Maria Edgeworth, highlights
One of the most renowned Anglo-Irish writers of this period, she was often dismissed in later criticism due to her close relationship with her father and his assumed influence on her work. Her father experimented with education at home with his children, keeping notes on what worked best. At a time when it was still controversial, both he and Maria advocated for a rigorous intellectual education for girls as well as boys. Letters for Literary Ladies (1795) is her witty response to a diatribe by her father's eccentric friend Thomas Day against expanded education for women. Her novels were popular and she influenced the works of Sir Walter Scott, Thackery, Turgenev and Jane Austen. She knew and corresponded with Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Edgeworth is known for her attempts to help the Irish poor, and for her advocacy for a peaceful alliance between Irish peasantry and the Anglo-Irish landlords. Her last children's book was written to benefit the Irish Poor relief fund during the famine. She has often been termed the "Irish Jane Austen" for her biting criticism of manners, mores, and societal hypocrisy. Her first effort, Castle Rackrent, (1800), satirizes landowners from the perspective of an Irish tenant, a subject she revisited later in The Absentee (1812). One of her most unique writing characteristics in both her novels and her children's literature is her realistic portrayals of the poor and lower working classes. She included realistic situations and voices. including Irish dialect. Her most famous child character is Rosamond, who Edgeworth identified as her own voice as a child and who is a realistically drawn, charming and rambunctious little girl. Her works for children incorporate her and her father's approach to teaching, beginning withThe Parent's Assistant (1796), which presented these methods in story form. They incorporate ideas from Locke but largely reject Rousseau. In 1798 she and her father published Practical Education. Their approach trains correct habits and manners to develop correct thinking and emotional control Her stories not only portray home settings but include situations which train the new middle class consumer, both boys and girls in how to navigate the market. This is most evident in the story of " Rosamond and the Purple Jar" when Rosamond and her "Mama" navigate the London shops. |