Although born in England in 1768, Maria Edgeworth was raised in Ireland from a young age after the death of her mother. After nearly losing her sight at age fourteen, Edgeworth was tutored at home by her father, helping to run their estate and taking charge of her younger siblings. Over the course of her life she collaborated and published books with her father, and produced many more of her own adult and children’s works, including such classics as Castle Rackrent, Patronage, Belinda, Ormond and The Absentee. Edgeworth spent her entire life on the family estate, but kept up friendships and correspondences with her contemporaries Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, and her writing had a profound influence upon Jane Austen and William Makepeace Thackeray. Edgeworth was outspoken on the issues of poverty, women’s rights, and racial inequalities. During the beginnings of famine in Ireland, Edgeworth worked in relief and support of the sick and destitute. She died in 1849 at the age of 81.
It is 'Downton Abbey' meets 'Succession' - but in the 18th century.
Four generations of heirs to the Rackrent estate in Ireland are shown to have unique talents for mismanaging it.
The careless big spender Sir Patrick O'Shaughlin, litigious Sir Murtagh Rackrent, abusive gambler Sir Kit Rackrent and the kind but unwise Sir Condy Rackrent are brought vividly to life by Maria Edgeworth through a narrator, Rackrent steward Thady Quirk.
As the four heirs fight and foul up, behind the scenes there is a master manipulator pulling the strings. Will he benefit from the chaos?
'Castle Rackrent' is Edgeworth's first novel and is regarded as pioneering in the field of historical and regional novels.
It satirises Anglo-Irish landlords at a time when the English and Irish governments were trying to formalise their union.
The novel is alluded to in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'. It is also cited by Sir Walter Scott as the inspiration for his 'Waverley' historical novels.
The Irish poet and dramatist W.B. Yeats called Castle Rackrent "one of the most inspired chronicles written in English."
Title : Castle Rackrent
EAN : 9788728185384
Publisher : SAGA Egmont
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