Set in London, this novel describes the attitudes of an Irish landowning family towards their tenants, emphasizing the pernicious consequences for Ireland and for the wider world of absentee landownership. The book includes appendices showing how Edgeworth revised the text from the 1st edition, and Edgeworth's Notes for essay on the genius and style of Burke. The absentee (1812) is the second of Maria Edgeworth's novels, the first being Castle Rackrent (1800) and is aimed at the general reader as well as for students of early 19th century English and Irish literature, of women's literature and on the historical and the regional novel.