Thady Quirk, devoted steward to the decaying estate of the Rackrent family, narrates a riotous story of four generations of a dying dynasty in Castle Rackrent (1800). Thady will defend his masters to the end, but eventually his naivety and blind loyalty cause him to ignore the warning signs as the family's excesses lead them to ruin. This volume also includes Ennui, the entertaining confessions' of the Earl of Glenthorn, a bored, spoiled aristocrat. Desperate to be free from the demon of ennui', Glenthorn's quest for happiness takes him through violence and revolution, and leads to intriguing twists of fate. Both novels offer a darkly comic and satirical expose of the Irish class system, and a portrait of a nation in turmoil.
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Maria Edgeworth (1767–1849) was born in Oxfordshire and, after being educated in England, went to Edgeworthstown in Ireland to act as her father's assistant and governess to his many other children. With her father she wrote several educational books, and as a novelist she earned the praise of Sir Walter Scott.Marilyn Butler?(1937–2014) was rector of Exeter College, Oxford. She was educated at the University of Oxford and taught both there and at Cambridge, where she was the King Edward VII Professor of English Literature from 1986 to 1993. Her books include Jane Austen and the War of Ideas, Peacock Displayed, and The Collected Works of Maria Edgeworth. Butler also edited Castle Rackrent?and?Ennui by Maria Edgeworth.
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