Celibates

by George Moore

Excerpt: ...be a suitable match? Would you like to see me marry him?' 'There's nothing against him; he's not very well off. But he's got on while you've been away. He's making, I should say now, at least 500 pounds a year. That isn't much, but to have increased his income from three to five hundred a year in five years proves that he is a steady man.' 'No one ever doubted Alfred's steadiness.' 'Mildred, it is time to have done with those sneers.' 'I suppose it is. I suppose what you say is right. I've been from pillar to post and nothing has come of it. Perhaps I was only fitted for marriage after all.' 'And for what better purpose could a woman be fitted?' 'We won't discuss that subject, ' Mildred answered. 'If I'm to marry any one, as well Alfred as another.' It was the deeper question that perplexed: Could she accept marriage at all? And in despair she decided that things must take their chance. If she couldn't marry when it came to the point, why, she couldn't; if she married and found marriage impossible, they would have to separate. The experience might be an unpleasant one, but it could not be more unpleasant than her present life which was driving her to suicide. Marriage seemed a thing that every one must get through; one of the penalties of existence. Why it should be so she couldn't think! but it was so. Marriage was supposed to be for ever, but nothing was for ever. Even if she did marry, she felt that it would not be for ever. No; it would not be for ever. Further into the future she could not see, nor did she care to look. She remembered that she was not acting fairly towards Alfred. But instead of considering that question, she repelled it. She had suffered enough, suffering had made her what she was; she must now think of herself. She must get out of her present life; marriage might be worse, but it would be a change, and change she must have. Things must take their course, she did not know whether she would accept or refuse: but she was sure...

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1895

About the author

George Augustus Moore 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. 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. His writings influenced James Joyce, according to the literary critic and biographer Richard Ellmann, 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.

Reviews

[Michael D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this; three tales of lives gone awry that are both psychologically penetrating and narratively compelling. The first one, 'Mildred Lawson' is probably my favourite and the most complex, the others somewhat more prosaic in nature. Quite Russian in tone but still strikingly modern - each tale illustrates various examples of developmental trauma strikingly well.

[Abi Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read John Norton novella in gm celibates

[Sketchbook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eschewing tradition, Geo Moore posits that marriage is
the Unhappy Ending.