A focus on the body, especially that of the female body, is integral to Moore's 'Esther Waters' and Hardy's 'Jude the Obscure'. However such an exploration is to extremely different effects. 'Zola repeatedly made use of the metaphor of dissection...

In Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster answers the question: What makes a character real? According to Forster, “it [a character] is real when the novelist knows everything about it” (Forster, pg 77). Esther Waters, the title character in George...