Thady Quirk, devoted steward to the decaying estate of the Rackrent family, narrates a riotous story of four generations of a dying dynasty in Castle Rackrent (1800). Thady will defend his masters to the end, but eventually his naivety and blind loyalty cause him to ignore the warning signs as the family's excesses lead them to ruin. This volume also includes Ennui, the entertaining confessions' of the Earl of Glenthorn, a bored, spoiled aristocrat. Desperate to be free from the demon of ennui', Glenthorn's quest for happiness takes him through violence and revolution, and leads to intriguing twists of fate. Both novels offer a darkly comic and satirical expose of the Irish class system, and a portrait of a nation in turmoil.
Castle Rackrent and Ennui (Penguin Classics)
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About the Author
MARIA EDGEWORTH was born in 1768. Her first novel, Castle Rackrent (1800) was also her first Irish tale. The next such tale was Ennui (1809), after which came The Absentee, which began life as an unstaged play and was then published (in prose) in Tales of Fashionable Life (1812), as were several of her other stories. They were followed in 1817 by the last of her Irish tales, Ormond. Maria Edgeworth died in 1849. Edited with an introduction and notes by Marilyn Butler
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Maria Edgeworth was a pioneer Irish writer who was justifiably popular about 200 years ago, and whose work continues to be read with great pleasure to this day. Ennui is a masterpiece of humorous satire, brilliantly phrased in the way only great literature can be. To read Edgeworth is to find a "new" author of the caliber of Fielding, Dickens, Hardy, or Scott. Her style is more entertaining and pithy than any of these. The topics she writes about are of universal interest and lack nothing in the way of contemporary applicability. Human nature quite obviously has not changed in two centuries, and is unlikely to change in two more - when her books are likely still to be read. Give Edgeworth's work a try, you are almost certain to have a wonderful experience.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
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Thank you for the quick shipment! The novel is in great condition and will be a nice edition to my library.
18 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Edgeworth wrote about the protestant upper class in Ireland around the turn of the 18th/19th century. At the time, especially in Rackrent, her most famous work, she wrote of the machinations of bad landlords and how their families died out. It is interesting that she was writing about the demise of these bad landlords, suggesting that things had improved in this more enlightened age, at a time when the Irish Peasant was worse off than ever. Edgeworth wrote of a society that was on the brink of extinction, but she was not aware of this, since she was part of that society. This book is noteworthy for what it is not. It is not Irish literature. It is poor british literature and would have no merit at all if it did not serve to contrast with the high quality scribblings of the uneducated and unwashed downtrodden masses. Like the protestant ruling class it is sparse, stilted and haughty. Not a fun read.
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Introduction (From Wikipedia)
Castle Rackrent, a short novel by Maria Edgeworth published in 1800, is often regarded as the first historical novel, the first regional novel in English, the first Anglo-Irish novel, the first Big House novel and the first saga novel. It is also widely regarded as the first novel to use the device of a narrator who is both unreliable and an observer of, rather than a player in, the actions he chronicles. Kirkpatrick suggests that it "both borrows from and originates a variety of literary genres and subgenres without nearly fitting into any one of them". William Butler Yeats pronounced Castle Rackrent "one of the most inspired chronicles written in English". Shortly before its publication, an introduction, glossary and footnotes, written in the voice of an English narrator, were added to the original text to blunt the negative impact the Edgeworths feared the book might have on English enthusiasm for the Act of Union 1800
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Plot summary (From Wikipedia)
The novel is set prior to the Constitution of 1782 and tells the story of four generations of Rackrent heirs through their steward, Thady Quirk. The heirs are: the dissipated spendthrift Sir Patrick O'Shaughlin, the litigious Sir Murtagh Rackrent, the cruel husband and gambling absentee Sir Kit Stopgap, and the generous but improvident Sir Condy Rackrent. Their sequential mismanagement of the estate is resolved through the machinations - and to the benefit - of the narrator's astute son, Jason Quirk.
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Castle Rackrent. Amazon is not affiliated with, and neither endorses, nor is endorsed by Wikipedia or any of the authors who contributed to this article. The Wikipedia content may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: CC BY-SA. Additional or other terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Having, out of friendship for the family, upon whose estate, praised be Heaven! Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
plase your honour, raking pot, please your honour, whiskey punch, poor master, jaunting car Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sir Condy, Castle Rackrent, Sir Kit, Sir Murtagh, Sir Patrick, Mount Juliet, Miss Isabella, Lady Cathcart, Judy M'Quirk, Colonel M'Guire, Captain Moneygawl New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Having, out of friendship for the family, upon whose estate, praised be Heaven! Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
plase your honour, raking pot, please your honour, whiskey punch, poor master, jaunting car Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sir Condy, Castle Rackrent, Sir Kit, Sir Murtagh, Sir Patrick, Mount Juliet, Miss Isabella, Lady Cathcart, Judy M'Quirk, Colonel M'Guire, Captain Moneygawl New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 72
books:
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17
books
cite this book:
See all 17 books citing this book
- Castle Rackrent (Oxford World's Classics) by Maria Edgeworth on 35 pages
- The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics) by Adam Smith on 5 pages
- Maria Edgeworth: A Literary Biography by Marilyn Butler in Front Matter, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Moral Essays by Alexander Pope in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Essays on Philosophical Subjects (Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith) by Adam Smith in Front Matter, and Back Matter
See all 72 books this book cites
- The Absentee (Penguin Classics) by Maria Edgeworth in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
- Back to the Present: Forward to the Past--Irish Writing and History since 1798 (Costerus NS 161) (Costerus New Series) by Patricia A. Lynch on page 152, and page 153
- The Romantic National Tale and the Question of Ireland (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism) by Ina Ferris in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Daughters of Ireland: The Rebellious Kingsborough Sisters and the Making of a Modern Nation by Janet Todd in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Cambridge Companion to the Irish Novel (Cambridge Companions to Literature) by John Wilson Foster on page 57, and page 58
See all 17 books citing this book
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