ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the links between specific novels and stories by about, Victor Cherbuliez and Octave Feuillet, authors who were serialized in the Revue, and those of Henry James, and most importantly show that the whole of James's output can be seen in terms of a dialectic between naturalism or realism and its polar opposite and predecessor, 'idealism'. The alternative theory of creative art is it visual or literary, which the Revue des Deux Mondes put forward, insisted upon the paramount importance of the personal, moral contribution of the artist or writer. Something similar to this can be found in James's literary criticism when he criticizes Dickens for including certain extraneous details just for their own sake rather than linking them, as did Balzac, without fail to the action.
