Castle Rackrent / The Absentee
by Maria Edgeworth

4 out of 5 stars

Castle Rackrent is about a servant of the Rackrent family, who sees four generations of the landowners go through bankruptcy and scandal. Thady Quirk remains loyal to the family despite their drunken debaucheries, years of wasted income, and scandalous relationships. His narration gives excuses for their bad behavior and turns a blind eye to their evil ways, steadfastly claiming that the Rackrent family are all saints and the kindest masters in the world. On the one hand, his loyalty is admirable, but it could not have attached itself to a more unworthy object. Eventually, the family comes to ruin and a circumspect lawyer snaps up all their land and livelihood and the last of their house dies in poverty.

I did not really enjoy this short story, but I can appreciate the historic context and see how people of that time would have recognized certain characters as being caricatures of real people they might have known: the rich lord whose bad behavior is overlooked, the loyal servant who won’t hear anything against the titled family, the shrewd lawyer who swoops in once they are bankrupt, the desperate single ladies who are hoping to marry into the family based on their reputed wealth. The author paints a compelling picture, but the story itself was not my favorite.

However, the Absentee was wonderful! Lord Clonbrony and his wife are Irish landowners, but for most of their marriage they have lived in London, where Lady Clonbrony is desperate to be accepted into high society. They are “absentees” from their Irish estates, until their son comes of age and decides to take a trip over to Ireland and visit his native country.

This novella has it all: romance, mystery, and intrigue, evil villains, and adventures. I loved how the son, Lord Colambre, is just discovering how much of society is fake and trite, and he is longing for something real and substantial. His adventures in Ireland bring him face to face with simple country folk who are honest and true, and it changes his whole world.

There are a lot of layers to this story as Lord Clonbrony is falling deeper and deeper into debt because of their extravagant London lifestyle. Lord Colambre discovers a terrible secret about his cousin Grace, right as he was starting to fall in love with her, and the secret becomes an obstacle that tears them apart. So there is a lot of mystery surrounding Grace and her family. And Lord Colambre finds that his Irish estates are being horribly mismanaged, and he has to sort out the lies from the truth. There is also a spoiled young lady in Irish society who wants to get her claws into Colambre’s heart and trick him into a marriage.

The writing is beautiful! The story is exciting! The characters are so adorable, and even the villains are interesting! I loved the contrast between London society and the Irish countryside. There were so many things I loved in this book!