Castle Rackrent

Castle Rackrent

Thady Quirk is the steward of Castle Rackrent, which is a castle and estate in 18th century Ireland. He serves 4 sets of heirs, the estate slowly becoming insolvent by the varied forms of mismanagement. One spends all the money on entertainment, one on suits at law, one is a gambler, who shuts up his wife in an attempt to get hold of her diamonds*, and one is over-generous.

Along the way Thady’s son Jason is educated by the Rackrents, becomes the estate manager, and eventually ends up owning most of it to pay their debts. Thady, loyal retainer to the end, is sad about this, even as he’s proud of his son, though we also suspect that he’s not always done everything he could for his employer. And why should he, they’re all terrible people.

A slight, entertaining novel filled with period detail and Irish slang, that was very influential.

Read This: It’s short, brisk, occasionally funny and tells you what people were reading in 1800
Don’t Read This: As the first family saga, country house, and historical novel (arguably) it hasn’t figured out what it’s about and it’s written in broader and less broad Irish dialect that often becomes hideous to read
Out Of Copyright: And available online

* A cruel and extraordinary sequence, which the book assures us is based on real events; indeed the most outlandish parts of the novel are often taken from real history, or at least as reported in 18th century newspapers and family histories