The Absentee (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Maria Edgeworth
- First Published: 1812
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: Early nineteenth century
- Setting: England and Ireland
- Principal Characters: Lord Clonbrony, Lady Clonbrony, Lord Colambre, Grace Nugent, Miss Broadhurst, Arthur Berryl, Count O’Halloran, Sir Terence O’Fay, Lady Dashfort, Lady Isabel, Mr. Mordicai, Mr. Burke, Nicholas Garraghty
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Self-discovery, Genealogy, Class conflict, Love or romance, Nineteenth century, Social issues, Marriage, Rural or country life, Class consciousness, England or English people, Inheritance or succession, Landlords or tenants, Business or business people, Ireland or Irish people, Nobility
- Locales: London, England, Ireland
The Story:
Lord Clonbrony was an absentee landlord who owned large but encumbered Irish estates. He lived in England because his wife, an extravagant, ambitious woman, would have nothing to do with Ireland or the Irish. People of wealth and position laughed at her and the silly determination with which she aped English manners and speech, and they totally ignored Lord Clonbrony. A respected peer in Dublin and a good landlord when he had lived on his own estates, he was a nobody in his wife’s fashionable world. As a result, he associated with such questionable and dissipated...
[The entire page is 3210 words long]
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