ABSTRACT
Any narration of place is a negotiation between an author’s self-identity and the expectations of their audience. The audience is far from given; rather, authors rely upon response-inviting structures, which work within the novel to ensure it resonates with a particular place and its people. This chapter explores this relationship in the context of Anthony Trollope’s first and largely overlooked novel, The Macdermots of Ballycloran, which was published in 1847. It was not ostensibly a work of travel writing, but it was a novel that drew heavily from Trollope’s travels around and residence within Ireland during the 1840s. Travel became a complicating factor in the relationship Trollope had with his audience, for the more he travelled within Ireland the more he came to lose sight of who his audience was and what they expected from him in his narration of place.
