Between the Civil War and the First World War

Realism was the most prominent form of American fiction during this period. Realist writers of the era include some of America’s greatest, such as Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Mark Twain, but also many lesser-known writers whose work still speaks to us today, for instance Charles Chesnutt, Zitkala-Ša, and Sarah Orne Jewett.

Historical Context and Style

Emphasizing realism’s historical context, this introduction traces the genre’s relationship with powerful, often violent, social conflicts involving race, gender, class, and national origin. It also examines how the realist style was created; the necessarily ambiguous relationship between realism produced on the page and reality outside the book; and the different, often contradictory, forms realism took in literary works by different authors.

Audience and Value

The most accessible yet sophisticated account of American literary realism currently available, this volume will be of great value to students, teachers, and readers of the American novel.