George Moore, the son of an Irish MP, was born in Ballyglass, Ireland, in 1852. Educated at Oscott College in Birmingham, Moore moved to France where he studied painting and publishing a book of verse, Flowers of Passion (1878).

In 1880 Moore moved to London where he published Pagan Poems (1881) and several novels including A Modern Lover (1883), A Mummer's Wife (1885), A Drama in Muslin (1886), A Mere Accident (1887), Spring Days (1888) an autobiography, Confessions of a Young Man (1888) and the successful novel Esther Waters (1894). Moore was also art critic of The Speaker and the author of Modern Painting (1893).

Moore returned to Ireland in 1899. He became involved in the development of the Irish National Theatre but continued to write and published two collection of short stories, Celibates (1895) and The Untilled Field (1903) and the novels, Evelyn Innes (1898) and Sister Theresa (1901). Moore also published Reminiscences of the Impressionist Painters (1906).

In 1911 Moore returned to London and completed an autobiography, Hail and Farewell (1914). This was followed by the novel, The Brook Kerith (1916), a collection of short-stories, A Storyteller's Holiday (1918), a collection of essays, Conversations in Ebury Street (1924), the play, The Making of an Immortal (1927) and the novel, Aphrodite in Aulis (1930). George Moore died in 1933.