Multigenerational tale capturing the flaws of the English presence and landowning in Ireland. ( )

Oh what a delicious, funny and painful (as all truly deep humor is) book: a portrait, written in the early 19th century, about a series of negligent (understatement) Anglo-Irish landowners over a series of generations (supposedly in the 18th century, but . . . ) as narrated by the faithful Thady Quirk, estate agent to most of them as he lives into his 90's. Rack renting was the lamentable practice of, essentially, leasing a parcel of land to a person who would then rent said parcel out in smaller landholdings at madly overrated prices and without any restrictions or responsibilities toward the land or for those who cultivated it. Everyone made money except the folks at the bottom, who barely ended up scratching out a living and who had no security, no reason either than to practice farming at its worst (for the hope of quickest and surest profit) and in this practice lie the origins and reason for the famine. No, Edgeworth didn't prophecy the famine, how could she, and yet, a modern reader cannot help feel awe at her acuity and the sheer genius. I plan to listen to this in a recorded book form pronto -- I had to read it aloud in a pretend Irish accent, to get the full glory. ***** ( )

I did not get on with this novel. It purports to be a series of accounts of the lives and fortunes of a number of heirs to an estate in late 18th century Ireland, narrated unreliably by an estate steward. Essentially this is a novella prefaced by an introduction and other surrounding material by a narrator who is describing the real life estate of Edgeworth's own father. While it's an interesting experiment and must have been well researched, I could not get into it. ( )

I read this brief novel by Irish author Maria Edgeworth because it was on the 1001 books to read before you die list and I'm always interested in female authors on the list. This book was published in 1800 and seems to have been written about a "typical" Irish gentry family for the English public. She certainly didn't give Ireland the best representation! This book is narrated by Thady, a servant for the Rackrent family, who witnesses three generations squander away their money and land through poor management, gambling, drink, and unwise marriages. Their land ends up in the hands of Thady's son.

This book is important historically because the English ate it up and took it as a real insight into the rise of the middle class in Ireland and the bad habits of the Irish landed gentry. But the writing, plot development, and character development are basically non-existent. Thady's voice gives some character and there are a few funny moments, but this is basically a long run-on sentence in 90 pages. Any book published in the early 1800s will be compared by me to Jane Austen and there is zero comparison here. I'm always impressed with Austen's tight plot and character development and coherence when compared to her contemporaries.

This was interesting from a historical perspective, but not really a pleasurable reading experience. ( )

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. ( )