Put rather too simplistically, one rough distinction made by critics is that realism espousing a deterministic philosophy and focusing on the lower classes is considered naturalism. As the United States grew rapidly after the Civil War, the increasing rates of democracy and literacy, the rapid growth in industrialism and urbanization, an expanding population base due to immigration, and a relative rise in middle-class affluence provided a fertile literary environment for readers interested in understanding these rapid shifts in culture. As editor of the Atlantic Monthly and of Harper's New Monthly Magazine , William Dean Howells promoted writers of realism as well as those writing local color fiction. Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. Events will usually be plausible.
Realistic novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances.
Interior or psychological realism a variant form. The realism of James and Twain was critically acclaimed in the twentieth century. For an account of these and other issues, see the realism bibliography and essays by Pizer, Michael Anesko, Richard Lehan, and Louis J. Budd, among others, in the Cambridge Guide to Realism and Naturalism . This page last modified on 23 August 1999.