Phyllis of Philistia

Phyllis Ayrton finds herself engaged to a man her father adores, yet whose writings have shattered something sacred inside her. When George Holland, the clergyman to whom she's betrothed, publishes 'Revised Versions', a book questioning the very foundations of Biblical truth, Phyllis discovers that the man she loves has become an intellectual rebel, one whose unorthodox views on scripture represent everything she cannot compromise on. The novel opens with father and daughter in quiet, devastating debate: Mr. Ayrton dismisses her distress as girlish sentiment, unable to comprehend that his clever daughter has built her faith not on convenience but on conviction. As the controversy surrounding George's book spreads, Phyllis must navigate the impossible space between personal devotion and intellectual integrity, a woman in an era that offers her no dignified exit from an engagement that has become a prison of principle. Moore captures with surgical precision the particular cruelty of Victorian womanhood: having been educated to think, to question, to hold firm convictions, only to be told those very qualities make her unsuitable as a wife.