Аннотация:To discuss the regional novels of nineteenth-century Ireland under the heading of 'the national tale' is to acknowledge the primacy of national tales among nineteenth-century regional fictions. I intend this acknowledgment in both historical and literary senses. National tales are the earliest Irish novels centrally concerned with definitions and descriptions of Ireland, but it is equally the case that examples of this genre are widely considered among the best and most significant of nineteenth-century Irish novels. Yet although it is a characteristically Irish form, the national tale is not limited to Ireland. Moreover, not every nineteenth-century Irish regional novel is best categorised under that rubric, though all in their different ways have at least some roots in the genre that it names. The label 'national tale', in short, is historically and aesthetically significant and at the same time slippery, still open to question or argument.
