Customer Reviews

Castle Rackrent and Ennui (Penguin Classics)

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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.

Thank you for the quick shipment! The novel is in great condition and will be a nice edition to my library.

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.