TY - BOOK AU - Bell,David F. TI - Real time: accelerating narrative from Balzac to Zola SN - 9780252090479 AV - PQ653 .R435 2004 PY - 2004/// CY - Urbana PB - University of Illinois Press KW - Zola, Émile, KW - Dumas, Alexandre, KW - French fiction KW - 19th century KW - History and criticism KW - Speed in literature KW - Communication in literature KW - Electronic Books N1 - 2; Webs : genealogies, roads, streets (Balzac) --; Intersections : relays, stagecoaches, walks (Balzac bis) --; Performances : horses, optical telegraphs (Stendhal) --; Velocities : precision, overload (Dumas) --; Conclusion: speed kills (Zola); 2; b N2 - In "Real Time" David F. Bell explores the decisive impact the accelerated movement of people and information had on the fictions of four giants of French realism--Balzac, Stendhal, Dumas, and Zola. Nineteenth-century technological advances radically altered the infrastructure of France, changing the ways ordinary citizens--and literary characters--viewed time, space, distance, and speed. The most influential of these advances included the improvement of the stagecoach, the growth of road and canal networks leading to the advent of the railway, and the increasing use of mail, and of the optical telegraph. Citing examples from a wide range of novels and stories, Bell demonstrates the numerous ways in which these trends of acceleration became not just literary devices and themes but also structuring principles of the novels themselves UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=569945&site=eds-live&custid=s3260518 ER -