Hester by Margaret Oliphant Hester is an 1883 novel written by Margaret Oliphant. It examines the cycle of history through the lives of the Vernon family. The book was published in three separate volumes corresponding to three parts of the story.
The novel was adapted (and the story reoriented) by Kate Clanchy and Zena Forster for broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2013, showing Hester as a determined organizer successful for years but ultimately defeated by the male world of Victorian business.
The Vernon's Banking House is a thriving bank in England. After Mr. Rule, a clerk in the bank, hears rumors about a potential collapse of the bank, he seeks out bank owner John Vernon, but finds that Vernon has disappeared. Mr. Vernon's wife has no information about his disappearance or matters of the bank. However, Catherine, a part-owner of the bank, uses her fortune to stop a run on the bank.
Decades later, Mrs. Vernon and her 14-year-old daughter Hester move back to Redborough. When Hester meets Catherine, she forms an unfavorable impression, but she makes friends with Edward, who is Catherine's confidante and protege.
Five years later, Hester befriends the elderly Morgans, suffers through family dinners and rebuffs a marriage proposal from Harry, another of Catherine's proteges.
