Abstract

This volume provides the first comprehensive comparative study of two major representatives of naturalism: Emile Zola and the Italian "verist" novelist, Giovanni Verga. The development of Verga's narrative, from the early romantic novels to his mature verist fiction, is to be understood in connection with French Naturalism, and Zola in particular. The author thus challenges the canonical interpretation of Verga's fiction (dominant among Italian critics) which sees it in antithetical opposition to Zola's.