Product Description

During the 1790s, with Ireland in political crisis, Maria Edgeworth made a surprisingly rebellious choice: in Castle Rackrent, her first novel, she adopted an Irish Catholic voice to narrate the decline of a family from her own Anglo-Irish class. Castle Rackrent's narrator, Thady Quirk, gives us four generations of Rackrent heirs - Sir Patrick, the dissipated spendthrift; Sir Murtagh, the litigating fiend; Sir Kit, the brutal husband and gambling absentee; and Sir Condy, the lovable and improvident dupe of Thady's own son, Jason. With this satire on Anglo-Irish landlords Edgeworth pioneered the regional novel and inspired Sir Walter Scott's Waverly (1814). She also changed the focus of conflict in Ireland from religion to class and boldly predicted the rise of the Irish Catholic Bourgeoisie.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73248 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

About the Author
Kathryn Kirkpatrick is Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Appalachian State University.

Customer Reviews

Hilarious, eccentric, cynical and dark
I am buying this for a friend who was disappointed by MOLL FLANDERS. I read it years ago and was delighted by this little gem - although the satire really bites. But the touch is light, the characterisation extremely deft and the book is short - Perfect.

Cultural history of Anglo Irish relations
A social satire on Anglo-Irish relations during early nineteenth century, the asks the qustion 'What is is to be Irish'? A period of great social turmoil between the two countries heightened by the industrial revolution's impression on the working classes in England, the novel sees the author navigating through a difficult minefield writing an Irish catholic narrator for an English market place! The Anglo-Irish Rackrent landlords claim an Irish Catholic heritage, but forfeit that personal history for the ephemeral run of the estate. The disenfranchised tenant farmers are forced to yield their produce to support the Rackrents' absurd behaviours. In the middle of this dynamic stand the novel's two most developed and challenging characters, Sir Condy Rackrent and Jason McQuirk, Thady's son. Raised in identical circumstances, these two leave open to question the ultimate judgment on the future of Ireland; With Condy as a new line of Irish aristocracy or Jason, representing the model for the 'British' assimilated Irishman.

Edgeworth carefully navigates herself around the novel opening the question of Irishness to the English reader without alienating either audience through the use of a glossary and internal footnotes which are devices used to try and neutralize the foreignness and threat of the Irish for Edgeworth's intended English audience, and allow us also an attempt also to understand this position of 'Irishness'.

This book is truly a classic piece of social satire that should not be overlooked byt anybody wishing to learn more about the history of Anglo-Irish relations.

Dark, funny and revealing
'Castle Rackrent' is much more that a book you may have to read for an English major. It depicts the state of Anglo-Irish relations at the end of the 18th century, a period in time of particular importance in Irish history. Ireland has been under complete English control for about two centuries, and it's close to become part of the United Kingdom. It is in this context that Maria Edgeworth's short novel is published.

The settlers of English descent are the landowners and law makers, while the catholic farmers have to rent the land at unfavourable conditions. In this setting, the members of the Rackrent family have alternate fortune; the last one is driven to bankruptcy because of his immoderate generosity, while his best friend, a well-educated commoner, manages to become rich and disenfranchise himself. Thus the book is able to foresee the birth and evolution of a middle class that can achieve success based on their own skills.

Despite being quite dark, the book is not gloomy at all thanks to the frank voice of the narrator, which can never hide his love for the Rackrent family.