Tales and Novels — Volume 04

Here is a book that quietly invented modern Irish literature. Published in 1800 and included in this volume, 'Castle Rackrent' is the first novel in English to be set in Ireland, and it announces itself with a narrator unlike any other: Thady Quirk, the aging steward of the Rackrent estate, whose loyalty is as boundless as his syntax is delightfully tangled. Through Thady's eyes, we witness generations of Anglo-Irish gentry squander their inheritance with spectacular folly Sir Patrick bankrupted by hospitality, Sir Murtagh bankrupted by lawsuits, Sir Kit bankrupted by gambling and drink. Thady narrates each disaster with bewildered pride, unable to see that the family he serves is laughingstock and cautionary tale combined. Edgeworth's comedy is sharp but never cruel, and beneath the farce lies something genuinely elegiac: a portrait of a class, a culture, and a country at the edge of transformation. This is satire that loves its subject even as it skewers it.