Fiction and local colourists
William Dean Howells, I in Ohio, was an effective advocate of a new realistic mode of fiction writing. At the start, Howells conceived of realism as a truthful portrayal of ordinary facets of life − with some limitations; he preferred comedy to tragedy, and he tended to be reticent to the point of prudishness. But Howells preferred novels he wrote after he encountered Tolstoy’s writings and was persuaded by them, as he said, to “set art forever below humanity.” In such later novels as Annie Kilburn (1888) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), he chose characters not only because they were commonplace but also because the stories he told about them were commentaries upon society, government, and economics.
Other American authors toward the close of the 19th century or slightly later were avowed followers of French naturalists led by Émile Zola. Theodore Dreiser, for instance, treated subjects that had seemed too daring to earlier realists and, like other Naturalists, illustrated his own beliefs by his depictions of characters and unfolding of plots. Holding that men’s deeds were “chemical compulsions,” he showed characters unable to direct their actions. Holding also that “the race was to the swift and the battle to the strong,” he showed characters defeated by stronger and more ruthless opponents.
(Adapted from https://www.britannica.com)
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