ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that reading misses an aspect of Maria Edgeworth fiction that acknowledges the other reality of spiritual thin places. The chapter suggests that a similar understanding can be uncovered in other of Edgeworth's Irish novels, particularly, Ormond and The Absentee and Castle Rackrent, Edgeworth's most famous Irish novel. For the three subsequent Irish novels, she dispenses with such editorial apparatus, to allow the reader to wander untutored through the wilds of Irish custom unconcerned with whether the reader is informed about the origins of such behavior. Edgeworth herself is not indifferent to these predecessor influences, as can be seen in the Glossary she attaches to Castle Rackrent to explain Irishisms to her English audiences. The thin places are the familial and class connections, spanning generations and binding landowners with the laborers of the Irish soil to the greater enhancement of all concerned.
