The Absentee
Absentee, The,a novel by M. Edgeworth , first published 1812 in Tales of Fashionable Life.
This novel of (largely) Irish life was first written as a play, refused by Sheridan , then turned into a novel. A swift, vivacious story, the greater part of which is in conversation, it begins with the extravagant London life of the absentee Irish landlord Lord Clonbrony and his ambitious, worldly wife. The author shows Lady Clonbrony's attempts to buy her way into high society, her contempt for her Irish origins, and her treatment of her son Lord Colambre, who refuses to marry the heiress she provides for him. A sensible and distinguished young man, he gradually finds himself falling in love with his cousin Grace, and becomes increasingly appalled at his father's debts. He travels incognito to Ireland to visit the family estates and to see if his mother's dislike of Irish life is justified. Calling himself Evans, he visits the...
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