The 1966 edition of this book has be-come a standard work. In this new, re-vised edition, Pizer has dropped three chapters and has refined and extended the work by adding six: "American Liter-ary Naturalism: An Approach Through Form," "American Literary Naturalism: The Example of Dreiser," "The Prob-lem of Philosophy in the Naturalistic Novel," "Hamlin Garland's 1891 "Main-Travelled Roads: "Local Color as Art," "Jack London: The Problem of Form," and "Dreiser's 'Nigger Jeff' The Devel-opment of an Aesthetic." The book contains definitions of real-ism and naturalism based on representa-tive novels of the period ranging from Howells' "Rise of Silas Lapham "to Crane's "Red Badge of Courage; "analyses of the literary criticism of the age, stressing that of Howells, Garland, and Norris; and close readings of specific works by major figures of the period.