[Literature] Moore, George Autograph Manuscript of Chapters 36 and 37 of "Esther Waters"

Autograph manuscript of part of George Moore's naturalist novel, Esther Waters

(London, ca. 1893-94). Autograph manuscript, completely in the hand of George Moore, comprising chapters 36 and 37 of the 1894 first edition of his novel, Esther Waters. Comprising 28 blue-ruled folio leaves (12 5/8 x 7 in.; 321 x 178 mm), written in ink on rectos only, with extensive autograph emendations; first leaf titled "Chapter 23", by Moore; foliated by Moore in ink in top left corners of each leaf; a few scattered pencil notations in another hand. Full crimson levant, stamped in gilt, extremities and joints rubbed, head of spine chipped, foot of spine rubbed; all edges gilt; gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers; by Roger de Coverly & Sons; scattered wear to MS. leaves. With Stephen Gooden-engraved book-plate of J.N. Hart on front paste-down.

Although Moore has headed the top of the first page of this manuscript of Esther Waters as comprising chapter 23, it actually encompasses what became chapters 36 and 37 of the 1894 first edition (Moore is well known to have heavily revised this novel leading up to its publication, and thus likely accounts for this "incorrect" chapter heading). Chapter 36 extends from the first leaf of this manuscript to the eighth line of leaf 17, with chapter 37 following to the end. As can be seen in the extensive corrections, additions, deletions, and variant passages throughout this manuscript, Moore, heavily reworked the text before it was sent to the printer. He further revised aspects of the novel mulitple times up until the 1930s.

The first ten chapters of Esther Waters were originally serialized as "Passages from the Life of a Workgirl" in The Pall Mall Gazette in October 1893. The remainder of the novel went through extensive revisions that fall before being published the following year, in March 1894. Esther Waters made Moore a celebrated and respected novelist overnight, and over 20,000 copies were sold within its first year. Of the novel's 49 chapters of the 1894 first edition, manuscripts of those chapters are found in the market beginning in the early twentieth-century, and have since been dispersed widely among institutional and private collections.

These chapters are set in Esther's husband's (William) pub and illegal betting parlor, the King's Head, and includes the confrontation between Esther and her former suitor, Fred Parsons, regarding the illegal betting going on there.

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, The Property of the Executors of the late J. N. Hart, esq, November 30, 1964, lot 153