Book description
Margaret Oliphant is one of the great Victorian novelists and "Hester" is a masterpiece of psychological realism published in 1883.
In exploring the difficulty of understanding human nature, it is also a compulsive story of financial and sexual risk-taking that inevitably results in a searing climax.
"Hester" tells the story…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Hester as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Hester, which came out in 1883, follows two central figures: Miss Catherine, an older woman who runs a bank – in itself quite a surprise to find in a Victorian novel – and Hester, her young relation, who is bored with her dull, ladylike life and wants something more.
What she really wants is to work, as Catherine does, but Catherine is determined that the bank will pass to a man. The novel focuses on their strained relationship – strained partly because they are so very alike. There’s so much I love about Hester, but I especially…
From Katie's list on surprisingly feminist Victorian.
If you think all 19th century novels are either romances or tragedies like Tess of the D’Ubervilles this novel will surprise you. Published in 1883 the novel reflects the English banking crises of the 1850’s, life in a provincial town, and the many ways in which money, whether a man or a woman possesses it, greed for it, the thrill of speculating, and the ability to use it to control others shapes the characters of the strong and the flawed. Hester has to grow and to find her own path against the restrictions of women’s choices and bias against…
From Jonatha's list on understanding women in 19th century England.
If you love Hester...
These Blue Mountains
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
Want books like Hester?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Hester.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,340
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Hester, you might also like...
Foxfire in the Snow
It's a time of change, between magic and alchemy.
Born the heir of a master woodcutter in a queendom defined by guilds and matrilineal inheritance, nonbinary Sorin can’t quite seem to find their place. At seventeen, an opportunity to attend an alchemical guild fair and secure an apprenticeship with the…
The Main Gate
Dr. Elise Marquette has spent years burying the past—until the past refuses to stay buried.
Hired to join Earth’s first interstellar contact team, she hopes the vastness of space will finally offer distance from the ghosts of war and the wounds left by a mother who never let her be…
