The Absentee

Maria Edgeworth helped manage her father's estate in County Longford, and no one wrote more sharply about absentee landlordism from the inside. Lord and Lady Clonbrony squander in London the rents of an Irish estate they have not visited in years, while their agent bleeds it dry — until their son crosses over incognito to see the truth for himself. A witty, humane, and unsparing comedy of manners ...