The seventy-fifth book: #64 Castle Rackrent - Maria Edgeworth
Reading up about the history behind the novel puts a bunch of it into perspective. The novel describes the life of four owners of the titular Castle Rackrent and its nearby lands and their walk through life, through the eyes of their steward's father who both works to keep things together and, in the end, ends up profiting from it as well. It takes a bit of time to get used to - I didn't really really get a hold of it until the second owner, a litigous figure whose life has some interesting descriptions as a result, and it draws you in more as we go through time as Jason, the steward, gains control.
What's interesting isn't just the story of these people, but the insight into landowners of the day, filled with traditon that both exploited tenants a titme, but also caused hardship on the landowners. It didn't help that it seems like it was updated to support the union between the Ireland and the UK, which made this group look rather more foolish. Even so, as a historical document with some truth behind it, reading it was interesting enough to make you get a good insight in what was going at the time and how different members of landowners treated their responsibilities.