Ormond is a novel by Maria Edgeworth

Maria Edgeworth

Maria Edgeworth was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe...

 published in June 1817. It tells the story of Harry Ormond, a hero who rises from poverty to wealth. Set both in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, the novel uses different places to represent different paths that Ormond might take and different political ideologies. Ireland and France are shown as linked through their revolutionary fervor. In 1798, France had sent aid to the United Irishmen and this tie is hinted at through Ormond's travels. However, in the end Ormond chooses to serve in Britain's military, thus signalling Ireland's ties with England rather than its independence or its ties to France. The novel thematizes "obedience to tradition and culture", signifying these by allusions to Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....

's Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France , by Edmund Burke, is one of the best-known intellectual attacks against the French Revolution...

(1790).