Harrington

Blurb

Harrington is an 1817 novel by British novelist Maria Edgeworth. The novel was written in response to a letter from a Jewish-American reader who complained about Edgeworth's stereotypically anti-semitic portrayals of Jews in Castle Rackrent, Belinda, The Absentee, and her Moral Tales for children. The novel is an autobiography of a "recovering anti-Semite", whose youthful prejudices are undone by contact with various Jewish characters, particularly a young woman. It also makes parallels between the religious discrimination of the Jews and the Catholics in Ireland. Set between the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753 and the Gordon Riots of 1780, the timeframe highlights these connections.