The Victorian Sex-Ethic

Alex Comfort, Sexual Behavior in Society. New York: The Viking Press, 1950, p. 69.Google Scholar

James Laver, The Age of Optimism: Manners and Morals 1848–1914. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966, p. 34.Google Scholar

George Gissing, New Grub Street. New York: The Modern Library, 1926, p. 325.Google Scholar

Richard Collier, The General Next to God: The Story of William Booth and the Salvation Army. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1965, p. 128.Google Scholar

Walter E. Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957, p. 356.Google Scholar

Steven Marcus, The Other Victorians. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1966, p. 2.Google Scholar

Ibid., p. 97.Google Scholar

Ibid., pp. 104–105.Google Scholar

George Moore, Hail and Farewell. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1925, I. 206.Google Scholar

Ibid., I, 213.Google Scholar

George Moore, The Unfilled Field. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1903, p. 378.Google Scholar

Malcolm Brown, George Moore, Seattle: University of Washington Press , 1955, p. xii.Google Scholar

Ibid., p. 40.Google Scholar

Ibid., p. 213.Google Scholar

George Moore clung firmly to his belief in the sexual origin of the arts. In Sister Teresa, the second volume of Evelyn Innes, though published separately, Evelyn comes to realize the conflict in her nature between a deeply ingrained sensuality and the call of the spirit. She is honest enough to perceive that “the human animal finds in the opposite sex the greater part of his and her mental life. She had heard Owen [her former lover] say that the arts arose out of sex....” George Moore, Sister Teresa. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1901, p. 9.Google Scholar

For a thoroughgoing analysis of the hostile reaction provoked by translations of Zola’s novels in England, see William C. Frierson, “The English Controversy Over Realism in Fiction, 1885–1895,” in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, XLIII, No. 2, June 1928, pp. 533–550.Google Scholar

George Moore, Esther Waters. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963, p. 61.Google Scholar

Ibid., p. 145.Google Scholar

Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh. New York: The Modern Library, n. d., p. 32.Google Scholar

Ibid., p. 531.Google Scholar

Walter Allen, The English Novel. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1954, p. 361.Google Scholar