Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism | Nineteenth-Century Historical Fiction - Realism In Historical Fiction

REALISM IN HISTORICAL FICTION

D. A. Williams

SOURCE: "The Practice of Realism," in The Monster in the Mirror: Studies in Nineteenth-Century Realism, edited by D. A. Williams, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1978, pp. 257-79.

[In the following excerpt, Williams briefly discusses the handling of time period and the role of historical accuracy in several Realist novels.]

The Realist pays close attention to the physical and historical setting as well as to the social context.… Balzac may claim that the physical environment has a determinative influence on behaviour but, most typically the physical setting can be read as effect rather than cause, an indication of rather than an influence upon character. There is a widespread tendency … to exploit the symbolic potential of the physical setting, although this need not necessarily detract from its authenticity. Attentiveness to the physical setting grows, too, out of an...

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