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Castle Rackrent
Excellent Book
- GenresClassics
Paperback
Published July 15, 2009
2 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Maria Edgeworth
1,948 books224 followersMaria Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish gentry-woman, a daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, born in Oxfordshire and later resettling in County Longford. She eventually took over the management of her father's estate in Ireland and dedicated herself to writing novels that encouraged the kind treatment of Irish tenants and the poor by their landlords.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 14, 2026
I’m embarrassed that I knew nothing about Maria Edgeworth or Castle Rackrent, before Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary was being celebrated on Radio 4 at the end of 2025, and I started listening to programmes naming Edgeworth as a writer who earnt very well from her writing (sadly unlike Austen). So I became curious.
In a way I now understand WHY Edgeworth earnt so well from Castle Rackrent: it’s a novella solely focused on losing money and financial exploitation.
It satirises the Anglo-Irish gentry, who sucked their Catholic tenants dry for generations through the 18th century, through their ruinous spending and failure to manage their Irish estates properly, their own litigiousness, funded by harsh rent terms, and their absenteeism, during which they took income out of their estate to fund lavish lifestyles in England.
Edgeworth’s great invention is Thady the dumbly loyal Irish steward, who tells the story of the decline and fall of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy as a humble servant, reliably unreliable… we can see straight through him to the activities of his own son Jason who, wilier, starts the process of recuperating land and estate management until the final blow to Sir Condy finishes the sorry tale.
Edgeworth is no Austen, but there is something here that does remind us of Austen: the endless preoccupation with the funding of the female life. Although Edgeworth concentrates on the male heirs to Castle Rackrent, and their flaws, it is easy to make out between the lines the anxiety that animates all of Austen’s novels: what will the women live on?
Where Edgeworth satirises the patriarchal arrangements that obtained in the 18th century, Austen is bodying forth the anxiety and suffering of the girls and mothers caught up in its machinations.
That she manages to keep this anxiety candyfloss light is the reason we still read Austen, and perhaps neglect Edgeworth, who in her day was more jauntily on the nose in her satire of land, property and landowners, but missed the beating hearts of those trapped like butterflies in patriarchy’s talons.
In a way I now understand WHY Edgeworth earnt so well from Castle Rackrent: it’s a novella solely focused on losing money and financial exploitation.
It satirises the Anglo-Irish gentry, who sucked their Catholic tenants dry for generations through the 18th century, through their ruinous spending and failure to manage their Irish estates properly, their own litigiousness, funded by harsh rent terms, and their absenteeism, during which they took income out of their estate to fund lavish lifestyles in England.
Edgeworth’s great invention is Thady the dumbly loyal Irish steward, who tells the story of the decline and fall of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy as a humble servant, reliably unreliable… we can see straight through him to the activities of his own son Jason who, wilier, starts the process of recuperating land and estate management until the final blow to Sir Condy finishes the sorry tale.
Edgeworth is no Austen, but there is something here that does remind us of Austen: the endless preoccupation with the funding of the female life. Although Edgeworth concentrates on the male heirs to Castle Rackrent, and their flaws, it is easy to make out between the lines the anxiety that animates all of Austen’s novels: what will the women live on?
Where Edgeworth satirises the patriarchal arrangements that obtained in the 18th century, Austen is bodying forth the anxiety and suffering of the girls and mothers caught up in its machinations.
That she manages to keep this anxiety candyfloss light is the reason we still read Austen, and perhaps neglect Edgeworth, who in her day was more jauntily on the nose in her satire of land, property and landowners, but missed the beating hearts of those trapped like butterflies in patriarchy’s talons.
February 9, 2026
Honestly, I was really not liking this when I started reading it. Notably, it doesn't utilize paragraphs at all. However, after the in-class discussion, it definitely grew on me. It's honestly kind of progressive (EXCLUDING the description of Kit Rackrent's Jewish wife - definitely anti-semetic and uncomfortable!!!) in the way that all the Rackrent wives make it out of the mess that is the Rackrent family.
I also enjoyed postulating different readings of Thady, the narrator. Is he in on his son's rise to power, and his loyal remarks to the family just a sarcastic front? It's kind of up to interpretation, but you definitely get a sense of something sneaky going on.
Not my favorite, but I respect it's function in the class I'm taking. I wouldn't have chosen to read this if I weren't forced to, so I guess I'm glad I did.
I also enjoyed postulating different readings of Thady, the narrator. Is he in on his son's rise to power, and his loyal remarks to the family just a sarcastic front? It's kind of up to interpretation, but you definitely get a sense of something sneaky going on.
Not my favorite, but I respect it's function in the class I'm taking. I wouldn't have chosen to read this if I weren't forced to, so I guess I'm glad I did.
December 31, 2024
It took some reading and was read over a much longer period than it should have taken to read. Not because it was hard to read but because I expected something different.
It was recommended to me by my ex-Professor as something I might enjoy. I imagine taking it apart and writing an essay on it, would be pretty enjoyable but as a read for pleasure, it is something I could have left alone. It's a book where you are waiting for something to happen but the pace never really picks up. It's a simple narrative; the loss of all, due to greed, poor choices, drinking and gambling.
It was recommended to me by my ex-Professor as something I might enjoy. I imagine taking it apart and writing an essay on it, would be pretty enjoyable but as a read for pleasure, it is something I could have left alone. It's a book where you are waiting for something to happen but the pace never really picks up. It's a simple narrative; the loss of all, due to greed, poor choices, drinking and gambling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 13, 2025
boo, lawyers!
January 23, 2026
I read it for class and it’s very boring but I like the point that she was trying to get across
November 30, 2025
She writes with such a wonderful Irish voice. Listening to this brogue at rhe bar as the gentle tale unfolds
It doesnt hit the heights, but you can see how it paved the way for others
“Sir Patrick Rackrent lived and died a monument of old Irish hospitality”
“But to get to my lady -she got surprisingly well after my master’s decease”
It doesnt hit the heights, but you can see how it paved the way for others
“Sir Patrick Rackrent lived and died a monument of old Irish hospitality”
“But to get to my lady -she got surprisingly well after my master’s decease”
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews