Castle Rackrent's publication in 1800 signaled many firsts: the first historical novel, the first regional novel in English, the first "big house" novel, the first Anglo-Irish novel, and the first novel with a narrator who is neither reliable nor part of the action. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the Baldwin & Cradock edition that appeared as part of an eighteen-volume collected edition titled Tales and Novels of Maria Edgeworth (1832-33). It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations. Ryan Twomey focuses the volume's "Backgrounds and Contexts" on...