Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
Castle Rackrent is a short novel by Maria Edgeworth published in 1800. Unlike many of her other novels, which were heavily ‘edited’ by her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, before their publication, the published version is close to her original intention.
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.
One of the main sources of inspiration for the novel was a chronicle of her own family history called
The Black Book of Edgeworthstown, which contain legal struggles of the Edgeworth’s similar to those portrayed in the novel.
The novel is set prior to the Constitution of 1782. It 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 Rackrent, 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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