Late nineteenth-century American realism -- Late nineteenth-century American naturalism -- Frank Norris;s definition of naturalism -- The evolutionary foundation of W.D. Howells's criticism and fiction -- Evolution and criticism: thomas Sergeant Perry -- Evolutionary criticism and the defense of Howellsian realism -- evolutionary ideas in late nineteenth-century English and American literary criticism -- Hamlin Garland and Stephen Crane: the naturalist as romantic individualist -- The significance of Frank norris's literary criticism -- The ethical unity of The rise of Silas Lapham -- The Garland-Crane relationship -- Stephen Crane's Maggie and American naturalism -- Synthetic criticism and Frank Norris's The octopus
