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Maria Edgeworth

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Author

The Resume

    (January 1, 1768-May 22, 1849)
    Born in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
    Anglo-Irish writer of adult and children's literature
    Author of 'Castle Rackrent,' 'Belinda,' 'Ormond,' and 'The Absentee'

Why she might be annoying:

    She is frequently hailed as Ireland’s first national novelist, even though she isn’t.
    She supported, and benefited from, the Act of Union, which prevented Irish writers from publishing in their own country (Edgeworth’s works were published in Britain).
    She took a condescending tone when addressing the Irish tenant class in her writings.
    She pioneered the stuffy ‘novel of manners.’
    Many literary critics feel that her work has not aged well.
    Her short story, ‘The Grateful Negro,’ is read today as a validation of American slavery.
    Her treatment of the Irish worsened as she aged (ex. during the Irish Famine, she provided relief only to the tenants who paid their rent in full).
    She punished tenants who voted against her political positions.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was a proponent of education for women.
    She lived to the ripe age of eighty-one, when life expectancy for women was around forty.
    Her father was a progressive who believed in treating the Irish fairly.
    Her family's estate was spared during the violent Great Rebellion of 1798, due to their benevolent treatment of their Irish tenants.
    Her fiction is the first to humanize Ireland and satirizes English bigotry toward the Irish.
    Her novel, ‘Castle Rackrent,’ is believed to be the beginning of the ‘British novel,’ preceding the works of Sir Walter Scott (who usually gets the credit).
    Her character, Thady Quirk, is identified as the prototype for the first-person narrator.
    William Butler Yeats called ‘Castle Rackrent’ ‘one of the most inspired chronicles ever written in the English language.’
    Jane Austen idolized her and patterned her own fiction after hers.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 8 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 20 Votes: 40.0% Annoying