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Hester

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Hester

By: Margaret Oliphant
Narrated by: Georgina Sutton
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Summary

Hester (1883) is a dramatic story of female power and family tensions within Victorian society. Using her own money, Catherine Vernon manages to save the family bank from collapse after her cousin John absconds with some of its money. As the matriarch of Redborough, Catherine is used to commanding authority, but this is challenged with the arrival of John’s strong and capable teenage daughter, Hester. Ignorant of her father’s conduct, Hester takes against Catherine and a mutual antipathy soon sets in. A masterpiece of domestic realism, the novel is one of Mrs Oliphant’s most admired works.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Margaret Oliphant (P)2023 Naxos AudioBooks UK Ltd. Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Women's Fiction World Literature
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Really good insights into 19th century middle class small town life and relationships. Recommended if quite long.

Engrossing story beautifully told

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Beautifully read, historically enlightening and totally immersing story highlighting contrasts of women a man’s world

Vivid & Immersive

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There are several audible narrators whose readings I find impossible to listen to – usually because they pause mid sentence. This woman is terrific: I am awed at the number of different voices she has at her command. I shall be looking up her other readings.

Margaret Oliphant is a strangely neglected 19th century writer; I think Hester is her best book. It has four outstandingly interesting female characters and builds, as the best Victorian novels do, to an incredibly tense climax. (Why has television not discovered her?)

Outstandingly good narrator

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a little slow going to begin with, but then I couldn't stop listening. Really fantastic narration

the narraror

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This was a bit like George Eliot and Wilkie Collins had a book baby. The characterisation of the female protagonists felt a lot more modern than I had expected - proto feminist. A central theme of the book is the patriarchal society and how both the young Hester and the older Catherine attempt to carve their own path. Even the dialogue felt more modern than I was expecting. It's a world away from Dickens. Give it a try!

Surprisingly modern Victorian melodrama

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