Maria Edgeworth
Irish Novelist
1767 – 1849 A.D.

Maria Edgeworth, an Irish novelist, daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the writer.

Her stories represent a distinct stop in the development of fiction in English and are progenitors of similar productions including Sir Walter Scott’s novels of Scottish life.

Miss Edgeworth was also the first to give attention to peasant life, and Turgenev confesses that his studies of the Russian peasant were suggested in her work.

In 1802 she established her reputation as an author by Castle Rackrent, a novel of Irish life, in which the manners and customs of a by-gone generation are most graphically and humorously described.

This was followed by: Moral Tales, Popular Tales, and Tales of Fashionable Life, all written in clear and vigorous style, and highly entertaining.

After her father’s death, in 1817 she occupied herself with completing his Memoirs, and in later years her production was less, though she worked to the last, and in 1846 labored strenuously for the relief of the famine-stricken Irish peasants.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.