Traveling Cabins: The Popularity of Irish Local-Color Fiction in Early Nineteenth-Century Europe

Abstract

The improved infrastructures which brought many foreign travelers to Ireland in the early nineteenth century was accompanied by a growing literary interest in the living conditions of Ireland’s rural population. This is reflected in the many translations that were made of texts that described the Irish hut. This essay will focus on a series of translations of a text called The Irish Cottage, in German, French, and Dutch. Tracing the various publications, this essay will examine why this story gained such popularity throughout Europe, in the context of existing regionalist traditions in fiction in continental Europe As such, this essay will shed light on general interest in the Irish Question in Europe as well as on the transcultural function and appeal of local-color fiction.