title: Helen (Mothers of the novel)
author:  Maria Edgeworth 
description: Originally published in 1896. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
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  PENGUIN ![image](../images/9780140436457_TheAbsentee_IMG_001.jpg) CLASSICS
  
  
  ## THE ABSENTEE
  
  
  MARIA EDGEWORTH was born in 1768, the eldest daughter of Richard Lovell
  Edgeworth, an inventive Anglo-Irish landowner, and his first wife, Anna Maria
  Elers. After the death of his first wife, Richard Edgeworth married three more
  times, producing a family of twenty-two children. Maria was educated in
  England until the age of fourteen, and after she came back to live in
  Edgeworthstown, County Longford, her life became considerably influenced by
  the educational and scientific interests of her father, who encouraged her
  writing and whom she assisted in his writing and in managing the estate.
  
  
  A writer of considerable reputation, both literary and moral, her work was
  admired by many of the significant literary figures of her day, most notably
  by Sir Walter Scott, who cited her work as a major influence on his books. A
  pion