Castle Rackrent 1

Outline British fiction in transition: CR as an ‘eighteenth-century’ novel British fiction in transition: CR as a ‘nineteenth-century’ novel ‘...An Hibernian Tale, Taken from Facts...’ The nature of ME’s satire on Anglo-Irish landlords

CR as an ‘eighteenth-century’ novel The relative crudity of eighteenth-century fiction – the novel in a wild state CR strong on narrative point of view, but weak on characterization – would seem to be in- capable of doing both at the same time The unfamiliar look of CR – a Preface, followed by ‘An Hibernian Tale’ with footnotes, followed by a postscript, followed by an ‘Advertisement to the English Reader’, followed by a Glossary

CR as an ‘eighteenth-century’ novel In its ‘wildness’ CR presents itself as a remarkably fertile form of fiction, capable of stimulating subsequent developments in the tradition of novel-writing – ‘one of the most famous unread novels in English’ (Kirkpatrick)

CR as a ‘nineteenth-century’ novel The innovativeness of CR – the first regional novel, the first Irish novel, the first novel to use dialect, forerunner of the ‘historical novel’ – ME the most successful and celebrated novelist before Scott Ongoing shift from the novel-as-commodity to the novel-as-literature – CR asks to be taken seriously as a commentary on Irish affairs leading up to the Union with Britain

‘...An Hibernian Tale Taken from Facts...’ Castle Rackrent An Hibernian Tale Taken from Facts, And from the Manners of the Irish Squires, Before the Year 1782

‘...An Hibernian Tale Taken from Facts...’ 1782: Independent Irish Parliament (Henry Grattan); ME settles in Edgeworthstown, County Longford (Francis Edgeworth/ James I, 1619) 1798: Irish Rebellion (Wolfe Tone) 1800: Castle Rackrent : Act of Union

‘...An Hibernian Tale Taken from Facts...’ 1812: ME, The Absentee : Irish potato famine (Daniel O’ Connell)

The nature of ME’s satire on Anglo-Irish landlords ‘…the Manners of the Irish Squires…’ ME’s relation to the Irish Catholics... The role of Thady Quirk as chronicler of the Rackrent heirs: ‘honest Thady’, ‘old Thady’, ‘poor Thady’ ‘... as I have lived, so will I die, true and loyal to the family...’ (p. 8)

The nature of ME’s satire on Anglo-Irish landlords The irony of an ‘honest’ narrative functioning as a radical critique of what is narrated in the given novel – Thady an ‘unconscious double agent’ Cf. Lukács on Scott, Marx and Engels on Bal- zac, Lenin on Tolstoy – conservative realist narrative fulfills the function of radical critique See also David Richter: ‘Thady’s wit is designed as faux-naif art’ – at ENGLISH/Staff/richter/rackrent.html

The nature of ME’s satire on Anglo-Irish landlords Through Quirk as narrator ME changes the fo- cus of conflict in Ireland from religious belief to class difference The rise of Thady’s son, Jason... ‘to look at me, you would hardly think “poor Thady” was the father of attorney Quirk; he is a high gentleman, and never minds what poor Thady says, and having better than 1500 a-year, landed estate, looks down upon honest Thady, but I wash my hands of his doings’ (p. 8)

The nature of ME’s satire on Anglo-Irish landlords Symbolic nature of the relationship between Sir Condy and Jason Quirk: ‘… the catastrophe of Sir Condy’s history …’ (p. 96) View of the significance of the upcoming Union of Ireland and Britain: ‘It is a prob- lem of difficult solution to determine, whe- ther an Union will hasten or retard the amelioration of this country’ (p. 97)