"I could not but admire my lady's spirit, and was proud to see Castle Rackrent again in all its glory"

Thady Quirk is the ever-present steward to four generations of a dying dynasty in Castle Racrent, hilariously flattering and encouraging his hapless masters on their road to ruin. Ingeniously drawing on an actual chronicle of Maria Edgeworth's family experiences, the narrative subtly emerges as a devastating commentary on the Anglo Irish occupation of rural Ireland. This volume also includes Ennui, a natural sequel to Castle Rackrent with its family nurse of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the lazy and gullible English earl, Lord Glenthorn, learns a shocking secret that will drive him and his nurse apart

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Thady Quirk devoted steward to the decaying estate of the Rackrent family narrates a riotous story of four generations of a dying dynasty in Castle Rackrent (1800). Thady will defend his masters to the end but eventually his naivety and blind loyalty cause him to ignore the warning signs as the family's excesses lead them to ruin. This volume also includes Ennui the entertaining 'confessions' of the Earl of Glenthorn a bored spoiled aristocrat. Desperate to be free from 'the demon of ennui' Glenthorn's quest for happiness takes him through violence and revolution and leads to intriguing twists of fate. Both novels offer a darkly comic and satirical expos of the Irish class system and a portrait of a nation in turmoil.