Castle Rackrent: A Norton Critical Edition

The only edition of this 1800 novel—widely regarded as the first historical novel—to include supporting materials on both the importance of Maria Edgeworth as a writer and the influence of contemporary history on this novel.

Castle Rackrent’s publication in 1800 signaled many firsts: the first historical novel, the first regional novel in English, the first “big house” novel, the first Anglo-Irish novel, and the first novel with a narrator who is neither reliable nor part of the action. This...