Book Review: Albert Nobbs by George Moore

Title: Albert Nobbs

Author: George Moore

Genre: Classic Novellas

Number of Pages: 112

Rating: B+

Recommended?: Yes

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Because it was published in 1918, I expected this book to be a lot harder to read than it was. I was also surprised by how ahead of the times George Moore seemed in his portrayal of the limited options for women of the time. Albert Nobbs is a very sad story about a woman who disguises herself as a man to work at a hotel. She keeps up the charade for years and when she’s found out, the person who learned her secret (also a woman disguised as a man) asks Albert to tell her the story of her life.

Albert is a likable a character and she’s also surprisingly well-developed considering how short the book is. You can really feel for her and although her male persona is purely for the sake of her livelihood rather than a indicator of sexual orientation or gender identity, I got the impression that Hubert, the character who befriends Albert actually is a lesbian with a female partner.

Obviously George Moore couldn’t just say this, as old as this book is, but I still got the impression the Hubert’s character was gay. This story broke my heart and I was impressed by the ability of such a short book (I read it in one day) to mess with my emotions like that. I haven’t seen the movie adaptation yet but I’m curious to see how faithful it is to the source material.