Maria Edgeworth

Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849), English novelist, daughter of the author and inventor Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Born in Blackburton, Oxfordshire, she spent the greater part of her life in Edgeworthstown, Ireland, and while helping her father manage his estates, she acquired a knowledge of the Irish peasantry that was to be important in her writing. Edgeworth is most noted for her novels of Irish life, which were the first works of fiction to present a careful study of Irish provincial and peasant life and manners. Her first publication was Letters to Literary Ladies (1795), which was a discussion of female authorship and education. Her first novel, Castle Rackrent (1800), was an immediate success. The Absentee (1812), one of her best works, depicts the evils of the system of absentee landlords. Belinda (1801), also set in Ireland, is a novel of manners like those of Jane Austen. Edgeworth's novels of English life, like her other works, are distinguished by humour, sprightly dialogue, and a clear style. Her admirers were many and included Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, and 20th-century feminist literary critics.