Edgeworth, Maria (1767-1849), was an Irish writer known for her novels about Irish life and for her children’s stories. Edgeworth is best known for Castle Rackrent (1800), her first novel. The novel portrays the lives of three generations of the Rackrent family, landowners in Ireland during the 1700’s. Castle Rackrent is one of the first regional novels in English literature and perhaps the first historical novel. The work influenced the historical novels written by the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott.
Maria Edgeworth was born on Jan. 1, 1767, in Black Bourton in Oxfordshire, England, but lived permanently in Ireland from the age of 15. In addition to Castle Rackrent, Edgeworth’s novels about Irish life include The Absentee (1812), which was part of a series called Tales of Fashionable Life, and Ormond (1817). She also wrote novels about the English society of her time, including Belinda (1801-1802), Patronage (1814), and Helen (1834). Edgeworth wrote some of the earliest stories written for and about children. They were published in The Parent’s Assistant (1796-1800), Moral Tales for Young People and Early Lessons (both 1801), Popular Tales (1804), Harry and Lucy and Rosamund: A Sequel to Early Lessons (both 1821), and Frank (1822).
