<p>The Luck of Barry Lyndon is a picaresque novel about a member of the Irish gentry trying to become a member of the English aristocracy. Redmond Barry of Ballybarry, born to a genteel but ruined Irish family, fancies himself a gentleman. At the prompting of his mother, he learns what he can of courtly manners and swordplay. He is a hot-tempered, passionate lad, and falls madly in love with his cousin, Nora. As she is a spinster a few years olde...