What <em>depicting human life and society without idealized notions or embellishments </em>means is that the authors are trying their best to show life as it is, without having to exaggerate or make things seem prettier than they actually are. Realists strive to depict life as they see it, and as anyone else would see it - not its romantic, idealized version, but rather life as it actually appears in reality. That is why the entire era is named Realism - trying to show what's real.
Rhetoric the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. So it would be A
