In German-language literature of the realist period, the metropolis, the province, and the world stand in a state of tension to one another. This volume uses comparative case studies to undertake a historical and systematic exploration of the ways that the works of Fontane, Raabe, Auerbach, and Spielhagen (among others) engaged with the radical existential changes taking place in the wake of accelerated modernization, enhanced mobility, and colonialist globalization.