Confessions of a Young Man

If you had the courage and money to lead a fast life, wouldn't you do so? 'Confessions of a Young Man' is a memoir by Irish novelist George Moore who spent about 15 years in his teens and his 20s in Paris, and later in London as a struggling artist. Moore's 'confessions' are aesthetic. If there's more, you'll find a soul struggling to rid itself of Victorian morality. Of landed gentry, Moore moved from Ireland to Paris hoping to be a painter. He immersed himself in Degas and Manet and discussed Gautier and Baudelaire at his Montmartre haunt until dawn. This memoir was finished in his early 30s after he had decided to become a writer. He first tried his hand at journalism, but he found it stifling: 'I longed to give a personal shape to something and this could not be achieved in an article.' His memoir is youthfully all over the place, at times, but its alluring ideas are found on every page. This is a wonderful look into the mind of the younger George Moore.