Maria Edgeworth, The Absentee

Sharon Jude Murphy (St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra)
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The Absentee

was first published as part of Maria Edgeworth's 1812 series of

Tales of Fashionable Life

and, together with

Ennui

(1809), established her reputation as the pre-eminent writer of the early-nineteenth century. John Wilson Croker, one of the most influential of contemporary reviewers, declared the work to be “decidedly the best” in the collection of tales, suggesting that it presented readers with “the most accurate and yet the most diversified views that have ever been drawn of a national character” (336). Other reviewers were also complimentary and, in his “Postscript, which should have been a Preface” to

Waverley

(1814), Sir Walter Scott credited Edgeworth as one of the major inspirations for his own work.

Edgeworth's tale had its origins in a play about the

1320 words

Citation: Murphy, Sharon Jude. "The Absentee". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 May 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1659, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1659 The Absentee 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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