Hester: A Story of Contemporary Life is an 1883 novel written by 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. 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.

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (born Margaret Oliphant Wilson; 4 April 1828 - 20 June 1897) was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. Her fictional works cover "domestic realism, the historical novel and tales of the supernatural".