Upon Some Midnights Clear | Literary Precedents

Upon Some Midnights Clear Literary Precedents

Because of the emphasis which Upon Some Midnights Clear and other works in the Balzic series place upon social setting, they may be seen to emerge from the tradition of literary naturalism. One critic calls an earlier Balzic story, The Blank Page (1974), "naturalism in the American mode" and refers to Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. It is true that, as in many naturalist novels, characters in the Balzic series may often be seen as victims of their environment. Mrs. Garbin, the center of the charity scam in Upon Some Midnights Clear, and her husband, both elderly and poor, are certainly such "victims." In other Balzic characters one could find some parallels with Frank Norris's McTeague, Theodore Dreiser's Clyde Griffiths, James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan, or even some of Sherwood Anderson's "grotesques."

However, a comparison of Constantine and naturalists should not be pushed too far....
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