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A review by language_loving_amateur
The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
The omniscient 3rd person narrator gives many different perspectives, but most of them are short lived, not extended, so it doesn't feel like too much head hopping to me. Perhaps because it is always clear that the narrator is none of the characters. So the narrator tells us that Lady Clonbrony is trying really hard to make a good impression and immediately tells readers how her actions are being received by others (generally not well). One lesson from this book that is still applicable today is don't go into debt trying to impress people who are determined to not accept you. I think that the critiques The Absentee makes about British and Irish society in the early 18oos are valid, but I am skeptical of the solutions it puts forward. It can be rather heavy-handed at times repeating in the mouths of peasants "If only our landlord was present to take care of us and did not leave us at the mercy of thieving middlemen, If only our landlord was here to encourage us to be industrious and better ourselves with education (to be better peasants - not to social climb)." The book also 100% uses the ideology that people from different nations (like Britain or Ireland) all have similar 'national character' that is 'natural' to them because they are, for example, Irish. The Absentee has good Irish characters and villainous Irish characters. It also has an antisemitic caricature who is a main villain and shows up several times.
I read this for Book Riot's 2023 Read Harder Challenge #6 read a book I DNFed. I started it almost 2 years ago but I was having a rough time, so my DNFing doesn't really reflect on the book. The romance plot was kind of sweet, at 85% through, I thought things would be easy to tie up in like 3 pages, but I feel like Edgeworth had fun with sending the hero hither and thither to search for papers and a squirrelly old man.
Apparently Edgeworth was one of Jane Austen's favorite writers, so I am going to count this for Book Riot's Challenge #2: Read on of your favorite author's favorite books.
I read this for Book Riot's 2023 Read Harder Challenge #6 read a book I DNFed. I started it almost 2 years ago but I was having a rough time, so my DNFing doesn't really reflect on the book. The romance plot was kind of sweet, at 85% through, I thought things would be easy to tie up in like 3 pages, but I feel like Edgeworth had fun with sending the hero hither and thither to search for papers and a squirrelly old man.
Apparently Edgeworth was one of Jane Austen's favorite writers, so I am going to count this for Book Riot's Challenge #2: Read on of your favorite author's favorite books.