MORGAN, Lady. Absenteeism.

London: Colburn, 1825. pp. xix, 160. Modern grey papered boards. Newspaper cuttings at front and rear. A very good copy.

COPAC locates 6 copies only. Goldsmiths’-Kress 24424. Originally published in the ‘New Monthly Magazine’.  Lady Morgan wrote ‘Absenteeism’ on the scourge of Irish social life in the early nineteenth century. It exposes the landowners, living abroad and spending money extracted from Irish tenants at home, much of this money could have been used to improve the poor economic condition of the country and the appalling conditions of many of its poor people. She was an ardent champion of her native country, a politician rather than a novelist, extolling the beauty of Irish scenery, the richness of the natural wealth of Ireland, and the noble traditions of its early history.