Patronage (1814). NOVEL By: Maria Edgeworth (Volume I). Original Version: Patronage is a four volume fictional work by Anglo-Irish writer Maria Edgeworth and published in 1814.

Patronage is a four volume fictional work by Anglo-Irish writer Maria Edgeworth and published in 1814. It is one of her later books, after such successes as Castle Rackrent (1800), Belinda (1801), Leonora (1806) and The Absentee in 1812, to name a few. The novel is a long and ambitious one which she began writing in 1809. It is the longest of her novels.
Patronage as a book is path-making; it was among the first novels with a thesis and as such, it opened the way for Sir Walter Scott's histo...