SOURCE: "Romance and Realism," in The Gates of Horn: A Study of Five French Realists, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1963, pp. 24-83.

In the following excerpt, Levin outlines the historical contexts of Realism and discusses its predominance in the French literary tradition.

The Context of Realism

We are dealing with a general tendency, and not a specific doctrine. Since no hard and fast definition of realism will cover all the manifestations occurring under its name, we must examine them for its pertinent meaning in each case. "'Realism,'" says Karl Mannheim, "means different things in different contexts." The same word, Benedetto Croce points out, is applied by some critics in praise and by others in blame. Zola's meat was Brunetière's poison. "Men and women as they are," as they are for Howells, barely exist for his successors. Jane Eyre, which preserves a school-girlish innocence for us, so shocked...