Set in Ireland prior to its achieving legislative independence from Britain in 1782, Castle Rackrent tells the story of three generations of an estate--owning family as seen through the eyes-and as told in the voice-of their longtime servant, Thady Quirk, recorded and commented on by an anonymous Editor. This edition of Maria Edgeworth's first novel is based on the 1832 edition, the last revised by her, and includes Susan Kubica Howard's foot-of-the-page notes on the text of the memoir as well as on the notes and glosses the Editor offers "for the information of the ignorant English reader." Howard's Introduction situates the novel in its political and historical context and suggests a reading of the novel as Edgeworth's contribution to the discussion of the controversial Act of Union between Ireland and Britain that went into effect immediately after the novel's publication in London in 1800.

The scientist Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744 1817), educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Oxford, was a Member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, where he exchanged ideas with other scientists, including James Watt, and was known for his significant mechanical inventions. However, Edgeworth's real interest was education: in this 1788 two-volume work, written with his daughter, the poet Maria Edgeworth (1768 1849), he draws on his own experience of raising twenty children (by his four wives), from which the work derives its authority and innovative character. The work was very influential, and led to his Essays on Professional Education (1809; also reissued in this series). The two volumes discuss the theories of philosophers and educationalists, while in general arguing for the importance and formative character of early childhood experiences. Volume 1 deals with different areas of childhood education, including play, learning, and obedience and good behaviour.

The scientist Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744 1817), educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Oxford, was a Member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, where he exchanged ideas with other scientists, including James Watt, and was known for his significant mechanical inventions. However, Edgeworth's real interest was education: in this 1788 two-volume work, written with his daughter, the poet Maria Edgeworth (1768 1849), he draws on his own experience of raising twenty children (by his four wives), from which the work derives its authority and innovative character. The work was very influential, and led to his Essays on Professional Education (1809; also reissued in this series). The two volumes discuss the theories of philosophers and educationalists, while in general arguing for the importance and formative character of early childhood experiences. Volume 2 discusses schooling, the idea of creativity and imagination, and the relationship between public and private education.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744 1817) was a noted Irish educationalist, engineer and inventor. This two-volume autobiography, begun in 1808, was completed by his novelist daughter Maria, and published in 1820. Edgeworth's interest in education is evidenced by his reflections about how his childhood shaped his character and later life. Volume 1, written by Edgeworth himself and covering the period to 1781, reveals that his interest in science began early; he was shown an orrery (a moving model of the solar system) at the age of seven. As a young man, Edgeworth attended university in Dublin and Oxford, studied law, and eloped while still in his teens. He experimented with vehicle design, winning several awards, and was introduced by Erasmus Darwin to the circle of scientists, innovators and industrialists later known as the Lunar Society of Birmingham. In 1781 Sir Joseph Banks sponsored his election to the Royal Society.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744 1817) was a noted Irish educationalist, engineer and inventor. This two-volume autobiography, begun in 1808, was published in 1820. Edgeworth had abandoned the project in 1809, having covered the period to 1781, and it was completed after his death by his eldest daughter, a successful novelist. Maria Edgeworth and her father had co-authored educational works, and the experience of helping her father run their estate during her teens had provided material for her novels. Volume 2 of these memoirs was wholly written by her, though it contains excerpts from Richard's correspondence. It recounts how, after his third marriage, the growing family returned to Ireland, and focused first on domestic and educational concerns. Richard became involved in Irish politics and the newly founded Royal Irish Academy but continued to publish essays on scientific and mechanical topics, as well as influential (though controversial) works on education.

One of the foremost authors of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Maria Edgeworth (1768 1849) made the project of women's education the pillar of her career. Letters for Literary Ladies (1795), her first published work, takes up this question in earnest, offering a staunch defence of women's intellectual training and an impassioned warning against its neglect. The first two letters likely draw from an exchange between Richard Edgeworth, Maria's father, and his friend Thomas Day, presenting arguments for and against educating young women in the sciences and philosophy. The 'Letters of Julia and Caroline' illustrate this debate in epistolary form, dramatising both sides of the argument. The final 'Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification' serves as a wry critique of women's own self-deceptions. Complex and provocative, Letters for Literary Ladies demonstrates Edgeworth's early exploration of the subject that would define her career.

1 January 2018 will be the 250th anniversary of Maria Edgeworth's birth. Valerie Pakenham's sparkling new selection of over four hundred letters, many hitherto unpublished, will help to celebrate her memory. Born in England, she was brought to live in Ireland at the age of fourteen and spent most of the rest of her life at the family home at Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford. Encouraged by her remarkable father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, whose memoirs she edited, she became, in turn, famous for her children's stories, her practical guides to education and her novels - or, as she preferred to call them, `Moral Tales'. By 1813, when visiting London, she was, as Byron testified, as great a literary lion as he had been the season before, and she was hugely admired by fellow novelists Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen. Maria Edgeworth's posthumous fame has dwindled and only her first novel, Castle Rackrent (1800), a brilliant burlesque account of the Irish squirearchy, is still widely read. She was, however, a prolific and fascinating letter writer. She insisted that her letters were for private consumption only, but after her death, her stepmother and half-sisters produced a private memoir for friends using carefully selected extracts. Their literary quality was spotted by Augustus Hare, whose shortened version, The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, appeared in 1894. In the 1970s Maria's great great niece, Christina Colvin edited Maria Edgeworth's Letters from England and Maria Edgeworth in France & Switzerland. No one, however, has revisited fully Maria's original letters from the place she loved and knew best: Ireland. From 1825, Maria's letters reflect sixty years of Irish history, from the heady days of Grattan's Parliament, through the perils of the 1798 Rebellion to the rise of O'Connell and the struggle for Catholic Emancipation. In old age, she worked actively to alleviate the Great Famine and wrote her last story to raise money aged 82. A treasure trove of stories, humour, local and high-level gossip, her letters show the extraordinary range of her interests: history, politics, literature and science. Maria almost single-handedly took over the management of her family estate and restored it to solvency. Her later letters brim with delight at these practical undertakings and her affection for the local people she worked with. Two of her half-sisters and her stepmother were gifted artists, and Valerie Pakenham has been able to use many of their unpublished drawings and sketches to illustrate this book.

Harrington (1817) is the personal narrative of a recovering anti-Semite, a young man whose phobia of Jews is instilled in early childhood and who must unlearn his irrational prejudice when he falls in love with the daughter of a Spanish Jew. In this novel, Edgeworth attempts to challenge prejudice and to show how literary representations affect public policy, while at the same time interrogating contemporary understandings of freedom in English society. This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and a judicious selection of appendices, including correspondence between Edgeworth and Rachel Mordecai Lazarus, excerpts from John Toland's Letters to Serena and Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews, an excerpt from Isaac D'Israeli's article on Moses Mendelssohn, and contemporary reviews of the novel.

Set in Ireland prior to its achieving legislative independence from Britain in 1782, Castle Rackrent tells the story of three generations of an estate--owning family as seen through the eyes-and as told in the voice-of their longtime servant, Thady Quirk, recorded and commented on by an anonymous Editor. This edition of Maria Edgeworth's first novel is based on the 1832 edition, the last revised by her, and includes Susan Kubica Howard's foot-of-the-page notes on the text of the memoir as well as on the notes and glosses the Editor offers "for the information of the ignorant English reader." Howard's Introduction situates the novel in its political and historical context and suggests a reading of the novel as Edgeworth's contribution to the discussion of the controversial Act of Union between Ireland and Britain that went into effect immediately after the novel's publication in London in 1800.

Maria Edgeworth’s sparkling satire about the Anglo-Irish family of an absentee landlord is also a landmark novel of morality and social realism.

The Absentee centres around Lord and Lady Clonbrony, a couple more concerned with London society than their duties and responsibilities to those who live and work on their Irish estates. Recognizing this negligence, their son Lord Colombre goes incognito to Ireland to observe the situation and trace the origins of his beloved cousin Grace. To put matters straight he finds a solution that will bring prosperity and contentment to every level of society, including his own family.

In her Introduction, Heidi Thomson explores the political and social themes of the book and places it in its historical context. With Castle Rackrent and The Absentee Maria Edgeworth helped create the ‘regional’ novel, rich in atmosphere and local character, and influenced writers as disparate as Scott, Thackeray and Turgenev.

Castle Rackrent s publication in 1800 signaled many firsts: the first historical novel, the first regional novel in English, the first big house novel, the first Anglo-Irish novel, and the first novel with a narrator who is neither reliable nor part of the action. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the Baldwin & Cradock edition that appeared as part of an eighteen-volume collected edition titled Tales and Novels of Maria Edgeworth (1832 33). It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations. Ryan Twomey focuses the volume s Backgrounds and Contexts on Edgeworth s importance as a writer, the influence of contemporary historical events on her writing (most importantly, the Act of Union of 1800, which united Ireland and Great Britain), and Castle Rackrent s impact on the development of the novel. These include a selection of Edgeworth s letters; five major contemporary reviews; biographical pieces; Sir Walter Scott on Edgeworth and her response to him; and excerpts from Edgeworth s juvenilia, The Double Disguise. Criticism is thematically organized to give readers a clear sense of Castle Rackrent s major themes: Irish writing and specifically the Irish novel, narrative voices, patriarchy and paternalism, and Edgeworth s Hiberno-English writing. Contributors include Seamus Deane, Marilyn Butler, Katherine O Donnell, Julia Nash, Joyce Flynn, and Brian Hollingsworth, among others. A chronology of Edgeworth s life and work and a selected bibliography are also included."