TUF 01: The Untilled Field: In The Clay

The Untilled Field (1903) is a volume of short stories by George Moore. Chapter one, In The Clay, features the story of a Dublin sculptor whose work has been destroyed. Who is to blame and what has caused this unprovoked destruction?

About The Author - from the Dictionary of Irish Biography
George Augustus Moore (1852 - 1933), novelist, critic, memoirist, and cultural activist, was born 24 February 1852 at Moore Hall, Ballyglass, in Co. Mayo, a ‘big house’ in the Anglo-Irish style, built by his grandfather (another George Moore) in 1792 with money accumulated in the Spanish wine trade. However, unlike most such houses, Moore Hall was a catholic residence, the Moores having preserved their wealth and their confessional allegiance over the generations. George Moore was the eldest son of George Henry Moore – a founder of the Catholic Defence Association, a leading figure in the independent Irish party, and a successful breeder and trainer of thoroughbred horses – and Mary Moore (née Blake). Moore's great-uncle, John Moore was president for a few days of the short-lived republic of Connacht during the 1798 rebellion. Moore's background and upbringing were unusual: though catholic, the Moores lived very much in the style of the protestant ascendancy, whose houses they frequented in Mayo; and yet the family had strong nationalist and even republican leanings: George Henry Moore, the novelist's father, appears to have taken the Fenian oath. These contradictory tendencies are to be seen in the complexities of Moore's mature narrative art.

Cover Art
Portrait of George Moore by Edouard Manet, 1879