Hester
By: Margaret Oliphant ; edited with an introduction and notes by Philip Davis and Brian Nellist.
Contributors: Davis, Philip; Nellist, Brian.
Series: Oxford world's classics; Oxford world's classics (Oxford University Press)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 468
Subjects: Women bankers -- Fiction; Conflict of generations -- Fiction; Family-owned business enterprises -- Fiction; Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction; Older women -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction; England -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.
Description: "The aging Catherine Vernon, jilted in her youth, has risen to power in a man's world as head of the family bank. She thinks she sees through everyone and rules over a family of dependants with knowing cynicism. But there are two people in Redborough who resist her. One is Hester, a young relation with a personality as strong as Catherine's, and as determined to find a role for herself. The other is Edward, Catherine's favourite, whom she treats like a son. Conflict between young and old is inevitable, and in its depiction of the complex relationships that develop between the three principal characters, Hester is a masterpiece of psychological realism. In exploring the difficulty of understanding human nature, it is also a compulsive story of financial and sexual risk-taking that mounts towards a searing climax."--Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [xxviii]-xxix).