Brown, Frederick, Zola: A Life, Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1995.

Brown provides a biography of Émile Zola who was
a preeminent writer of French realist fiction and the
founder of the naturalist school of literature.

Hornback, Burt G., "The Hero of My Life": Essays on Dickens, Ohio University Press, 1981.

Hornback offers a series of essays in which he explains
what Dickens has to teach readers about freedom,
love, friendship, tragedy, and the powers of the
imagination. Hornback focuses primarily on the
novel David Copperfield, with additional discussion
of Our Mutual Friend and The Mystery of Edwin
Drood
.

Hughes, Kathryn, George Eliot: The Last Victorian, Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1998.

Hughes provides a biography of English realist novelist
George Eliot in the context of English culture
and society during the Victorian era.

Robb, Graham, Balzac: A Life, Norton, 1994.

In this biography, Robb provides extensive discussion
of Balzac's novels in relation...