SOURCE: "Regional Perspective in Early Nineteenth-Century Fiction: The Case of Ormond," The Wordsworth Circle, Vol. X, No. 4, Autumn, 1979, pp. 331-38.

In the following essay, Howard analyzes Maria Edgeworth's treatment of Irish issues in her 1814 Ormond. Howard demonstrates how in this novel, an increasingly larger gap between Edgeworth's own views and those of the native Irish is revealed.

The Romantic belief that human nature could best be observed in the life of the lower classes presented a fundamental problem to writers like Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth: as members of a higher order of society they were barred by birth and education from speaking with what the age considered the genuine voice of their region. As an Irish landowner in contact with the native peasantry Miss Edgeworth could describe their customs, dialect, and living conditions, but born and educated in England and a member of the Ascendancy she...