I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
JC: I reviewed Steve Himmer’s new novel The Bee-Loud Glade earlier this week and, if you recall, I liked it a hell of a lot, saying things like “Thoreau” and “Jerzy Kozinski”, which, if you think about it is a very cool – and apt – combination.
What it’s also done, however, is to get me thinking about Naturalism in literature, because there’s a lot of that at the root of what Himmer’s doing here, but my memory on the specifics of the movement was admittedly unclear. I dug around online a bit – especially the Washington State University website which I’ve learned has some great resources for literary movements and lots of other stuff, at least prior to Modernism. Let’s borrow a short quote from Donald Pizer’s Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction as listed on that page:
[T]he naturalistic novel usually contains two tensions or contradictions. . . .The first tension is that between the subject matter of the naturalistic novel and the concept of man which emerges from this subject matter. The naturalist populates his novel primarily from the lower middle class or the lower class. . . . His fictional world is that of the commonplace and unheroic in which life would seem to be chiefly the dull round of daily existence, as we ourselves usually conceive of our lives. But the naturalist discovers in this world those qualities of man usually associated with the heroic or adventurous, such as acts of violence and passion which involve sexual adventure or bodily strength and which culminate in desperate moments and violent death.
The second tension involves the theme of the naturalistic novel. The naturalist often describes his characters as though they are conditioned and controlled by environment, heredity, instinct, or chance. But he also suggests a compensating humanistic value in his characters or their fates which affirms the significance of the individual and of his life. . . .
Does that ring any bells? It did for me, so here’s what we’re going to do…First, I’m going to name a couple of naturalistic novels that I’ve liked. Then, if you want to receive one of three copies of The Bee-Loud Glade from our new friends over at Atticus Books, tell me about one you like.
I’ll start with Theodore Dreiser‘s An American Tragedy, which I read in high school just after I finished Crime and Punishment – and the two really do complement each other – the naturalist vs the existentialist novels. As for Dreiser’s book – a working class lad with unrealistic aspirations kills his girlfriend. There is some interesting commentary on class and religion, and the psychological unraveling of Clyde is brutal and awesome.
Next, I’ll go with Jack London. I’ll say Call of the Wild, but one of the first really big (as in weighty) books I received, along with a bindup of four Mark Twain novels, was a collection of Jack London novels and stories including CotW, Sea Wolf, and White Fang. The story of the pampered dog who reverted to instinct in order to survive is memorable, even though I haven’t read it in 30 years.
Need a cheat sheet? Fine, here you go.
Related articles
- The Bee-Loud Glade by Steve Himmer (threeguysonebook.com)
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