Maria EdgeworthMaria Edgeworth (January 1, 1768 – May 22, 1849) was an Anglo-Irish novelist of both adult and children's literature. She was a key player in the growth of the novel in Europe and one of the first realist writers in children's literature. She held crtical views on estate management, politics, and education, and corresponded with some of the most prominent literary and economic thinkers of the time, including Sir Walter Scott and David Ricardo. She was one of the most widely read novels in Britain and Ireland throughout the first decade of the nineteenth century. Her name is most generally connected with Castle Rackrent, her debut novel in which she used an Irish Catholic voice to portray the disintegration and downfall of a landed Anglo-Irish family. Maria Edgeworth was born in the Oxfordshire village of Black Bourton. She was the second child of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (who had twenty-two surviving children by four women) and Anna Maria Edgeworth (née Elers); consequently, Maria was Francis Ysidro Edgeworth's aunt. She spent her childhood in England with her mother's family, at The Limes (now known as Edgeworth House) in Northchurch, near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Read More Read Less