<b>Hester by Margaret Oliphant</b>&nbsp;<i><b>Hester</b></i>&nbsp;is an 1883 novel written by&nbsp;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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />The Vernon&#39;s Banking House is a thriving bank in&nbsp;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&#39;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.<br /><br />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&#39;s confidante and protege.<br /><br />Five years later, Hester befriends the elderly Morgans, suffers through family dinners and rebuffs a marriage proposal from Harry, another of Catherine&#39;s proteges.