Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Absentee
Maria Edgeworth, famous as a delineator of Irish character, was of English birth, though of Irish descent, being born at Black Bourton in Oxfordshire in 1767. Her early education also was English; but in her sixteenth year her father returned to Ireland to reside, taking her with him, and thereafter her home was at Edgeworthtown in County Longford, where she died in 1849. She is perhaps even better known as a writer of stories for children - stories which have retained in large measure their popularity - than as a novelist.
Her most notable tale was also the first published - "Castle Rackrent," issued in 1800 - a story based upon facts, and depicting the manners and methods of the Irish squire of the middle of the eighteenth century. It at once became famous and has become established among the masterpieces of fiction. It abounds in wit, graphic narration, and keen insight into the Irish national character. "It is a page torn from the national history of Ireland, inimitable, perennially delightful, equally humorous and pathetic, holding up with shrewd wit and keen perception" both the follies and the virtues which have made that history what it has been. Among her later works, the most important are the "Tales from Fashionable Life," among which is "The Absentee," published in 1812. Each of these tales - which have been regarded as the earliest examples of "the novel with a purpose" - was written to enforce a moral, but they are not the less charming for their didacticism. "The Absentee," in particular, is a masterpiece worthy to be placed beside "Castle Rackrent."
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