E X T E N S I O N THE REALIST WORKING ON THE TEXT Henry James is sometimes called a romantic realist , as he was inevitably influenced by the romantic authors such as Ralph Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose works he read when young. However, he soon left this kind of fiction with its predictable plots, rewards for virtue and punishments for evil, and his work as an adult developed into Realism. He became familiar with the great Realist writers such as Balzac, Flaubert and Maupassant and found his subjects in everyday life. The main difference between the romantic and the realist writers was the way in which they developed their plots and characters to illustrate their philosophy on how much control mankind had over his destiny. The Romantics believed that human will could triumph over any difficulty, and saw the individual as a god. They searched for a way to go past the present time and everyday life and to reach an ideal by crossing physical or psychological borders, and their novels often contain heroic individuals. The Realists felt that human choice was limited by the power of outside forces, and that the individual was simply an ordinary person. They focused their attention on the immediate, the here and now , and tried to communicate the problems of human experience through ordinary, everyday lives. By the 1860 s, Realism had taken over from1 Romanticism. It was an accurate depiction2 of life, a mirror, and a scientific record of events. William Dean Howells, the American writer and critic, wrote, Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material. 1. taken (take-took-taken) over from: had begun to replace and become more important. Honoré de Balzac 2. depiction: an impression of something in words or in pictures. Gustave Flaubert 63 Guy de Maupassant