George Moore Letter (VMF118)
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Administrative/Biographical History
George Augustus Moore (February 24, 1852 –January 21, 1933) was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. 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. Born in Moore Hall, near Lough Carra, County Mayo where Moore’s family has lived for almost a century. In 1873, he moved to Paris to study art. While still in Paris his first book, a collection of lyric poems called The Flowers of Passion, was self-published in 1877.
He was forced to return to Ireland in 1880 and while here he decided to abandon art and move to London to become a professional writer. There he published his second poetry collection, Pagan Poems, in 1881. These early poems reflect his interest in French symbolism and are now almost entirely neglected. In 1886, Moore published Confessions of a Young Man, a lively and energetic memoir about his 20s spent in Paris and London among bohemian artists.
During the 1880s, Moore began work on a series of novels in a realist style. His first novel, A Modern Lover (1883) was a three-volume work, as preferred by the circulating libraries, and deals with the art scene of the 1870s and 1880s in which many characters are identifiably real. The circulating libraries in England banned the book because of its explicit portrayal of the amorous pursuits of its hero. As with A Modern Lover, his two next novels, A Mummers Wife and A Drama in Muslin, were banned.
In 1901, Moore returned to Ireland to live in Dublin becoming involved in the efforts to establish the Irish Literary Theatre. Moore published two books of prose fiction set in Ireland around this time; a second book of short stories, The Untilled Field (1903) and a novel, The Lake (1905). The stories were originally written for translation into Irish, in order to serve as models for other writers working in the language. The tales are recognized by some as representing the birth of the Irish short story as a literary genre. In 1911, Moore returned to London, where, with the exception of frequent trips to France, he was to spend the rest of his life.
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Originall laid in An Anthology of Pure Poetry edited with an introduction by George Moore.
Accession number 1360
