The Lake — George Moore

Moore wrote about The Lake that readers, “will learn how the Irish priest lives in single strictness, how he sometimes flies from it or takes to drink.” The novella concerns an Irish priest named Father Oliver Gogarty who is tormented by his unkind treatment of an unmarried pregnant woman who leaves his parish after he publicly rebukes her. He struggles with his actions, his faith, and his future in this engrossing narrative.