SOURCE: "American Naturalism in Its 'Perfected' State," in The Theory and Practice of American Literary Naturalism, Southern Illinois University Press, 1993, pp. 153-66.

In the following essay, Pizer discusses the ways in which Dreiser's naturalism in An American Tragedy compliments the naturalism in Edith Warton's The Age of Innocence.

Naturalism has been a significant literary movement in America for almost a century. From the early work of Stephen Crane and Frank Norris to the recent novels of Robert Stone and William Kennedy, the subject matter and fictional form of naturalism have continually attracted writers of stature.¹ Of course, given the problematical philosophical base of naturalism, and given as well the often sensationalistic contents of a typical naturalistic novel, the movement has also been subject to intense attack. Indeed, one common assertion by those who would deny significance to naturalism in America is to claim that the movement failed to...