Foundations of Fiction, The - French Realism: Stories that helped shape one of literatures most acclaimed genres

In this series we turn the pages of classic short stories to put together the literary building blocks of how a particular genre or theme began, how it built its foundations to become the well-loved and well-worn genre that it is today.

Do authors have the same ideas at more or less the same time? Or can they sniff out an opportunity as to which way the tastes of an audience are moving.

Success undoubtedly builds success and in literary terms we can more politely say that imitation is the si...