Castle Rackrent Author:Maria Edgeworth CASTLE RACKRENT (1800) is the first regional novel in English and the regional novel is the gateway to the ampler world of the historical novel. RACKRENT pictures a world identified in time and place; and WAVERLEY (1814), the first historical novel, was begun by Scott in 1805 under its direct inspiration, "so as in some distant degree to emulate... more » the admirable Irish portraits drawn by Miss Edgeworth."
RACKRENT is a kind of memoir-novel, supposedly based on the autobiography of an imaginary hero "edited" by the novelist. The narrator, Thady, is not the central actor in the story but an observer merely. Though an observer, Thady is the life of RACKRENT,and all the blood of the book flows through the figure of this absurdly loyal family retainer - a full, ironic vision of a dying system.« less