851. He took his seat in the House of Lords later the following year.

<i>Outcast</i> (1917 film) 1917 American drama film directed by Dell Henderson

Outcast is a lost 1917 American drama film directed by Dell Henderson and starring Ann Murdock. It was based on the play Outcast by Hubert Henry Davies. It was produced by Empire All-Star Corp., a production unit of the late Charles Frohman who had produced the play starring Elsie Ferguson. Ferguson would reprise the role in a 1922 Paramount film.

<i>Love & Friendship</i> 2016 period film directed by Whit Stillman

Love & Friendship is a 2016 period romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Whit Stillman. Based on Jane Austen's epistolary novel Lady Susan, written c. 1794, the film stars Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, and Emma Greenwell. The film follows recently widowed Lady Susan in her intrepid and calculating exploits to secure suitably wealthy husbands for her daughter and herself. Although adapted from Lady Susan, the film was produced under the borrowed title of Austen's juvenile story Love and Freindship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Pennefather</span>

William Pennefather (1816–1873) was an Irish Anglican cleric who spent most of his adult life in England. He was famous for his hymns and sermons, and also for missionary work with his wife Catherine Pennefather. Catherine founded several projects in his name in the twenty years after his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wedding of Prince Edward and Katharine Worsley</span> 1961 British royal wedding

The wedding of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and Katharine Worsley took place on Thursday, 8 June 1961, at York Minster in York, England. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, was the eldest son of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, while Katharine Worsley was the only daughter and fourth child of landowner Sir William Worsley, 4th Baronet.

<i>The Boy Girl</i> 1917 American film

The Boy Girl is a 1917 American silent comedy film directed by Edwin Stevens and starring Violet Mersereau, Sidney Mason and Florida Kingsley. Merserau portrays a tomboy who is controlled by two aunts after her father dies and leaves her an inheritance. The love story finds her escaping and heroically aiding her mate.

References

  1. Oliphant, Margaret (1883). Davis, Philip (ed.). Hester. Oxford University Press (published 2009). ISBN   978-0-19-955549-9.
  2. "Hester - Omnibus". BBC Radio 4.