Anthony Trollope was one of the great English writers of the famous Victorian era. Trollope was prolific and his books often centered around the important political, social, and gender issues of his time. Trollope wrote the classic Chronicles of Barsetshire novels as well as The Way We Live Now, a satirical novel that is often ranked as one of the finest in Victorian era literature.

The Macdermots of Ballycloran, published in 1847, is Trollope's first novel. The book is set in Ireland and tells the story of the downfall of a small Catholic family in the mid-nineteenth century.