Castle Rackrent (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

By Maria Edgeworth

Castle Rackrent is widely regarded as the first historical novel—as well as the first novel to feature a narrator who is an unreliable observer of the story. Set in England, the narrative is told by the steward of the Rackrent heirs, Thady Quirk. As the four heirs mismanage their money in various ways, Thady’s son Jason devises a plan to make the entire fortune his.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Mar 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9781411444584

Maria Edgeworth

Although born in England in 1768, Maria Edgeworth was raised in Ireland from a young age after the death of her mother. After nearly losing her sight at age fourteen, Edgeworth was tutored at home by her father, helping to run their estate and taking charge of her younger siblings. Over the course of her life she collaborated and published books with her father, and produced many more of her own adult and children’s works, including such classics as Castle Rackrent, Patronage, Belinda, Ormond and The Absentee. Edgeworth spent her entire life on the family estate, but kept up friendships and correspondences with her contemporaries Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, and her writing had a profound influence upon Jane Austen and William Makepeace Thackeray. Edgeworth was outspoken on the issues of poverty, women’s rights, and racial inequalities. During the beginnings of famine in Ireland, Edgeworth worked in relief and support of the sick and destitute. She died in 1849 at the age of 81.

Reviews for Castle Rackrent (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thady Quirk, aged retainer of the Rackrent family, recounts the family history in typically Irish style. The Quirk family's association began with Sir Patrick O'Shaughlin, who changed his name to Rackrent as a condition of inheritance from a childless cousin. The story concludes with the last of the Rackrents, Sir Conolly, and his loss of the estate. Edgeworth had an ear for dialect. Unfortunately, the flow of Thady's story is interrupted by footnotes and endnotes. Even the footnotes have footnotes.Edgeworth was a contemporary of Jane Austen. Austen referred to Edgeworth's novels in her own novels. Readers who have read their way through Austen's novels might enjoy branching out into works by an author that Austen herself read.

[prop2gether · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story of a dissolute family and the faithful retainer, as told by the faithful retainer, was not as entertaining as it may sound. For the record, I read the digital.library,upenn download of this novel, but I liked this cover.

[soniaandree_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good book, if you want an introduction to Irish Studies and literature. However, I got bored with stereotypical 2-dimensional characters and social classes - the rich are too pompous, the poors too servile and silly - there are so many 'Your Honour's honour' (feel free to count them), that the whole thing becomes comical to the extreme. Truly, the loss of Irish catholic landowners is no laughing matter, and wasn't then either, but Edgeworth's book did not serve the cause. Instead, I think it contributed to a certain point of view of the Irish as poor, lowly beggars or thieves, well into the nineteenth or twentieth century. To be read, surel, but with a bit of distance and a big pinch of salt as to the narrative and authorial intention.

[rebeccaann_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm going to start off this review by saying I was forced to read this book for a class, which is never the best way to find books you like.That said, Castle Rackrent wasn't too bad. It was more boring than anything else. The book is being told as if Thady, the Rackrent's butler (for lack of a better word) were narrating to you out loud the history of the family. You go through four generations of Rackrents and learn about their good points and their bad, how some were good people but weak-minded and how one locked up his wife for eight years because she wouldn't give him her diamond necklace.That's about it. An okay story, but it just seems there wasn't a point to it. I can appreciate what this did for literature as a whole, being the first Anglo-Irish novel and whatnot, and there were some very funny parts, especially the names of places (such as Crookaghnawaturgh, Gruneaghoolaghan, and Allballycarricko'shaughlin, to name a few) but I doubt I would have read it if it wasn't for a class and I doubt I'll read it ever again.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Late 18th-century satire on British landlords in Ireland, supposedly written by a trusted longtime servant. Edgeworth paints an intriguing portrait fo corruption and its effects on both the haves and have-nots.

[lisamorr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Published in 1800, Castle Rackrent is described in the introduction as one of the most famous unread novels in English. Also from the introduction, 'combining the subtle wit of the French tale, the Gaelic cadences of Irish oral tradition, and Gothic intrigue over property and inheritance, Castle Rackrent has gathered a dazzling array of firsts - the first regional novel, the first socio-historical novel, the first Irish novel, the first Big House novel, the first saga novel.'How all this could fit in 114 pages, which includes a preface and a glossary by the author, is pretty amazing. But on reflection I guess it does! I read this along with the glossary and explanatory notes - the glossary was so much more than a glossary, taking 3 pages to explain the Irish lamentation for the dead, a couple of pages on Fairy Mounts and explaining well and truly what a raking pot of tea is (raised eyebrows...). It's about four inhabitants of the Castle Rackrent, Sir Patrick, Sir Murtagh, Sir Kit and Sir Conolly and how the run their estate.I picked this up ostensibly to fit in a short 1001 book that also met the March RandomCAT and I'm so glad I did!

[tess_schoolmarm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a novella of 89 pages about the Rackrents as told by Sir Condy's loyal servant, Thad or "Old Thady." This is hailed as the first British novel. I found the narrator to be unreliable and babbling. I found the the story boring and plotless.

[mlbelize · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Found the dynamics of interaction between the tenants, servants and gentry to be fascinating. A fast easy read.

[clancy.coonradt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good book for identifying what the Big House lifestyle was like in Ireland around the end of the 19th century. The possibility for Honest Thady to be telling a slave narrative is very appealing although there are clear differences in some of the claims that it fits neatly in this category. Recommended read for anyone curious about Irish history.

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I skipped the lengthy introduction (~25% of this Kindle book!). I wonder whether Susanna Clarke (author of "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell") was a fan of this classic because Edgeworth's glossary and Clarke's footnotes were similar in style!I found many of the anecdotes amusing but the final story about Sir Condy struck me as rather sad.

[patsymurray · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was glad I read this because it has such a prominent place in literary history, but I did not find it as amusing as it is meant to be.

[tess_w · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a novella of 89 pages about the Rackrents as told by Sir Condy's loyal servant, Thad or "Old Thady." This is hailed as the first British novel. I found the narrator to be unreliable and babbling. I found the the story boring and plotless.