George Moore was a prominent Irish writer and art critic during the Victorian era. Moore is considered to be one of the first English authors to adopt the ideas of the French realists as Emile Zola was a major influence on his work. Moore himself, with books such as Esther Waters, was an influence on the great James Joyce.

Confessions of a Young Man, published in 1888, is a memoir that Moore wrote on the fifteen years he spent in Paris and London as a struggling artist. The book is notable for its depiction of bohemian life in Paris during the late 19th century.