Maria Edgeworth eBooks

Maria Edgeworth was born at Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, on January 1, 1768. She was the second child of Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Anna Maria Edgeworth (née Elers) and thus an aunt of Francis Ysidro Edgeworth. Maria's mother died when she was a young child. On her father's second marriage to Honora Sneyd in 1773, she went with him to Ireland, where she eventually was to settle on his estate, Edgeworthstown, in County Longford. There, she mixed with the Anglo-Irish gentry, particularly Kitty Pakenham (later the wife of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington), Lady Moira, and her aunt Margaret Ruxton of Black Castle.

Maria was sent away to school for years by her stepmother. Upon returning home at the age of fourteen, Maria helped take care of her many silblings. She acted as manager of her father's estate later drawing on this experience for her novels about the Irish. Edgeworth's early literary efforts were melodramatic rather than realistic. She wrote many children's novels that conveyed moral lessons to their audience. One of her schoolgirl novels features a villain who wore a mask made from the skin of a dead man's face. Edgeworth's first published work was Letters for Literary Ladies in 1795, followed in 1796 by her first children's book, The Parent's Assistant (which included Edgeworth's celebrated short story The Purple Jar), and in 1800 by her first novel Castle Rackrent, which was an immediate success. The Parent's Assistant was Maria's first collection of children's stories, influenced by her father's work and perspectives on childrens education. Edgeworth was an extremely popular author who was compared with her contemporary writers Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott.