Unlike many of her other novels, which were heavily "edited" by her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, before their publication, the published version is close to her original intention.

Through this and other works, Edgeworth is credited with serving the political, national interests of Ireland and the United Kingdom the way Sir Walter Scott did for Scotland.

[6] Castle Rackrent is a dialogic novel, comprising a preface and conclusion by an editor bookending a first person narrative proper.

[7][8] Sir Walter Scott, who met and carried on a correspondence with Edgeworth,[9][10] credited her novel for inspiring him to write his Waverley series of novels:Without being so presumptuous as to hope to emulate the rich humour, pathetic tenderness, and admirable tact, which pervade the works of my accomplished friend, I felt that something might be attempted for my own country, of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth so fortunately achieved for Ireland—something which might introduce her natives to those of the sister kingdom in a more favourable light than they have been placed hitherto.

[11][12]The novel is alluded to in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Mother in History by Jean Stafford and Milkman by Anna Burns.