Patronage

by Maria Edgeworth, John Mullan (Introduction)

About Patronage: She set out to write an adventurous soap opera about the trails and fortunes of two neighbouring families in Regency England. She ended with a searing critique of corruption within British public and private life and a rare insight into the opportunities available for young men making their way in Regency society. Praised as both entertaining and profound (Jeremy Bentham called it 'admirable...instilling the love of justice and veracity') Patronage is an engrossing, page-turner of a read which chimes with these recessionary times. Maria Edgeworth's epic tale reflects the liberal views of her father. She may have influenced Sir Walter Scott and Ivan Turgenev, and been a high-profile activist for the famine-stricken Irish during her lifetime, but Maria Edgeworth has since lost ground to her contemporary Jane Austen. Patronage was first published in 1814, a year after Pride and Prejudice, when Edgeworth was far more renowned (and well-paid) than her rival, and this sprawling narrative offers plenty of scope for Colin Firth to turn up in a wet shirt and beget an Edgeworth revival. The novel centres around the Percy family, an upstanding bunch whose good humour is undented even by the shipwreck, the house fire and the devastating machinations of an evil relation which befall them within quick succession. Their moral fibre and naive optimism don't drive great drama, so fortunately they are contrasted with their more scheming cousins, the Falconers. Between them, the two families demonstrate the various aspects of patronage, the Percy patriarch being opposed to the "ruinous system" of achieving professional or personal status by any means other than merit, despite the Falconers' contrasting approach having more immediate advantages. Alongside the familiar element of daughters finding suitably lovable/wealthy/powerful husbands, Edgeworth pays equal attention to the problem of dispensing of sons, whose careers and social standing require as much underhand strategy as marriages. The author's father, the politician and author Richard Lovell Edgeworth, held progressive views about women's role in society and right to be educated, which are reflected in the liberal attitude pervading the story. Aspects of the tome have inevitably dated in the near-200 years since its original publication: the 19th-century punctuation gives much of the text a frantic air, and there's a certain lack of verbal economy; but at the same time there's that satisfying feeling that by the end, no ends will be left untied, and right will reign.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, 19th Century, British Literature, English Literature, Irish Literature, Novels

942 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1814

About the author

Maria 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.

Reviews

[Rose A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd been looking forward to reading Patronage for a while, to complete my reading of the four great novels of 1814 (Mansfield Park, Waverley, The Wanderer being the other three) and in some ways it did not disappoint. Maria Edgeworth has an elegant, readable style and the novel encompasses a breadth of content and character types, far greater than Jane Austen's world. From a historical point of view, Patronage provides a wonderful insight into society of the early 19th century from the aristocracy and ballrooms of London to the life of a young doctor or lawyer on the make. I found this really interesting and valuable, as a writer of historical fiction of that period. Edgeworth also has a very nice turn for character. She can skewer a personality with ease and her "bad" characters are very well drawn. However, this is a very flawed novel and her good characters, the Percies, are pretty unbearable to a modern readership. Personally, I find the men more tolerable than the women and like any good 19th century female novel reader, I feel my tastes purified by longing for my own Albert Percy or Count Altenberg as they are held up as exquisite examples of humanity. This is due to Edgeworth's undeniable skill as a writer. But like Austen "pictures of perfection make me sick and wicked" and it simply does not work to have an entire family who never act selfishly, never make mistakes, never say the wrong thing etc etc. It makes parts of the novel really tough going and it makes me want to push Mr and Mrs. Percy and Caroline in particular off a cliff at times.

Overall, worth reading as an insight into the ways society works in Regency England and because for such a long novel, Edgeworth is readable and often entertaining, but Patronage lacks the cohesion of her shorter novels. And those blasted, perfect Percies!!

[Alison Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first one of Maria Edgeworth's novels that I have read, and I enjoyed it very much. Maria Edgeworth was a contemporary of Jane Austen, and their subject matter is similar. The women are all doing their best to find a husband, but this book is wider in scope than Austen's, as it includes the struggles of the sons trying to make their way in the world as well. The story is of two families. Both have 3 sons and 2 daughters but, while the "good" family, the Percies, work hard and are all sickeningly prudent and virtuous, the "bad" family, the Falconers, live by scheming and currying favour. It is a fascinating glimpse into the society of the time, but the Percy family are so persistently kind and charming to everyone, despite terrible trials sent to plague them that I found them quite unrealistic. As for the youngest, Caroline, beautiful, charming, uncomplaining and instantly aware of the true love of every young man she ever meets (so that she can make sure they marry the right person), she is completely, and rather nauseatingly, unbelievable. Needless to say, the Percy family is restored to good name and fortune, and the Falconers all get their just deserts. Very readable, but Austen is funnier.

[Marcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopped reading this midway; got sick of the moralizing and preachiness, lack of character development.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally read this for my diss, got nothing from it to help with my diss. Oh dear.

[Patrick Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading tess of the d'urbervilles, I though I would never be happy again. This book goes to the other extreeem with all the good people getting their perfect outcomes (ignoring the fact one good person got blown up by a canon and another forced into "exile") while all the bad people got their just desserts. With so many of these very long books I have read they are full of excellent bits and some awful bits. One of the problems with this one was there were so many characters, and my little brain could not keep track of them. You get introduced to somebody, and get to know them, then they dissapear for 100s of pags before reappearing again and my reaction is "who is that?" Mr Henry being a classic example. As others have said below the "good" people, i.e. the Percy family are just that bit too good, and partronage, does not always have to go wrong. This was enjoyable in seeing the struggles that young men went through in trying to establish themselves in professional careers. It was interesting in that she choose to track the mens' careers in an epistolary format while the women were third person.

Definitly worth reading becasue so much happens outside the various love/marriage interests, but just a little bit too "preachy".

I read all of these books, from project guttenburg, via Google books on my phone and for this reason I have got to learn a lesson, "check how many pages there is before you start". With Cecilia I thought the ending was a bit abrupt at the end of book 2 not realizing there was a third book. With this one I thought something similar at the end of "Tales And Novels; Volume 7" (500 pages), before realizing it continues into "Tales And Novels; Volume 8", which again is 500 pages. I was 100 pages into that and saying to myself how is she going to drag this out for another 400 pages when 20 pages later "End of Patronage" Oh!

[Zandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This didactic book was interesting for the faint echoes it gave of Jane Austen's novels. Central to this book is the relationship between two sisters, wise and impulsive, sensible and with sensibility. Also, at the start, Commissioner Falconer's self-serving determination to make the acquaintance of Lord Oldborough by urging Mr Percy to introduce him reminded me of Mrs Bennet urging her husband to pay his respects to their wealthy new neighbours. But there is none of the clever, sophisticated characterisation of Austen, where everyone is flawed in their own way; here there is a firm division between 'goodies' and 'badies', with the goodies being nauseatingly good, and, of course, richly rewarded in the end. This book was way too long, convoluted and boring. Edgeworth tries to do everything: critique the system of Patronage, contrast this with the rise of professionalism; consider how injustice, poverty and on-going financial insecurity impact on men as much as women; celebrate English justice over Continental despotism; explore whether virtue is found in a simple life of domestic pleasures in the country, or in following ones ambitions and attempting to serve one's country. Austen's canvas seems small and cramped by comparison, and for all her intellectual abilities she resists trying to live with and through her male characters in their much wider world. Austen's books seems slightly frivolous and light by comparison, but really, who wants to be hit over the head with virtue, as Edgeworth attempts here?

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

On page 252 of 631, I decided that life is too short to stick with a book I’m finding merely okay; I can read another book I like considerably more, maybe even two, in the time it would take me to finish this one.

It’s okay, with a slight Jane Austen flavor when it’s at its best: biting social satire, and many of the same issues; after all, the book was published the year after Pride and Prejudice. Much discussion of sensibility—it was the era of the cult of sensibility—but Austen, whose Sense and Sensibility appeared three years earlier—approaches the issues with greater subtlety and complexity. Edgeworth’s book is quite didactic, and I definitely get its message, which is pretty tough to miss: getting ahead through patronage rather than hard work, integrity, and merit, will destroy you in the end, when your dishonesty and lack of merit are found out. Aforementioned hard work, integrity, and merit will be rewarded. Also, England good; other countries not so much. (Yes, there was a war going on.)

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Joelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately this story lost a lot in my busyness,, i think it would have been a 5 star read if I hadn’t been so preoccupied and this is my reminder to do a reread when i am not so crazy busy.

[Laura McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This long book took me ages to read. It started really well, and I got into the characters especially some of the "bad" ones. I thought she would have more of a sense of humor, a la Jane Austen, but no. Her tone turned out a bit too moralistic for me, with the "bad" characters in the end suffering from their dependency of patronage, the "good" characters suffering a bit at first from not relying on patronage but in the end turning out the better for relying on their own intelligence, good morals, etc. Edgeworth gets more and more obvious with this theme as the book goes on and it is tiresome.

But her writing is impeccable, and the cast of characters very interesting. I just wish she hadn't been so harsh about it all, had a little fun with it, and we would have a little more fun with her.

[Diana]

I bought this book last week against my better judgement: I already have a whole pile of books waiting to be carted across the Atlantic. But the thing is...I've been wanting to read an Edgeworth novel for some time now and this particular narrative features a character called Sir Percy. So I just HAD to buy it. I HAD to...