The Absentee

The Absentee is a novel by Maria Edgeworth, published in 1812 in 'Tales of Fashionable Life'. Lord Colambre, the sensitive hero of the novel, finds that his mother's, Lady Clonbrony's attempts to buy her way into the high society of London are only ridiculed, while his father, Lord Clonbrony is in serious debts as a result of his wife's lifestyle. He travels incognito to Ireland to see the country which he still considers his home. When he returns to London he assist his father to pay off the debts, on condition that the Clonbrony family returns to live in Ireland.