Castle Rackrent and Absence

by Maria Edgeworth

When a long-time servant of the Rackrent family decides to write about family members whom he has served, the result is a stylishly entertaining exploration of master/servant relationships. Edgeworth's brilliant satire of early-19th-century Anglo-Irish landlords pioneered the regional novel and changed the focus of conflict in Ireland from religion to class.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Ireland, Historical Fiction, Literature, 18th Century, Irish Literature

346 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1812

About the author

Maria Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish gentry-woman, a daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, born in Oxfordshire and later resettling in County Longford. She eventually took over the management of her father's estate in Ireland and dedicated herself to writing novels that encouraged the kind treatment of Irish tenants and the poor by their landlords.

Reviews

[Boadicea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early Irish regional literature in story-telling format with 2 stories published over a decade apart chronicling firstly, two tales of landowning gentry which are quite different; secondly, the author's style changes significantly over the decade with, to my mind, more success in her latter novel.

"Castle Rackrent" chronicles 4 generations of the O'Shaughlin family who live life to the fullest & most uproarious as told by their long-serving steward, Thady Quin. This is to the detriment of their fortune which eventually evaporates, to the benefit of Thady's descendants. It's sort of like an early version of 'Blackadder' but was nowhere near as funny!

"The Absentee" on the other hand was far more interesting. It's got some terrific characters, a Falstaffian figure in Sir Terence O'Fay, shenanigans involving a venal Jewish coach-builder/money-lender, and a lovely old widow, Mrs O'Neill. A socially mobile lady who wants to be up with the 'ton', the incrowd, who talks of teebles and cheers, made me chuckle, and a grieving old skinflint who prefers dogs to people but can succumb to the charms of a 'big cheese'. Wow, yes!
Whilst it has its moments of didactic exposition on the social upheaval caused by the Act of Union, and hence aggravated the phenomenon of absentee landlords, as they were now in London rather than Dublin, personally I found it illuminating and entertaining overall.

So, you, like me, may be encouraged to read "Castle Rackrent". Stay, however, for "The Absentee". Definitely, the better work of the two.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nota: Esta opinião é apenas sobre Castle Rackrent ( "The Absentee" que também compõe esta edição, não foi nesta altura lido).

Castle Rackrent

Foi com surpresa que verifiquei que das 278 páginas desta edição, o texto de "Castle Rackrent" ocupava apenas as primeiras 56. Não foi no entanto uma leitura rápida. O inglês deste periodo, para mais sendo o narrador irlandês, forçou a uma leitura atenta e demorada. Apesar contudo da morosidade necessária, não foi uma leitura aborrecida.

A história é a da famíia Rackrent, contada na voz de um seu criado (o Thady).

São quatro as gerações sobre as quais ouvimos de Thady contar a história, desde Sir Patrick até Sir Condy, passando por Sir Murtaugh e Sir Kit. É possível ao velho Thady contar-nos tudo isto, porque seu avô havia também sido empregado da família nos tempos idos de Sir Patrick. É através primeiro das histórias que ouviu contar de seu avô, e depois das suas próprias vivências ao serviço da família, que a vida de quatro gerações nos chega ao conhecimento.

Mas não é uma história alegre a desta família. Desde os tempos em que Sir Patrick mudou o seu apelido para Rackrent e herdou títulos, propriedades e fortuna, a família entra quase de imediato em declínio. Assistimos à descrição da completa destruição desta familia durante 4 gerações. Muitas são as características pessoais dos senhores do castelo que vão contribuir para esta ruína dos Rackrents, desde tendência para abusar do álcool, para o jogo, para mulheres, para brigas ou até mesmo só para serem descuidados ou irresponsáveis. Mas a dedicação do nosso narrador, o velho Thady aos seus senhores, apesar de tudo isso, mantém-se inabalável.

A história é interessante o suficiente para continuar a ler, no entanto parece por vezes não ser uma história completa mas antes uma espécie de introdução. A história poderia bem continuar, sobre aqueles que beneficiaram com a ruína dos Rackrent. O filho de Thady (Jason) foi um dos que muito beneficiou e seria na minha opinião interessante, continuar a contar a história dele.

Diz-se deste livro,que se trata do primeiro romance regional inglês, e por isso esta autora considerada "menor" ganhou algum protagonismo na história da literatura. Segundo consta é o primeiro romance caracterizador de uma região (neste caso, a Irlanda). Tem pois bastante importância literária e também histórica, pelo retrato económico, político e social de uma pequena comunidade irlandesa do século XVII.

Caso não tenham nenhum interesse especial por estas questões literárias ou históricas não vejo no entanto motivo para vos recomendar este livro. É um livro razoável, que gostei de ler, mas não o suficiente para o recomendar.

[Francisca · Rating 2 out of 5]

i originally picked this one up for castle rackrent . i had seen somewhere it was considered one of the first regional novels in english and somehow comical. having finished both stories here, i cannot agree with either statement. "novel" would be doing it this a bit of a favour although i understand the distinction with "novella" had not been considered (even though of) at the time of its publication. on the other hand, i don't mean to imply this is boring. being fair, it was too short for it to be either funny or not. it just went by before i even noticed it.

the absentee , on the other hand, came with no expectations. i'm glad i had none. it is quite a conventional novel in that it has some hardships but all ends well. i was expecting some critical and social commentary on the presence of english landlords over the irish countryside but this discussion was tame at best. it was more a coming-of-age story than a critique--which is fine, really. however, that was the problem: it was just fine.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've reviewed Castle Rackrent separately. The Absentee is an engaging tale of 18th century decadence and 19th century virtue and energy, with Lord and Lady Clonbony, Irish gentry who have abandoned the country for London, plagued by debts and snobbery respectively, while their 20-year-old son idealistically returns to Ireland to see what is going on in their absence. Not surprisingly he finds corruption, mixed with the virtue of the poor.

Our hero is a little puritanical, determining not to marry the beautiful and virtuous woman he loves when he believes her to have been illegitimate, but all the same, it's clear that the author's sympathies are firmly with him, and she uses his trip to make several long polemical statements about the conditions in Ireland and the Union with Britain - which I didn't realise was as recent as 1801.

It's entertaining and fast-paced for a novel of the time, and there's something very charming about the hero's mix of naiveté and integrity.

[bubonic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is just a review of Castle Rackrent; a review of The Absentee will follow when I finish it.

Castle Rackrent opens with a preface by the author gently stating that the works of a biographer can be unduly biased. In our case our biographer of three generations of the Rackrent family is "poor old Thady". Along with footnotes there is a glossary provided by an anonymous "editor" that provides satirical commentary and explanation of Irish culture to the "ignorant" reader.

Thady's take on the decadence of the Rackrent estate is both witty and charming culminating to an anti-climax. Always loyal, even to the bitter end, Thady engineers a presence of proper behavior in an otherwise erroneous managing of people I.e., tenants, agents, middlemen, and finances. I found the editors remarks both humorous and entertaining, complimenting this short novella that is definitely worth a read.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the landed gentry have never gone away and still occupy an influential part in society, it is probably fair to say that that they have been displaced by a new generation of capitalist businessmen who dominate society and control the levers of power. This has reached a point in America where one businessman (Musk) essentially bought the election for another businessman (Trump).

This is hardly an improvement in society. We feel the effects (in America and here in Britain) every day of leaving control in the hands of ruthless capitalists who sacrifice people, the environment, nature, public services and morals to the pursuit of making more money than they can ever spend.

However, as Maria Edgeworth’s books show, we should not get too sentimental about those Lords and gentry who used to run the country by owning large areas of its land. All too often it meant waste, extravagance, neglect of responsibilities and exploitation of the people who lived on the land.

Edgeworth’s solution was certainly not to hand power over to cold bureaucrats. She still believed that the landed classes could be saved if they would be persuaded to attend to their duties, and take care of the people whose livelihood depended on the good husbandry of the landowners.

Maria Edgeworth and her husband were humanitarians by the standards of the age in which they lived. She was certainly not perfect. During the Irish famine, she gave relief to only those peasants who paid their rent in full and supported her Tory preferences. Nonetheless she was involved in many good schemes.

After all, Edgeworth did at least believe in some relief during times of famine. She worked hard to raise the standards of poor people in her area, and provided schools for children of all denominations. She supported self-realisation for women and Catholic emancipation.

Castle Rackrent and The Absentee both portray Jews in an unflattering light. Mordecai is a villainous creditor in The Absentee. A Jewish wife is shown with more sympathy in Castle Rackrent. She is treated badly, forced to eat non-kosher meat and imprisoned in the castle, but nonetheless partly blamed for family problems.

However, Edgeworth was sensitive to criticisms of anti-Semitism, and added likeable Jewish characters in a later book, some of the earliest sympathetic Jews in English literature. (Charles Dickens similarly atoned for putting the villainous Fagin in Oliver Twist by putting the more compassionate Mr Riah in Our Mutual Friend.)

Both books here deal with issues of misuse and abuse of the land by Irish aristocrats. Castle Rackrent is a short work which deals with several generations of the Rackrent family, who move from extravagance to thrift, and back again to wastefulness. Eventually the land falls into the hands of the narrator’s capable but cold-hearted attorney son.

We might see the work as reflecting the history of the landed classes as new forces emerged in society that were less averse to the vulgar business of money-making. This makes Castle Rackrent an interesting but flawed work. It is both too short and too long. It mainly comprises lengthy paragraphs describing the affairs of the Rackrents in expository terms, but contains too few scenes in which the characters are given the chance to speak or perform specific actions that would interest the reader.

This mistake is not made in The Absentee, a much longer work, which dedicates more time to dialogue, characterisation and action. The story is told in four phases. The first part satirises the aristocracy in Ireland. Lady Clonbrony has been living in England, and has picked up an affectation of an English accent that is mocked by the women in her social milieu.

While the Clonbronys try to fit into Irish society, their attempts are doomed to failure. The spiteful and catty ladies of the society take pleasure in exposing her purchase of an artistic fake. Only her son Lord Colambre stands outside this attempt to impress himself on the locals. He is indignant with their treatment of his mother, who is not an entirely bad woman.

Colambre is in love with his penniless cousin, Grace Nugent, but his family want him to marry the wealthy but plain heiress, Miss Broadhurst. Curiously, Edgeworth makes Miss Broadhurst one of the more likeable characters in the book. She is not destined to win over the book’s hero, though she does find another husband, but her articulate expression of her plight and her cynicism about wealth makes her a much more interesting character than the pallid Grace or the priggish Colambre.

Miss Broadhurst does not stay in the story for long, however. Colambre is determined to find out more about Ireland. He is seduced by the society of Lady Dashfort, who wants him to marry her daughter, Isobel. While the two women do a good job of trying to poison Colambre against Grace or against seeking greater ties with other Irish gentry, their plans fail when Colambre comes to realise their shallow and selfish nature.

In the next part of the book, Edgeworth takes us away from the land of privilege, as Colambre goes incognito onto the estates of his father. Lord Clonbrony is an absentee landlord. He has handed power to an unscrupulous agent, and is planning to sack another agent who cares about the locals, but cannot raise the money Clonbrony needs to settle his debts.

This exposure of wastefulness, mishandling of funds and neglect is interesting, but Edgeworth pulls her punches. This situation is entirely the fault of Clonbrony, but Edgeworth does not want us to view this as his darker side, or to turn Colambre away from his parents. All that is needed is for Colambre to point out to his parents the error of their ways and encourage them to act as good owners of their land in future.

The final section of the book is a little prolonged, and involves Colambre’s search to see if Grace is of respectable parentage before he can marry her. Frankly, I would have respected him better if he had chosen Grace before he conformed the legitimacy of her birth.

The Absentee is not overly exciting as a piece of storytelling, but it has its humorous moments, and the progressive social message is interesting. On the whole Edgeworth is a capable and steady writer, but not an especially brilliant one.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are interesting as historical flashpoints rather than as entities in their own right. ‘Castle Rackrent’ is the story of three generations of terrible Anglo-Irish landlords, shown through the uncritical lens of their elderly Irish retainer. It is a narrative stuffed full of villains, but thin on heroes or plots. ‘The Absentee’ is better in that it actually tells a story. Lord Colambre is the insufferably virtuous son of a rackety aristo who uses his Irish estate to fund his wife’s parties. Lord Colambre comes of age and puts a stop to it by convincing his parents to live on their Irish estates and cease being ‘absentee’ landlords. Although this sounds – and could be! – dramatic, the narrative is robbed of all tension through Edgeworth’s choices. We spent, for example, three pages on Colambre visiting various houses owned by Mr Reynolds until he hits upon the one Mr Reynolds is actually occupying. His reason for chasing Mr Reynolds down, however, is resolved in a few sentences. Edgeworth might as well have started a book with a tagline reading ‘IN CASE YOU’RE WORRIED, IT ALL TURNS OUT FINE!’ That’s even before we consider the Irish tenantry, whose virtue is directly correlated to the virtue of their landlord, and whose only desire in life is to be a model tenant on land that was robbed from them by pillaging imperialists.

“He will oblige you, but he will not obey you; he will do you a favour, but he will not do you justice; he will do anything to serve you, but the particular thing you order he neglects […].”

Good lord.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Замок Рэкрент
Небольшое произведение об ирландском поместье. Хозяева по-разному относятся к управлению им: один - душа нараспашку, угощает и привечает каждого, и потому конечно же влазит в долги. Другой даже не интересуется им, а уезжает в Англию в первый же день. Ну в общем, помещичество - это работа, к которой должна быть склонность и умение, иначе складывается всё печально.
Довольно забавное произведение. Читается легко и быстро, отличный образец юмора того времени.

Вдали от Отечества
Здесь Эджворт говорит о большой проблеме, когда ирландские помещики уезжают в столицу жить на широкую ногу, а в это время поместье, разоряемое управляющим, с которого хозяин требует всё больше и больше денег на столичную жизнь, приходит в упадок. Но это большой роман, который кроме этого говорит о чести (дурацкой, когда молодой человек не может жениться на любимой из-за её несколько скомпроментированного происхождения, хотя всем на него плевать), об Ирландии, о нравах высшего света и т.д.
Роман мне показался довольно скучным. То девки охотятся за 20-летним юнцом, как будто это последний их шанс в жизни выйти замуж, то мы знакомимся с процессом выбивания долгов с живущих не по средствам аристократов. Пространные несущественные диалоги, мельчайшие детали скучного быта - хотя роман не такой уж и большой, конца и края ему не видно.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

These humorous accounts (written in 1800 and 1812 respectively) of Irish debt among the upper classes is marred by the anti-Semitic characteristics of the biblically named character, Modecai, a coach maker who pursues his debt in The Absentee. The protrayal of this character, and other Jewish characters in Edgeworth's novels and children's stories, resulted in an interesting exchange between the progressive-minded Edgeworth and an American Jew from North Carolina, Rachel Modecai, who coincidentally had the same last name as the character from The Absentee. She protested the antisemitism. As a result, Edgeworth wrote the novel Harrington in 1817 (now available as a Broadview edition).

[Adam Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edgeworth's two most famous books in one volume. She is an Irish writer so both of the books take place in Ireland.

"Castle Rackrent" is a family history where three generations are explored as the castle is inherited and the reputation of the family is succeeded. However, in less than a hundred pages, this is not easily told.

"The Absentee" is Lord Colambre who finds his household impoverished and thus needs to find a wife with a sizeable inheritance. He returns from England to Ireland where he starts the search but finds a monetarily desirable choice unpleasant. The desirable choice for a bride is seen as illegitimate. His subsequent dealings are to discover the illegitimate bride to be legitimate and to stop his father from losing more money.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Castle Rackrent: delightful short story chronicling the lives of the “illustrious” lords of the castle over a few generations. You can see the beginnings of Bleak House, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights in quick succession.
The Absentee: fantastic moral story about the effects of absentee landlords in Ireland. Read alongside The Great Hunger (non-fiction history of famine in Ireland) but in this story the good all find love and prosperity and bad actually get their comeuppance. LOVED IT.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

(to be clear, I only read castle rack rent, but that's a whole book this is just the edition that I bought, so...

If you pay attention to the ironic disconnect between the editorial voice and what he thinks of the narrator etc/you get a very long spiel from your professor who's writing a book on this, this book is fantastic. As a book you're reading for fun, I think it's still very fun, probably 3.5 stars, but I appreciated the discussion enough that I'm upping it

[Kealan O'ver · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit quaint at this stage with some of its politics but has a surprising charm once you get into it.

[VeganMedusa]

I thought this book was rather short to have two novels in it, and sure enough there are 34 pages missing from the end of Castle Rackrent. Must have been a printing error, as the book is in good nick. At least The Absentee is here in full.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read The Absentee.