纵观20世纪早期美国现实主义小说,作者、读者乃至评委们都无一例外地对现实、小说情节和人物抱有极大的同情心。反映严酷现实而被视为“现实主义”的某些现代小说,显示出一种不可思议的感伤主义,其感伤程度与“维多利亚时代的感伤者” Throughout the early 20th century American realist novels, authors, readers and even judges all have great compassion for reality, fiction and characters. Some modern novels, which are regarded as “realism ” reflecting the harsh reality, show an incredible sense of sentiment whose degree of sentiment matches with “the sentimental person in the Victorian era”