How to study "The best short stories" (2024)

How to Study
“The Best Short Stories”

AN ANALYSIS OF EDWARD J. O’BRIEN’S ANNUAL VOLUMESOF THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF THE YEARPREPARED FOR THE USE OF WRITERS AND OTHERSTUDENTS OF THE SHORT-STORY

BY

BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS

Associate Professor of English, Hunter College of the City
of New York; Instructor in Short-Story Writing,
Columbia University (Extension Teaching and
Summer Session). Author of “Gnomic
Poetry in Anglo-Saxon,” “A Handbook
on Story Writing,” etc.;
Editor of “A Book of
Short Stories.”

BOSTON

SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1919

By SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY

(INCORPORATED)

[Pg v]

PREFACE

In this foreword, I wish first of all to thank CaptainAchmed Abdullah, Gertrude Atherton, Edwina StantonBabcock, Barry Benefield, Thomas Beer, Katharine HollandBrown, Maxwell Struthers Burt, Francis Buzzell,Donn Byrne of Oriel, Charles Caldwell Dobie, TheodoreDreiser, George Gilbert, Susan Glaspell, ArmisteadC. Gordon, Fannie Hurst, Arthur Johnson, Fanny KembleJohnson, Burton Kline, Mary Lerner, Sinclair Lewis,Jeannette Marks, Walter J. Muilenburg, Seumas O’Brien,Vincent O’Sullivan, Albert DuVerney Pentz, LawrencePerry, Mary Brecht Pulver, Harrison Rhodes, BenjaminRosenblatt, Fleta Campbell Springer, and Julian Street.Each of these authors very kindly gave data which noone could have gleaned; and in so doing they have contributedlargely to the usefulness of this study.[1]

[1] I must add to this list a former student, Pearl Doles Bell,who interviewed Mrs. Irvin Cobb and who read her notes tomy summer class of 1916. (The interview was published, subsequently,in The [New York] Sun, October 1, 1916.) My assistant,Miss Shirley V. Long, collaborated in the analysis ofMiss Hurst’s “Get Ready the Wreaths.”

Only the other day a student demanded, “Why can’tI get an author to tell me every step in the developmentof one of his stories?” Although, as I tried topoint out, such a thorough proceeding is neither desirablenor easily possible,[2] yet the essentially valuable partof the author’s progress may be most illuminative, andit is obtainable. As one of these writers has said, theartist is not analytical beforehand and is not so, of necessity,after completing his work. But even from thosewho progress only, as they assert, by inspiration comeclear and helpful statements concerning their starting[Pg vi]points and developing processes. This generosity ofsuccessful writers augurs well for the future of fiction.

[2] Poe seems to be the sole writer who has asserted that hecould call to mind the progressive steps of any of his compositions.

Charles Caldwell Dobie has said:[3] “Any man who hasmade a success of his business or profession alwaysseems to consider it his duty to warn others off the field.The advice of both failure and success appears to be embodiedin one and the same word, ‘Don’t!’ This is acurious paradox, and I shall not attempt to explain it.Perhaps it is because the roads to success or to failureare hard to distinguish, the sign-posts at the parting ofthe ways almost undecipherable. Yes, I think it mustbe this realization of the nearness of defeat that makesthe successful one so anxious to dissuade others fromthe struggle. And yet, after all, there is a bit of egotismback of the kindly advice we offer, rather patronizingly,to our friends.

[3] The Silhouette, February, 1917.

“I would be the last person to warn the ambitiousfrom literary endeavor, providing they would ratherwrite than do anything else in the world; providing, also,they were equipped with three qualifications. Determinationis the first; a hide at once sensitive and imperviousranks second; an hour—at least—a day todevote to the pursuit of their purpose. I say devoteadvisedly; the true lover is never niggardly.... Ifadded to these virtues, one has a quiet room and notelephone, half the battle is won.”[4]

[4] Ellen Glasgow writes behind locked doors; Gertrude Atherton“rings down an iron curtain” between herself and theworld.

And, further, by way of emphasis on work and study,hear Burton Kline: “As an editor I have a feeling thatsome of the writers who should be railroad presidentsor bank directors are getting in the way of real writersthat I ought to be discovering. In the long run it isprobably better to have all the writing we can get. Thewider the net is spread, the greater the chance of somethingprecious in the haul. The teaching of writing,even if it finds only a few real writers, helps to sharpen[Pg vii]the critical taste of the others and whet their appetitefor better writing. And I believe that sharper appetiteand more discriminating taste is beginning to be felt....In the creation of a literature, an audience is asnecessary as the performers themselves. And the morecritical the audience, the more likely we are to havegreat performers. The opportunity invites and developsthem....”

Speaking from the critic’s and teacher’s point of view,I not only believe that one can “learn to write”; I know,because more than once I have watched growth andtended effort from failure to success. Many would-bewriters drop by the way; the telephone to pleasure istoo insistent, or the creative process is not sufficientlyjoyful. Some students, however, need only an encouragingword and sympathetic criticism. Harriet Welles isan example of this sort. Her stories have been runningin Scribner’s for some months; she worked only ayear in my class at Columbia before producing finishednarratives. Others must labor and exercise patience inorder to accomplish a few—perhaps one or two—worthyspecimens of the story-teller’s art. I refer, forillustration, to another student, Elizabeth Stead Taber,whose “Scar” attracted favorable comment and drewfrom Mr. O’Brien high praise in his volume of 1917.Others write prolifically, turning out story after story,before attaining the highest publications and prices—butnot of necessity before attaining excellent constructionand style. Marjorie Lewis Prentiss comes to mindas an earnest and careful writer of this sort, who is improvingas steadily as she writes and publishes regularly.I need not refer to Frederick S. Greene—now in France—whohas become well known through his stories, andwho felt that he worked best under class criticism. Hestudied as he wrote, and his published stories, with onlytwo exceptions as I recall, were produced, first, for theclass-room audience. Even those who succeed onlyonce, or who never succeed, have learned to evaluatethe content and the manner of the printed narrative, and[Pg viii]have added to the body of the intelligent fiction-public.

The great artist, let me add, hews his own way.But—! Gutzon Borglum once said that in his opinionthere had lived only three great masters of art: Phidias,Michel Angelo, and Auguste Rodin. If these are thegreat names in sculpture and pictorial art, who are thosein the world of fiction writing?

... I use the form “short-story” to indicate theparticular genre or type, to distinguish it from the storythat is merely short. I have laid down my definition in“A Handbook on Story Writing,”[5] a volume which thestudent of this book should have at hand. In the spacehere allowed, there can be no discussion of terminology.Mr. O’Brien has expressed himself as uninterested intechnical distinctions, a fact which argues for the greaterrange of his choice. He has preferred the larger values,and therefore no adverse comment is implied in my classinga story in these collections as a novelette or anotheras a story that is merely short.[6] From the standpointof literature, an advantage lies in the more extendedfield. And at best, opinions differ. I can only set downmy own reactions, backed by eight years of teaching anda life-time interest in fiction.

[5] Dodd Mead & Company, 1917. Third Edition, 1918.

[6] In quoting, I have used “short story” or “short-story” aswritten by the various authors. It will be seen that the formsare usually interchangeable.

To the student, I would emphasize the fact that studyingthese “Yearbook” stories, valuable as such studymay become, will not make of you a writer; but fromthem, this little book, and the wealth of detail whichMr. O’Brien has accumulated, you can apprehend the elementsof technique and learn, at the same time, whatis successful from an editorial point of view. For everyshort-story writer must be both an artist and a man ofbusiness. If his work is not published, it is not. Muchof it, early in the exercising stages, should die. Butat the last there must be evidence of labor and of genius.Only one evidence is admissible: the product.

[Pg ix]

While you are learning, then, do not try to publish.“Do” your exercises, and practise much; master theprinciples, and express yourself. When you have becomefull-grown, put away childish things, and forgetthat you ever heard of technique.

Blanche Colton Williams.

New York City,
November 30, 1918.

CONTENTS

STORIES IN THE YEARBOOKS

1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918.

		PAGE
A Simple Act of Piety. By Captain Achmed Abdullah	1918	1
The Sacrificial Altar. By Gertrude Atherton	1916	8
The Excursion. By Edwina Stanton Babcock	1917	12
Cruelties. By Edwina Stanton Babcock	1918	14
Onnie. By Thomas Beer	1917	18
Miss Willett. By Barry Benefield	1916	21
Supers. By Frederick Booth	1916	23
Buster. By Katharine Holland Brown	1918	24
Fog. By Dana Burnet	1916	28
The Water-Hole. By Maxwell Struthers Burt	1915	31
A Cup of Tea. By Maxwell Struthers Burt	1917	33
Ma’s Pretties. By Francis Buzzell	1916	37
Lonely Places. By Francis Buzzell	1917	39
The Wake. By Donn Byrne	1915	42
The Great Auk. By Irvin Cobb	1916	44
Boys Will Be Boys. By Irvin Cobb	1917	48
Chautonville. By Will Levington Comfort	1915	51
Laughter. By Charles Caldwell Dobie	1917	52
The Open Window. By Charles Caldwell Dobie	1918	56
The Lost Phoebe. By Theodore Dreiser	1916	59
La Dernière Mobilisation. By W. A. Dwiggins	1915	61
The Emperor of Elam. By H. G. Dwight	1917	62
The Citizen. By James Francis Dwyer	1915	66
The Gay Old Dog. By Edna Ferber	1917	67
Blind Vision. By Mary Mitchell Freedley	1918	71
Imagination. By Gordon Hall Gerould	1918	73
The Knight’s Move. By Katherine Fullerton Gerould	1917	75
In Maulmain Fever-Ward. By George Gilbert	1918	77
A Jury of Her Peers. By Susan Glaspell	1917	83
The Silent Infare. By Armistead C. Gordon	1916	86
The Cat of the Cane-Brake. By Frederick Stuart Greene	1916	89
The Bunker Mouse. By Frederick Stuart Greene	1917	92
Whose Dog—? By Frances Gregg	1915	95
Making Port. By Richard Matthews Hallett	1916	96
Rainbow Pete. By Richard Matthews Hallett	1917	98
Life. By Ben Hecht	1915	100
The Father’s Hand. By George Humphrey	1918	101
T. B. By Fannie Hurst	1915	103
“Ice Water, Pl—!” By Fannie Hurst	1916	106
Get Ready the Wreaths. By Fannie Hurst	1917	109
Mr. Eberdeen’s House. By Arthur Johnson	1915	112
The Visit of the Master. By Arthur Johnson	1918	116
The Strange-Looking Man. By Fannie Kemble Johnson	1917	118
Vengeance Is Mine. By Virgil Jordan	1915	119
The Caller in the Night. By Burton Kline	1917	120
In the Open Code. By Burton Kline	1918	124
Little Selves. By Mary Lerner	1916	126
The Willow Walk. By Sinclair Lewis	1918	129
The Weaver Who Clad the Summer. By Harris Merton Lyon	1915	136
The Sun Chaser. By Jeannette Marks	1916	139
The Story Vinton Heard at Mallorie. By Katharine Prescott Moseley	1918	143
Heart of Youth. By Walter J. Muilenburg	1915	145
At the End of the Road. By Walter J. Muilenburg	1916	147
At the End of the Path. By Newbold Noyes	1915	149
The Whale and the Grasshopper. By Seumas O’Brien	1915	151
In Berlin. By Mary Boyle O’Reilly	1915	153
The Interval. By Vincent O’Sullivan	1917	154
The Toast to Forty-Five. By William Dudley Pelley	1918	156
The Big Stranger on Dorchester Heights. By Albert Du Verney Pentz	1916	159
“A Certain Rich Man—.” By Lawrence Perry	1917	161
The Path of Glory. By Mary Brecht Pulver	1917	165
Extra Men. By Harrison Rhodes	1918	170
The Waiting Years. By Katharine Metcalf Roof	1915	172
Zelig. By Benjamin Rosenblatt	1915	174
The Menorah. By Benjamin Rosenblatt	1916	176
The Survivors. By Elsie Singmaster	1915	178
Penance. By Elsie Singmaster	1916	180
Feet of Gold. By Arthur Gordon Smith	1916	182
Solitaire. By Fleta Campbell Springer	1918	184
The Yellow Cat. By Wilbur Daniel Steele	1915	189
Down on Their Knees. By Wilbur Daniel Steele	1917	192
Ching, Ching, Chinaman. By Wilbur Daniel Steele	1917	194
The Dark Hour. By Wilbur Daniel Steele	1918	200
The Bird of Serbia. By Julian Street	1918	202
The Bounty Jumper. By Mary Synon	1915	207
None So Blind. By Mary Synon	1917	210
Half-Past Ten. By Alice L. Tildesley	1916	212
At Isham’s. By Edward C. Venable	1918	214
De Vilmarte’s Luck. By Mary Heaton Vorse	1918	216
The White Battalion. By Frances Gilchrist Wood	1918	219

Read the story before taking up the exercises.

Consult the biographical data in the Yearbooks for1916, 1917, and 1918.

Observe to what extent the various authors have reflectedthe country or region in which they have lived.What conclusions do you draw?

Many of the stories conform to the laws of the“Greek Unities.” Name them.

The following list is composed of the stories which arebest for structural study.

- “A Simple Act of Piety”
- “The Sacrificial Altar”
- “The Water-Hole”
+ “The Great Auk”
- “Boys Will Be Boys”
- “The Gay Old Dog”
- “The Knight’s Move”
- “In Maulmain Fever-Ward”
+ “A Jury of Her Peers”
+ “The Cat of the Cane-Brake”
- “The Bunker Mouse”
+ “T. B.”
+ “‘Ice Water, Pl——!’”
- “Get Ready the Wreaths”
- “Mr. Eberdeen’s House”
- “The Willow Walk”
+ “‘A Certain Rich Man—’”
- “The Path of Glory”
+ “The Waiting Years”
- “Solitaire”
+ “The Yellow Cat”
[Pg xi]- “Down on Their Knees”
- “Ching, Ching, Chinaman”
+ “The Bounty Jumper”
+ “None So Blind”
+ “Half-Past Ten.”

The plus signs are prefixed to the titles of storieswhich present the action in a closely circumscribed timeand place. Study the stories to which the minus sign isprefixed to see how the authors have managed an extendedperiod of time and place, or of either. On whatphase of the action has emphasis been placed? Howhas each author achieved unity of effect? Notice thedefinite plot stages in these narratives marked by excellenceof structure. Although the technique of everywriter may differ from that of every other, yet in hisstory he will see to it, consciously or unconsciously, thathigh points, “lights,” or climaxes occur. It is a far callfrom the Roman biga to the modern automobile; butwheels, body and motor attachment characterize each asa vehicle. From Poe to the present, the short-storyvehicle has had, and will continue to have, certain typefeatures.

The titles should be studied for their attractiveness,originality, suggestiveness and bearing on the story.

The title may be:

1. The name of the chief character—“Onnie,”“Chautonville.”
2. An epithet applied to the chief character—“TheGreat Auk,” “The Bunker Mouse.”
3. A place—“Mr. Eberdeen’s House,” “The Water-Hole.”
4. A suggestion of—1. An objective theme oridea—“The Excursion,” “The Wake.” 2. Asubjective theme or idea—“The Sacrificial Altar,”“Boys will be Boys.”
5. An allusion expressed fully, in part, or conveyedby implication—“Vengeance is Mine,” “ThePath of Glory.”

One of the most difficult titles to create is that which[Pg xii]has a veiled suggestion, some bearing on the story that isclear or significant only after the story has been read;e.g., “Get Ready the Wreaths,” “The Interval.”

Group the stories according to dominant motives, observingwith what frequence certain universal motive-themesoccur. For example, the sacrifice motive isfound in the following: “The Sacrificial Altar,” “Onnie,”“The Emperor of Elam,” “The Gay Old Dog,”“The Knight’s Move,” “The Bunker Mouse,” “MakingPort,” “The Sun Chaser,” “Heart of Youth,” “A CertainRich Man,” “Zelig,” “The Menorah,” “The Bounty Jumper,”“None So Blind.”

In each of the stories just named, what feeling orpower prompts the sacrifice? What is the sacrifice?What is the effect of the sacrifice on the one making it?On the one for whom it is made? On the reader? Onthe final story-impression?

Study the following as the best examples of realism:“The Excursion,” “Ma’s Pretties,” “Lonely Places,”“The Silent Infare,” “The Big Stranger on DorchesterHeights.” What difference, structurally, do you observebetween these narratives and those developed by the more“romantic” writer?

In every story try to find indications of the author’stheories about fiction or Art in general. For instance,in “Feet of Gold”: “Naturally, since all of us are artists,we seek the Truth through Beauty”; etc. (p. 309).

Characters may be described by the author. This, theso-called “direct” method, is not in reality so direct orvivid as the so-called “indirect” method. By the lattera character reveals himself through act, speech, gesture;he is also portrayed by what others say about him, andby their reactions toward him.

What difference exists in spirit, mood and tempo betweenthe stories marked, respectively, by the direct andthe indirect methods?

By how many stories are you attracted at the beginning?Does the drawing power lie in character, suggestedaction, the picture of a setting, the mood or[Pg xiii]atmosphere, in some bit of philosophy, or other appeal?

Do any of the stories fall below expectation firstaroused? Why? How many fulfill the initial promise?

Which have the best endings? How many of theseseemed inevitable from an early stage of the action?How many might have had diverse endings, altogether?How many might have used different incidents for theclose, with the same general effect?

Which of the narratives seem to you most artisticallyrepresentative of life?

According to the localities represented by theseauthors, try to arrive at the “short-story center” of theUnited States.

In the following studies, try to enter constructivelyinto the processes indicated. Otherwise the exerciseswill lose part of their value.

STUDIES IN DETAIL

Germinal Idea: Captain Abdullah, an Asiatic, buteducated partly, and living altogether, in the Occident,finds himself at times, he declares, in the position, lessemotional than intellectual and cultural, where he has tomake a choice between the ideals of East, or West ofSuez. In addition, his friends often ask him to explaincertain Oriental characteristics, motivations and viewpoints.

“Due either to a vital difference in the acceptance andusage of basic standards, or to my personal inability ofexpressing with the spoken word what I feel tersely to betrue, I have always been unable in these discussions toexpress the one truth which I know; namely, that all thistalk about the Orient being romantic and mysterious andrather high strung is asinine drivel, that indeed the shoehurts on the other foot, and that it is the West which isromantic, both as to life and motivation of life, while theEast is as drab and grey and square as a question in abstractdynamics.

“I make this claim chiefly in regard to the Chinese, whoare the Orientals par excellence. I consider them themost logical, the most straight thinking, and by the sametoken, the most civilized race on earth, not excepting theLatins, the Hindus, the Arabs, or the Anglo-Saxons. Ibelieve them to be the only people who live up to thesound dogma that two and two make four, and neverfour and a quarter, or three and two thirds. I hold thatthey are the easiest people in the world to understand,that they carry their hearts on their sleeves, and that theyalways mean exactly what they say, and say exactly whatthey mean, in direct contrast to the Occidentals....

“The starting point of my tale, a whole series ofChinatown tales, directly due to a conversation I had inChicago with Mr. Ray Long of the Red Book, who saidthat since I seemed unable to interpret the Sons of theMiddle Kingdom with the spoken word I should try thewritten word, was therefore the fundamental prosinessand simplicity of the Oriental, the Chinaman, in contrastto the complicated, suicidal emotionalism and maniacalpsychologizing of the Occidental—the latter characteristicincluding a painful trick of dissecting emotions tosuch a degree that they cease to be emotions. I knowChina and the Chinese intimately, and am fairly familiarwith some of their dialects.

“From a primitive, Occidental viewpoint, murder anda wife’s faithlessness seem to be the most importantthings. From an as primitive Eastern viewpoint, thesame two things are the most negligible things. Thething which matters most to the Oriental is honor andpiety, including their correct, codified outer observances.

“Thence my story.”

Plot. Structurally perfect, the plot grows naturallyout of character.

The order of presentation begins with the

Characterization. The dominant character interestlies in the racial features, which are set off by contrastwith each other. The author manifests skill in creatinghybrid Fanny, a product of racial crossing. In order ofimportance, the main figures are: Nag Hong Fah,Fanny, Yung Long, Quai Long.

Nag Hong Fah is played up as the chief characterthrough

Study the story for concrete examples that illustratethe main points just made. Study, also, the proportiongiven to other characters. What is the greatest contributoryvalue of Señora Garcia? Of Edith Ritter?Nag Sen Yet? The Chinese Soothsayer? Brian Neill?Little Brian? Mamie Ryan? Little Fanny? Comparethe author’s ability to describe physical details with hisskill in revealing mental characteristics. To what extentdoes the outer personality reveal the inner? Answerfor each of the important characters.

Local Color.

As to the short-story, Captain Abdullah thinks thatlength has nothing to do with it. “It can be seven hundredwords long, or seventy thousand. As to the latterlength, I consider Frank Swinnerton’s Nocturne ashort-story.” And he offers as a tentative definition this:“The short-story is a story grouped logically about thesame character and characters, every bit of plot and actionworking together to affect, influence, and make abackground for the same character and characters, eliminating,in contrast to a novel, all side issues.”...

Germinal Idea. “It is so long since I wrote ‘TheSacrificial Altar’ that I am rather hazy. My impressionis that I set out to draw a born artist hampered by certaindisabilities, and one of these being a disinclination forlife and utter absence of the love instinct, all the forcesof his nature concentrated upon his art, until theyreached the point of obsession. It was not until afterhe had written the last book that he reacted to the normalinstincts he had inherited and which had been automaticallydeveloped by the most normal bourgeoisie onearth.”—Gertrude Atherton.

Analysis of Plot.

Characterization. What value is there in LouisBac’s being French? Mrs. Atherton plays up Louis bymaking him the spot-light figure and by presenting thestory from his angle. The invasion of his mind results,incidentally, in the reader’s seeing the setting, situation,and characters as he sees them.

Study the author’s description and exposition of LouisBac, then his speeches and his acts. What do the othercharacters think of him? Observe how the variousmethods of portraiture strengthen one another in thefinished portrait.

Berthe is lightly touched. The reader must “believe”in her as a beautiful young girl, but must not give hertoo great sympathy. Overmuch attention to her wouldhave detracted from the character unity of the narrative.

César Dupont is the contemporary representative ofthe confidant, offering opportunity for dramatic form (inthe scene work) and consequent interest. Unity ofaction and effect is conserved by making him Berthe’suncle; moreover, probability and verisimilitude aregained by the relationship. Madame Dupont, M. JulesConstant, Louis’s servants, and others, are the backgroundcharacters, carefully subdued so as not to interferewith the chief action and consequent story unity.

Note every reference to San Francisco, then ask yourselfhow strongly the setting works toward the securingof the reader’s credulity. Try telling the story, mentally,without allusion to locale. What is lost? “On apedestal was a vase that had belonged to Napoleon,wired and fastened down,” etc. What is the value ofthis sentence in the direction of capturing belief?Study the management of the time element.

Atmosphere. Study the feeling of the story in connectionwith the place. The first sentence of the narrativestrikes the tone “gray,” and gives the setting.“Lone Mountain” conveys what impression? Thecemetery, used so powerfully in the climax of action,deepens the gray note to its most somber hue. Thisincreased depth of tone works integratively with theaction to the powerful climax. Point out all the wordsand phrases that intensify the atmosphere.

Presentation of the Action. The narrator is theauthor who knows all, sees all, and exercises omniscienceover Louis’s mind.

Tell the plot without adhering to Louis’s point of view,placing every event in the order of its occurrence. Notethe loss in suspense and cumulative effect.

Details.

General Methods of Mrs. Atherton. “I rarelyhave the solution of a story or novel in mind, merelythe principal character, the central idea, and the mis-en-scène.I prefer to let the story work itself out. Else,where would be the fun in it? Writing to me is an adventure,and if I knew beforehand how it was to turnout I should take no more interest in it than I shouldtake in the following year if I knew what was to happenevery day. Nevertheless, I would reject any finale thatI did not think logical. An arbitrary ending for the sakeof dramatic effect or conciliating the public makes thewhole book or story worthless artistically.”

Germinal Idea, or Starting-Point. “The ‘Excursion’was written from the humorous delight I havealways felt in excursions; it was started merely ashumorous description of certain inevitable excursiontypes. I put the ‘story’ into already written appreciationsof sartorial and millinery triumphs as demonstratedon any well-developed excursion.”—Edwina StantonBabcock.

Classification. A study in realism, wherein thegeneral picture and all the excursionists are of quite asmuch importance as the few predominant characters.

Plot. Loosely interpreted, plot may be termed asumming up of the “story,” a recapitulation. Technically,the plot is the underlying plan “of which no partcan be removed without ruin to the whole”; it is thedevelopment of the struggle or conflict which every“short-story” possesses in common with the drama.

What in “The Excursion” is the struggle? What partdoes the dialogue between the two sisters play in therevelation of the struggle? If the struggle were madedominant, what lamentable result would follow for the“situation” value of the whole narrative? Is there ahint near the conclusion that the struggle may have anoutcome? Is the plot finished, then, as the author hasleft it? What is the embryonic dramatic climax or turningpoint? (Find the moment when the feelings ofthe passengers change toward Mrs. Tuttle.)

Characterization. What types are represented inMrs. Tuttle? Mrs. Cronney? Mrs. Tinneray? Mr.Tinneray? Mrs. Mealer? Mrs. Bean? The “lady ina purple raincoat”? “A mild mannered youth with nochin?” Miss Mealer? Hypatia Smith? Test theeconomy and effectiveness of Miss Babcock’s portrayalby asking yourself what further things these peoplewould do or say. Are the types such as would be foundin the same boat?

Compare the few figures of prominence with thoseof the background. Are they in “high relief” or “lowrelief”?

Atmosphere. Realistic; it has the “feel” of thetypical American excursion. To achieve it, were necessarythe author’s keen observation, sane vision, and senseof humor.

Accessory Details. Enhancing and emphasizing thereality of the occasion are the features, objects, and actsassociated with excursions. The crunch of peanuts, thesearch for chewing gum, the squinting through ivory-headedcanes,—such details of the composition indicatemeticulous workmanship on the part of Miss Babcock.Notice whether these features appeal rather to sight, tohearing, or to other senses. What do you deduce?

General Methods of Miss Babcock. “To me, inwriting, the story is keyed by a face, the note of a man’sor a woman’s voice, a bit of lonely moorland, a scenein a railway station, some little amusing bit some onetells me. Then comes incubation for an absurdly uncertaintime. Then I dress up in a mass of what seemsto me related detail the significant centre, trying usuallyto thrust in a few bits of humor for the simple reasonthat life is made of it and the huge wonder is that thewhole world does not ‘grin like a dog and go about thecity.’... I love to paint things I’ve seen—particularlynatural things....”

Starting Point. Edwina Stanton Babcock says that“Cruelties” was written around the figure of the spinster,Frenzy, at whom she has had peeps for nearly eighteenyears. Her formal and carefully elaborate English,—hergarden, and her worries over it—all are drawn fromwhat Miss Babcock considers story material “for anyone.” Mrs. Tyarck and Mrs. Capron were painted in contrasts,and “little Johnny Tyarck and what went on insideof his wispy head at prayer meeting was put in becauseof my own ceaseless wonder as to what goes oninside the heads of the Johnny Tyarcks of this world.”

“Cruelties” took a long time to crystallize and itseemed to me that the dénouement never really consummated.I longed to have the wayward girl more of a person,but the confines of the story would not allow it.I wrote four drafts of it, cutting out quantities eachtime.”

Plot. Compared with “The Excursion,” this storypossesses a framework more substantial and of betterarchitecture. Though most readers will be interested inthe personality of the characters, rather than in the action,nevertheless they will enjoy the steady and perceptibleprogress to the solution of the slight complication.This complication the author has effected throughthe entangling of two interests. The first is the one-sidedstruggle which arises between the women, Mrs.Tyarck et al, and Miss Giddings—one-sided, inasmuchas the former are active, while the latter is passive. Itis motivated by Frenzy’s attempt to rid her roses ofworms. (Is this motivation sufficient to account for theanimosity? What circumstance abets it? What valuehas the fact that Mrs. Capron is a tract distributor?)The second line of interest has to do with the younggirl’s downfall and rehabilitation. The fact that MissGiddings becomes her champion increases the petty animosity.The outcome of the complication shows Frenzytriumphant, in the scene between her and Mrs. Tyarck.

Are you satisfied with this dénouement? Why?

What motivation has Miss Babcock employed to explainthe girl’s taking refuge with Miss Giddings? Is itadequate and convincing?

Characterization. By emphasizing physical traitsMiss Babcock has differentiated her characters unmistakably,if a bit obviously. Frenzy’s stiffly refined diction(in contrast to the slangy speech of coarse Mrs.Tyarck), and Mrs. Capron’s hawking illustrate hermethod. Tabulate the characteristics of the chief figures.

How has she individualized them by their acts? Inconnection with your study of personal appearance, evaluatethe use: 1. Of the “two large pins of green ... likebulbous, misplaced eyes”.... 2. Of the wing on Mrs.Tyarck’s hat. 3. Of the girl’s red sweater.

The only masculine figures who appear on the stageare little Johnnie Tyarck and Mr. Bloomby. Is the factthat their male presence contributes to background, orto realistic effect, a sufficient gain for shifting to theirrespective points of view?

Which of the characters is most frequently found inevery day life?

Local Color. To what extent do the details of setting(including customs, dialect, dress) typify any Americanrural community? Can you justify the full paragraphon the buttons?

Time Element. How has the author handled theflight of months without seeming unduly to prolong theaction or to break the unity of effect?

Atmosphere. Realistic, it reflects the mood of theauthor who sees life as it is, rather than of the authordominated by so-called “temperament.” She sees charactersand events, for the most part, through the kindlyglow of humor.

What double cause for smiling exists in the title ofthe tract delivered in the first scene? Point out otherexamples of humor.

“Usually in beginning a story,” Miss Babcock says,“the first paragraph sets a sort of mechanism going inme and controls the tone and atmosphere of the story.Thus, you see, I almost have to begin with a paragrapha little long. My great difficulty is my love of descriptionand painting of pictures—I despair of characters becauseI know that one really never gets the whole character intothe story, any more than one gets it in life. I think thewriter must make the character act like its description. Aspit-curl character must have spit-curl ideas and behavior.The more I write the more I am convinced thatthe writer is a slave to two contradictory convictions;that is, that he must give the truth of the story as hehas visioned it, and that there is no truth but that thestory-telling art has its very beginning in creating illusions.”

Classification. Onnie is a story of character; thetrait exploited leads to the tragic dénouement.

Germinal Idea. “The genesis of ‘Onnie’ was a desireto record the dialect of one Patrick Qualey, agardener, now extinct. Patrick had preserved to theage of seventy his Celtic fibre quite unimpaired. I thinkhe rather prided himself on the act, and, perhaps, embroideredthe garment of his speech a trifle. He diedvery tamely of pneumonia, and Forest County, Pa., wasnot his abiding place. As for Onnie, I confess that Iam weary of lovely Irishwomen, and a witty IrishwomanI have never met....”—Thomas Beer.

Characterization. Read the story rapidly, and immediatelyask yourself, “What impression have I receivedof Onnie, physically, mentally, and spiritually?”Go over the story again, making note of every mentionof Onnie, and observe how forcefully, yet adroitly, theauthor has emphasized details. What is the value ofhaving different characters observe her monstrousnessand her homeliness?

Notice that Onnie’s superstition makes her say, “Thegifts of children are the blessin’s of Mary’s self,” butthat her “odd scapular” has a sinister significancethroughout. Is this sinister suggestion in harmony withthe final sacrifice? Estimate the number of words in thestory, then the number emphasizing Onnie; finally, theproportion devoted to the main incident and preparationfor it. What is the length of time over which Onnie’sdevotion to San extends? The length of the “story”part of the narrative? If the proportion were reversed,[Pg 19]what would be the effect on the character work? Onthe poignancy?

Name in order the other characters of the narrative,and notice the proportion given to each. Study the waysin which the author makes San a lovable youngster.Take account of his acts, his speeches, what his fatherthinks of him, what the men do for his protection. Inthe same way, take stock of the ways whereby Percivalis presented as a villain of the lowest type.

Are there too many characters in “Onnie” for bestshort-story effect?

Plot. Notice that the development of the strugglelies in the latter half of the story. Define this strugglefor yourself. With whom do you immediately takesides? Show how the main line of interest (Onnie’slove for San) combines with the second line of interest(the one growing out of the struggle) to make the complication.Is the entanglement logically effected? Giveexamples. What is the first preparation for the mainincident? (See page 34.) “He put in your new bath-tuband Onnie jumped him for going round the houselooking at things.” This statement reveals the motivationfor Percival’s dislike of Onnie (whom every oneelse loved) and rationalizes his insult on page 36; it alsoexplains how the villain knew the arrangement of therooms.

The first developed incident, leading toward theclimax, covers pages 35 and 36, beginning with the approachof Percival and ending with his punishment bySanford.

Study the introduction of the knife and all referencesto it. What instruments of death in other stories ofthese collections have plot value?

The climax of the action is told with fine brevity.Study the dénouement, beginning page 42. “He sat up,tearing the blankets back.” The last paragraph ismarked by artistic restraint. Compare it with the endof “The Sacrificial Altar.”

Setting. How is the Pennsylvania backgroundintegrated with character and action to make the story?Over how many years does the entire action extend?By what devices of transition and by what proportionhas the author subdued the time element?

Atmosphere. The latter half of the narrativepresents contrast to the first half, in spite of the plotclues. What is the value of this contrast in moods?Has the rain a contributory value? Find other instancesin these stories of weather conditions emphasizing theimpression. Point out all the instances of dramatic forecast,particularly those which serve to unify the earlierand later portions of the narrative (e.g., “And anythingcould happen there,” page 28).

The Starting-Point. Mr. Benefield states that ithas been so long since he wrote “Miss Willett” thatthe processes of growth have gone out of his memory.He is sure, however, that the story had its origin in ashow-window exhibit on a street in New York, wherea negro woman of a most evil expression used todemonstrate a folding bed. “I probably noted theexhibit in a book, left it for weeks or months and thenone day when I needed an idea I opened the note-book,turned over the pages, stared at the scribbled note, andthe elements of the story as written floated to the centerof consciousness and joined in a more or less rough butcomplete whole. After that it was merely a matter ofchiseling it into shape.”—Barry Benefield.

The expression “floated to the center of consciousness”seems to imply an inspirational writing force,much as does Mrs. Pulver’s statement, “My crew willcome to me ready named, ready behavioured” (see page169).

The striking relation between Mr. Benefield’s originalidea and his subsequently developed story is one of contrast.It is noteworthy that character dominates ineach; incident is subordinate.

The Development. The principle of suggestion, bywhich this author has conveyed more than he could express,works powerfully. Observe the first effectcreated by the face of the sculptured Christ. “Shenoticed that the long white dress of the infant,” etc.(page 40). What are succeeding effects?

The Action. Miss Willett’s fortunes are in thedescendant at the beginning of the story. Where dothey take a turn? Is this dramatic climax motivated bythe influence of the face? (“Yesterday you hadnothin’; to-day you got everything.” This speechclinches, for the reader who prefers the mystical interpretation,the influence of the sculptured Jesus. To thenon-mystical reader, this logic alone is satisfactory: lossof job had meant an unconscious spur, the spur ofdesperation, with unanticipated success.) What is thesequel to the day’s success which marks Miss Willett’scontinued interest in the face behind the green-slattedwindow? State in order the steps leading to the discovery.What is the climax of action? Does it constitutea surprise for the reader as for Miss Willett?What is the dénouement? With the dénouement, dawnsthe realization of what underlying theme?

The Main Character. According to the mysticalinterpretation the chief character is the sculptured figure.Otherwise, Miss Willett is the principal. According tothe two interpretations, the two become active and passive,reciprocally.

What is the fundamental impression you receive ofMiss Willett’s physical person? What, to a writer, isthe advantage in choosing a very large or very smallperson as a main character? Recall classic examples.Note all references to Miss Willett’s big blondeness, andstudy the economy with which she is kept before thereader.

Details. Where is the gray kitten first mentioned?What is the value, to the plot, of this introduction?

Glance over the narrative for words of color, light,and sound. Which are predominant? The effect on thestory and on its verisimilitude? Color-value of the redgeranium with its single flower? Value for effect ofreality?

Study the easy manner in which the setting is givento the reader.

Classification. A single scene sketch; it is like acharcoal drawing.

Plot. The plot, concealed beneath the picture, liesin the objectifying of the eternal struggle for bread andmeat.

Setting. The place is the street near the theatredoor: like a magnet it draws the individual human beings,who cohere in the mass until the attracting poweris removed.

Characters. This mass, or aggregate, emphasizesthe individual struggle, at the same time it engulfs individualpersonality. What does the name “Supers”indicate, literally? Figuratively? What part does RedBeard play? How does he, too, contribute to the largerunity at the same time he offers a note of contrast?

Atmosphere. Sordid, drab realism, uncompromisingin its ugliness.

Opening Incident. Emphasis falls at once on thesociety which the hero disconcerts. The correctness ofliving, the tranquil setting, provide the formal serenityhe is to break. “Lucien forgot himself completely,”note the effect of the impeccable chauffeur’s exclamationas testimony to the “demon boy.” The reader, startledwith the characters into attention, catches the epithetup with interest and expectation.

Are the recounted escapades and the antecedent scenenecessary? or, in the wealth of instance which follows,does the recountal seem extensive? Is the relaxation soeffected pleasant? Does the rehearsal of the antecedentepisode slow the tempo and hold the story back unnecessarily?Besides revealing Buster, the material permitsthe cousin’s mental distress to accumulate in effect andallows time for the race to and from Boston.

Within the economy of the first picture, Buster’s manner,the striking factor of his aspect, and his adolescentgrowth are suggested. Notice that the following sceneenlarges the same points. Notice that in this scene andthe others between Buster and his aunts, Buster does thetalking. The aunts interpose, occasionally, protest andreasoning. Do the scenes lack excitement other thanBuster’s excitement? There is not the vigorous clash ofspeech with speech; for that, the characters are too wellmannered. If the struggle wants intensity, is there compensationin the naturalness of the futile boyish tirading?Buster seems to fume?

The trouble at the bakery serves to remind the readerthat Buster, in the apparent lull, is intent on his ownpurposes. It serves, also, to divert the reader’s mindfrom the preparation for the aeroplane incident.

The Bazaar at Dawn Towers: The personnel for thisscene is usual; there are the usual élite and the climberfrom the West. (Notice the social status of Oklahomaand Montana!) The futurist palace is a relieving detail.

The incident caps the social crimes of Buster; it providesthe climax for part one of the story, playing offthe vitality of the boy’s contention against the vanitiesand half-sincerity of his Aunt’s set. Like Buster’s passionaterepetition, “I’ve got to know,” it is dramatic forecast.Here is the significance of the story: youth strugglingwith convention for its destiny.

The latter half of the story is fulfilment and realization.

Does the timing of this part—“and yesterday at dusk”—injurethe dramatic reality? The writer suggests thisis an account, a diary, a rehearsal.

Episodic Plot. The incidents of the plot do notprogress logically, as steps in action having a consequentialrelation. But they are instances making the samecharacter point, having this unity. In the importantscenes the events are held in combination further by theircentralization about three characters: Dr. Lake, MissEdith, and Buster stand out at beginning, climax andend.

Account for the animosity against Dr. Lake in theboy’s tone and the story tone. Does the writer in hercharacterization of him caricature the doctor? (the emphasison his eminence and his shirt-front in the openingscenes, on his fright in the climax scene). Contrast hisappearance in the two parts of the story; his self-importancein the earlier scenes with his eventual sacrifice.The traditions reveal in the crisis their underlying sanction.Does his geniality in the final scene convince?

Cousin Edith, if typical, is set apart from her environmentby a quality of humor and by her angle—as sympatheticobserver of Buster. Observe that Buster feelsthe difference in her character. Is there a note of affectationin her manner? Notice that, though she is influencedby the aviator’s tirade, she is sufficiently herselfto remark his manners. Does Buster work in herthe magic of complete conviction? Is her wordy “gush”when she first sees the unconscious boy natural in toneand sentiment? She sees, remember, the “death-like”face, at the sight of which “the limp, shivering doctorpulled himself together with all his weary might.” Herwords “baby” the hero—does one “tuck” a brawnyfist under his cheek?

Buster is pictured most completely in his unconsciousness.Do the stubborn chin there and the sulky under-lipof the first scenes indicate an unpleasant willfulness?Offset this impression by details in the summary of hisescapades which suggest a sympathetic kindness. Doeshe show in the struggle with his Aunts a personal animosity?Is the democracy revealed in the sailor episodetypical of his age? Compare Aunt Charlotte’s speech forGerman methods with the Brigadier General’s on themaking of the hero. Do the aviator and the ambulance-driverin their recognition of him reinforce qualities inBuster which are representative?

“Concerning ‘Buster,’ he isn’t the portrait of any realflesh-and-blood boy. But he tries to be the compositeportrait of the fourteen-year-olds that we all know, andmost of us own by ties of blood,—the tempestuous darling,the pride and the despair of us. As for the storyitself, it is a well-meant but probably futile attempt toconvince the Average Parent,—to say nothing of theaverage Aunt Charlotte and Cousin Edith,—that theabysmal differences between the Busters of to-day andtheir own generation are not so many conclusive proofsthat Buster and his tribe are essentially inferior. Onthe contrary! For to my eyes, the rising generation isa rising one, with a vengeance, and o’ertops its predecessorswith a disconcerting splendor. So the story triesto make this conviction clear,—and very likely fails. Forone of my nearest and dearest was grieving only the otherday, because her own particular Buster insists that hislife’s ambition is to be a fire chief. ‘When we want himto be a corporation lawyer, like his father!’... As todefinitions—could there be a compact definition of theshort-story? I doubt it. It’s a universal experience, putinto a duodecimo edition, but it’s a thousand other things,besides.

“Some day, some one with authority will answer, Ihope, this question: Should the short-story writer be awriter of short-stories and nothing more? Or—shouldhe write stories when and where he can, in the intervals ofother, far more absorbing, tasks?”—Katharine HollandBrown.

General. The first sentence in “Fog” serves twopurposes. 1. It thrusts satirically at the commercializingof the short story. 2. It induces the reader tobelieve the inner narrative is a growth, not a construction.The author seems to have hesitated between leavingthe supernatural story as one beautiful enough tostand alone, and building about it the humorous andeven cynical external action. Or it may be that he sawbest to set off the fragile inner narrative with the hardfacts of a workaday world. Without the prelude to thestory (which begins with “He was born a thousandmiles from deep water”) and without the sentences afterthe asterisks on page 73, the narrative recalls “TheBrushwood Boy.” And this is true, despite the ratherhomely dialect. If, however, the reader is duly influencedby the parts referred to, he cannot but recallThomas Bailey Aldrich’s “Struggle for Life,” as aprototype.

Plot.

Is the “inevitable” quality of the narrative increasedby making Andy “a queer one”? SeeGeorgie, by way of contrast, in “The BrushwoodBoy.”

Where does suspense first operate? Where doyou suspect, first, that Hope is meant to be Andy’sbride?

Observe that Andy’s last act might have beenthat of a deluded brain, and that Stiles’s vision ofthe Lucky Star might have been one of hallucination.The more imaginative reader will regard the ghost-shipas objective, and will “believe” in the delayedunion of Hope and Andrew.

Read Richard Middleton’s “The Ghost Ship,” fora frankly humorous treatment of theme. What[Pg 30]other stories in Mr. O’Brien’s collections have anelement of the supernatural?

Try presenting this story in pure English, fromthe author’s point of view. Use the objectivemethod, abstaining from entrance into the mind ofany character. Take up the narrative at the pointof Andrew’s arrival at Stiles’s, and let his “queerness”emerge through his acts and speeches.

How much creative work must you accomplish tomake a consistent character of Stiles? (Here,Stiles, the narrator, must be studied through thestory he presents. In the dramatic presentation ofthe story, he will become more objective.)

General Method. The immediate story of the water-holeis unfolded by the “rehearsed” method. Whatgain results from telling in a city restaurant an experienceof the wilderness? Study the easy and natural wayin which Hardy’s story is brought forward. “You’vegot a concrete instance back of that” (page 18) signifiesthat the narrator will cite a case to prove his point. Recallother stories told for similar purposes; e.g., O.Henry’s “The Theory and the Hound.”

Study the value of the two “I” narrators in the samestory, with respect to increasing verisimilitude and makingthe reader “believe.” Kipling’s “The Courting ofDinah Shadd,” for example, uses the same tactics.

Try re-telling the story by the dramatic method. Omitthe enveloping city setting; transfer Hardy from the firstto the third person, and keep the “spotlight” on him.Begin with the arrival of Hardy at the home of theWhitneys, and follow the course of events to theirdénouement. What do you lose in richness and effectiveness?Do you gain anything in vividness or directness?

Plot. Having studied preceding plot analyses, thestudent will find small difficulty in settling upon the mainstruggle in the action, the complicating line of interest,and the climactic incident. The surprise ending, however,calls for comment, in that to achieve it the authorused a natural and yet somewhat novel device. Hardyhas been speaking of himself, of course, in the first person.When, therefore, he refers to the love that “oneof the young engineers” had for Mrs. Whitney we donot suppose that he and the engineer were identical.Hence, we receive the shock in the final paragraph:“On the brown flesh of his forearm, I saw a queer,ragged white cross—the scar a snake bite leaves whenit is cicatrized.” On reflection, one recognizes thatWhitney’s slight deception arose from motives ofdelicacy, and is more than justifiable—it pleases, inthat it refines Hardy’s character. Deception as a means,in general, to create surprise is common (See “TheMastery of Surprise,” Bookman, October, 1917); butit is given here a particularly excellent turn.

Observe, also, that the plot presents a variation ofthe familiar “triangle.” The love story, however, isburied beneath the greater theme; and therefore, althoughit terminates in a lack of so-called poetic justice, yet itscombination with the main line of interest gives utmostsatisfaction.

Characters. Mr. Burt has employed a favoriteartistic aid, contrast, in depicting Hardy and Whitney.Does Hardy seem anywhere too modest or too egotisticfor the first person narrator? What value have thefriends who hear Hardy’s story in the full developmentof Hardy as a character?

Setting. Note the setting of this and “The Water-Hole,”“The Knight’s Move,” “The Weaver Who Cladthe Summer,” “A Certain Rich Man.” In which ofthem is the outer setting a place for the rehearsal ofthe story which follows? In which is the setting thatof the immediate story-action? What is the generalvalue of a table scene to the writer who wishes to presenthis story in the “rehearsed” manner? How does acamp-fire compare with it? (Read, for example, Kipling’s“The Courting of Dinah Shadd.”)

Introduction, with Emphasis on Characters.Why is so long an introductory paragraph given toBurnaby?

Study the comment on guests and hostess, and observethat the English financier must have an important partin the ensuing action. “Sir John had inherited animagination.” Is this stated characteristic proved bysubsequent disclosures?

How is Burnaby’s entrance emphasized?

“She was interested by now” (page 48), an old deviceand an excellent one for catching the reader’s attention.The logic is this: “If that fascinating lady is interested,there must be a reason.” Sir Conan Doyle employsit often in the Sherlock Holmes stories, whenSherlock asks for a repetition of a situation supposedlyjust presented. It is thus put before the reader whoassumes that it must be worth hearing once, if Sherlockwill hear it twice.

What reason exists for Burnaby’s story as a predecessorto Sir John’s? Does it motivate the telling ofSir John’s? If so, does it also prejudice the reader infavor of one or the other men? Does it incite curiosityas to the squawman with a promise that curiosity willbe satisfied? Suppose that some other cause producedSir John’s story and the reader were left to surmisewhat became of Bewsher. Would sympathy be withBewsher in an increased or diminished degree?

Why is Burnaby’s story briefer than Sir John’s?Would it be possible to reverse the comparative lengthswith a new story-value? Try telling Bewsher’s storyas he might tell it to Burnaby at the time of the tea incident.

How is point given to the squaw man’s name? Whatis the significance of the broken champagne glass?Have literary artists often fallen back on a broken glassby way of expressing emotion? Is it true to real life?Does it seem true in fiction?

Is there sufficient suggestion that Bewsher’s story isconnected with that of Masters to justify initial interestin Sir John’s narrative? (See the dénouement ofBurnaby’s.)

Where did you receive a hint that Masters is identifyinghimself with Morton?

The Heart of the Whole Story: Masters’Story. Notice that Mr. Burt recognizes, as all artistsdo, the various climaxes of the narrative. This is indicatedin what Sir John calls “high lights.”

“We are told that all writing is a process of elision,but no one seems to go further and say that short-storywriting is the process of ‘hitting the high spots’ plus theart of making the intervals between the ‘high spots’not only interesting but of such a quality that the ‘highspots’ do not seem strained and unnatural. I find thatthis is mostly done by the turn of a sentence, or by anapparently adventitious aphorism, or a paragraph ofgeneral comment.

“I do prefer the ‘I’ narrator greatly. 1st. It doesaway with the ‘Smart Alec,’ omniscient atmosphere ofthe third person, which seems to me the bane of mostAmerican short-stories—the author gives an impressionof groping for his story, just as a person in reallife gropes when he narrates an incident. Conrad doesthis, and does it so beautifully. It seems to me that a‘thickness’ is achieved that can be got in no other way.This, of course, does not apply to a novel, because in anovel the ‘thickness’ is achieved by mere length.

“Secondly, as you say, it enables one to handle surprisemore readily.

“Thirdly, the story can be told in colloquial language,and not in literary language, which makes it, so it seemsto me, more poignant. What experience I have had convincesme that the poignancy of life is invariably expressedby silences and by broken words. The Frenchknow so well how to use dashes, for instance.

“Fourthly, and this is not paradoxical, despite thecolloquial language, one has a slight feeling of aloofnessfrom the characters or sees them through the medium ofa third person; and this, it seems to me, is the way onesees things in real life....

“The story ordinarily comes to me as an incident or atheme, sometimes as a character in a certain incident.Then usually nothing happens for a long time. If I tryto think about it too much, so much the worse. In abouta month, I’ll think about it again and then, as a rule, itbegins to evolve. A great deal of the incident occurs tome while I am actually writing.”—Maxwell StruthersBurt.

General. “Realism isn’t popular—is it?” Halfassertively this inquiry comes from a certain fictionwriter. It is, perhaps, in proportion as the story hasobvious significance. This sketch about “Ma’s Pretties”reflects in miniature the whole of an American community,but in a manner which escapes him who seeksand appreciates only surface values. It is the kind ofwriting which acquires relative importance when placedalongside examples which reflect other communities,other nationalities.

The narrative is not a short-story, in the technicalsense. Mr. Buzzell feels this to be no adverse criticism,since he says himself, “I am not particularly concernedabout the short-story as such. I am using ashort narrative form as a means of expression simplybecause this form seems the most natural to me. Thereare many things which I wish to record from my ownparticular slant. It is to accomplish this, rather than toproduce short-stories, that I am writing. Naturally,then, I am not particularly concerned with the techniqueof the short-story, but on the other hand I am verymuch concerned with the technique of effective writingand have spent several years of hard work trying toperfect my craftsmanship.”

Classification. A realistic sketch, with emphasis onthe situation: Mrs. Brooks dies; her “pretties” aredivided.

The Characters. What is the chief method of theauthor for revealing character? How is the characterof the dead woman indicated? What can you say of thedialogue by way of indicating feeling over (1) “Ma’s”illness, (2) her death? Describe the daughters.

The Main Scene. Is the story aptly entitled withrespect to the main incident? What universal theme isstruck in this well-developed scene between the girls in“Ma’s” room?

“The things enumerated in ‘Ma’s Pretties’ as foundin her clothespress were part of the things my motherfound in my grandmother’s clothespress after the latter’sdeath. I had to reject many items of course, and rearrangethose which I selected as typical. You may besure I spent a couple of weeks of hard work before Iwas satisfied with this piece of writing.”—FrancisBuzzell.

Subordinate Scenes. Which scene do you regardas second in importance?

“The building up of the scene in which Ben Brookscarries the earrings in to ‘Ma’ was also a bit of conscioustechnique. I worked on that paragraph manyhours before I was satisfied with the names of the flowersand had my tonal values right.”—Francis Buzzell.

Compare this story with Donn Byrne’s “The Wake.”Apart from the narrative element, do you receive a decidedimpression of national contrast?

Study the list of “pretties,” as you studied the listof objects, etc., in Miss Babcock’s “The Excursion.”Try to discover, here as there, their value in the reflectionof reality. Certain small objects connote whatlarger objects? “Ma’s” switch, for example? Applythis question to your consideration of each detail. Havethese apparently insignificant details a value similar tothat of synecdoche and metonymy?

General. A technically well-wrought piece of realism,both in its adherence to the point of view, and inthe rationalization of events. When it was first published,it bore the (editorial) sub-title, “A Story ofWoman’s Inhumanity to Woman.” “I assure you,”says Mr. Buzzell, “that woman’s inhumanity to womannever entered my mind in writing this story. If readersfind a moral in any of my stories they can have it withoutquestion; I didn’t put it there and I’ll lay no claimto it.” What does this statement indicate with regardto Mr. Buzzell’s ideas of art?

Starting Point, and Development. “The beginningof a poem, I assume from my own experience, isa mood, a state of feeling, in the poet. He is stirred bysomething and sets to work to express it. Well, then,this is the way a story begins in me. As a result, thefirst tangible thing I have is the atmosphere.... I rememberedthat there were in Almont (Romeo) a numberof ‘grand’ houses, standing far back from the road, andoccupied by lonely women. I saw these houses buriedin trees in summer, smelled the wild honeysuckle,watched the wrens flying in and out of the old teapotshung in the vines of the dining-room porch. In thewinter I saw these houses buried in snow.”

Mr. Buzzell then wondered why these women hadnever married and concluded that all the young men oftheir generation had gone to the city to work.

“The next step was to select a definite setting. Forthis I took an old house which I knew thoroughly—myGrandfather’s house—the Orin Crisman house in‘Addie Erb and her Girl Lottie.’ In this house I placeda woman not quite forty years old and I named herAbbie Snover. Then I gave her Old Chris as a companion.I had reason for placing Old Chris in the housewith Abbie aside from an actual plot requirement. Iplaced him there because I wanted to impress my readerin the beginning with the loneliness of Abbie Snover’senvironment rather than with her utter lack of companionship.The actual beginning of plot, I think, waswhen I decided to take Old Chris away from her at theend, so as to accentuate her loneliness. In searching fora cause that would remove the old man I decided toresort to gossip. The next question was how to startthe gossip. It seemed most natural to have the childrenbegin it. But how start the children? Abbie Snoverand Old Chris had lived alone in that big house forfifteen years without any gossip; something would haveto happen to start it. So I decided that Abbie wouldhave to antagonize the children in some way. To beable to antagonize the children would necessarily requiresome kind of personal contact with them, so I had thechildren form a habit of going to her door after cookies.Then I invented the orange tree to give Abbie a reasonfor driving them out of the house.

“The rest was simple until I sent Abbie out of the bighouse on her journey to Mile Corners. It wasn’t untilI reached this point that I decided to let the readerknow that Old Chris was dead; that Abbie’s journeythrough the snow was to be a fruitless one; that fatehad robbed her of her victory. If I had been concernedwith writing just a short story I would have given myreaders the desired surprise by withholding Old Chris’sdeath from them until Abbie found it out. What Iwanted to do was to make them feel Abbie’s tragedyevery step of the way along that country road.”

The difference between the realist’s and the romanticist’smethods may be seen by a consideration of whata romanticist would have done at any stage of theaction. For example, Abbie’s kindness to the childrenwould have been the cause, not of her undoing, butrather (under other circumstances) of her rehabilitation.The business of the orange tree, again, might havebeen used to turn the youngsters against her, as Mr.Buzzell has used it, but in this event then the sender ofthe orange tree would have arrived on the scene andby his masterfulness properly subdued the gossip....Again, the romanticist would have saved the surprise,undoubtedly, for the reader as well as for Abbie. Hewould have desired to create the shock, and leave reflectionto each reader.

Try telling the story from Mrs. Perry’s angle.

What is the struggle? Is it active or passive, or doesit pass from one to the other condition? Are the stagesof the plot well-marked, from initial impulse to climaxof action?

What is the atmosphere? What details of setting,character, and action harmonize in the totality of effect?What notes of contrast but serve to intensify the prevailingmood?

Has the author attempted to enlist the reader’ssympathy for Abbie? Is his work finer and truer, as aresult?

General. “The Wake” suggests and pictures thecustoms of the Irish following a death; at the sametime it tells a story. For this latter reason it is superior,as a narrative, to “Supers,” which emphasizes thepicture, the condition. Emphasis is placed on the situation,with a gradual heightening of interest as to a suggestedoutcome. The young wife of an elderly husbandlies dead; she has loved and been loved by a youngerman; the younger man (Kennedy) has declared, “Ifanything ever happens to that girl at your side, MichaelJames, I’ll murder you!” And now as Michael sits indumb misery, he awaits the fulfillment of the threat.The passive situation is merged into the dramaticmoment by the advent of Kennedy, who seeing the deadwoman, foregoes his intention.

Setting. The locale, according to Mr. Byrne, isUlster, North Ireland. What is the length of the action?

Germinal Idea. “I wished to write a story of anIrish wake which was neither utterly sordid, nor indelicatelyfunny.” Is the resultant mood, atmosphere,in harmony with this intention?

The Action. Where is your interest first aroused?At what point does the principle of suspense operate tointensify interest? Is the dénouement satisfactory?Is the action that of a “triangle” story? Compare it,in this regard, with the action of “The Water-Hole.”How is the love interest submerged in “The Wake”?How is the hostility Kennedy bears James overcome?What bearing on the action and on the theme has theblind misery of James?

The Characters. From whose point of view is thestory presented? Who is the main character and why?Is there in any way a suggestion that Death, as acharacter, controls? Or is the influence of the deadwoman dominant?

The Theme. In stating the theme, refer to thegerminal idea and comment on the author’s success.

Compare with this narrative, Chapter IX of PatrickMacGill’s “The Rat-Pit.” Mr. MacGill’s setting is alsoin Ulster: Donegal.

It should be added for the benefit of the student whoresents, or finds hampering, an insistence on short-storytype, that Mr. Donn Byrne believes there isn’t any suchthing as the short-story. “A story is a story whetherit’s a novel of 100,000 words or a short magazine affair.There is no difference in technic between a 4,000 wordwriting, like ‘The Wake’ and any of my big 15,000worders—‘Sargasso Sea,’ for example, or ‘A Treasureupon Earth.’ Get a worth while idea and make yournarrative interesting. That’s the only formula for anypiece of fiction. The short-story is to the novel whatthe chip mashie shot is to the full St. Andrew Swing,the same identical stroke used effectively for shorterdistance.”

Bring arguments to bear for or against Mr. DonnByrne’s statement. Be sure you have read widely beforedrawing conclusions, and have studied the techniqueof the stories and novels read.

Setting. The locale is New York City; the mostimportant scene, in the Scudder Theater. The time isthe present.

One of Irvin Cobb’s most remarkable powers is that ofpicturing so vividly a setting that the reader cannot butread and cannot but remember. What is the explanationof this astonishing success? First of all, Mr. Cobbis a keen observer. When he is out with his wife,according to her he sees ten times more than she does,yet she thinks she is seeing all there is to see. “Whenhe was writing ‘The County Trot’ Mrs. Cobb marveledat his life-like pictures of the Kentucky characters, allof whom he had really known. She asked him how itwas possible for him to remember their faces andmannerisms after the lapse of so many years. He said:‘Why, I can close my eyes and see the knotholes thatwere in the fence around that fairground.’” Thisquotation indicates a second requisite—accuratememory. The third requisite is hard work, a conditionthrough which Mr. Cobb believes all success must come.“When writing a story his object is to draw sharp picturesthat will never leave the reader. To do this, hethinks out the minutest details of that picture, not thathe will use those details, but that he himself may reallysee the picture as he writes.” The fact that he will not“use all those details” which observation and memoryhave supplied means that he has the ability to select.And, finally, he knows how to handle an ample vocabulary.

Plot.

Initial Impulse: The need for a “grandfather”motivates the search of Verba and Offutt. (Asearch, a type of “chase,” serves for a strong story-backbone.)

Steps to the Dramatic Climax: 1. The cab-rideto Bateman’s old haunts. 2. Finding the Scuddertheatre closed. 3. The visit to the wine-shop; theclerk’s account of Bateman. 4. The ragged boyvolunteers information. 5. He leads them to theside entrance of the theatre, into the gloom anddecay of which they make their way.

Dramatic Climax: The urchin whistles; thecurtain rolls up; old Bateman appears. The searchis now at an end. Bateman is found. The newcause of suspense lies in curiosity over ensuingevents. To satisfy this curiosity, the author extendsthe dramatic climax moment. The wholescene at the theatre is a prolonged climax, graduallyrevealing the old man’s unfitness, even as it soarsto a higher emotional climax. The story structuremay be roughly indicated by the diagram:

That is, if M represents the dramatic climaxmoment, then MS represents the dramatic climaxscene, which is the period of Bateman’s acting threeparts. With S, comes the realization that Batemanis not in his “perfect mind.” Notice theimpeccable workmanship by which this recognitionis forced home to Verba in the last speech of Bateman,the lines from “King Lear.” SZ is the briefdrop to the climax of action. See the story fordetails.

Climax of Action: The two men leave Batemantaking his curtain call.

Characterization. Why are the insignificant actorsand actresses mentioned in the introduction? What isthe particular literary value of Grainger? What outstandingcharacteristics has Bateman which none of theothers possess? What value has the title in connectionwith the characters as a group?

How has Mr. Cobb individualized Verba and Offutt?To which means of characterization is he most partial—author’sdescription, the character’s own acts andspeeches, or what others think and say of him?

Of the urchin who piloted the searchers, what is thefirst detail you recall? What other characters of Mr.Cobb do you remember from some physical peculiaritywhich he has emphasized?

Bateman is first presented to the reader through theopinion of Verba. Next, he is shown through the wine-shopclerk (who gives the effective clue as to Bateman’s“dippiness”). Then, the ragged urchin volunteers hiscontribution. What prepossessing characteristic doesthe reader receive from him? Finally, the actor speaksfor himself. One part would be insufficient; it wouldbe “too easy”; therefore by the cumulative method Mr.Cobb lets the old man show beyond a doubt that he isnot a type, but an actor. Dundreary, the Frenchmanand King Lear require varied ability.

Notice that what the character does is the climacticportrayal—not what others say about him or what theauthor might portray.

Details. Point out the clues to Bateman’s insanity.Study Mr. Cobb’s figures of speech. He frequentlyuses the human body as a basis for comparison (see,for example, page 85: “Its stucco facings, shiningdimly like a row of teeth ...” and page 97: “themouth of the place was muzzled with iron, like anElizabethan shrew’s”). Why is such a basis conduciveto vividness for everybody?

What is the acting time of the story?

What is the significance of the contrast between themodern play, as represented in the selections (pages 88and 89), and the masterpieces suggested in the latterpart of the story.

Irvin Cobb never writes a story until he has worked itover in his own mind for a couple of months. At thesame time, a hundred new ideas are developing; and as hehimself says he will not live long enough to write all hisstories. A year before he wrote “The Belled Buzzard”he was visiting with Mrs. Cobb at her old home inGeorgia. They were sitting on a front porch one morningwhen a huge buzzard flew past. Mr. Cobb recalleda Southern story about a belled buzzard, and remarkedthat he guessed he would weave a plot round it. Justone year later, he finished the developing and wrote thestory.

Setting. A town in Kentucky, with emphasis onJudge Priest’s office and the court-room. Time: inrecent years, not the immediate present.

Plot.

Characterization. Judge Priest, who appears inmany of Mr. Cobb’s stories, is one of numerous types theauthor knew when he was a Paducah reporter. Thestudent should study him as an example destined toliterary permanence. In the opinion of the presentcritic he is the most representative figure in all the currentliterature about the South. No Southerner can failto recognize the gentleman.

In this particular story how is the Judge describedby the author? How does his mail help to characterizehim? How does his behavior reveal him? For whatqualities do you like him at first? For what throughout?(See especially pages 95, 117, 126.) For what,finally?

Study the description of O’Day. Study page 94 forthe way Mr. Cobb makes O’Day appeal to the reader’ssympathy. What in his past history has contributoryvalue to the present picture and present plot? Whatin his environment? What do the townspeople think ofhim? What exceptions are there? What is his attitudeto others? Study his behavior in connection with thereception of news about his fortune, his subsequent acts,and his speech in the court-room. Why is his story ofhis early life of particular worth here? Note all thereasons for which you sympathize with him. Wherein,in brief, lies the human appeal of the story?

How are the minor characters hit off as individuals?How are they repressed so as not to usurp too much ofthe reader’s attention?

Details. Study the easy way in which the locality iskept before the reader. For example, the business aboutthe water-melons is essentially Southern.

From reading “The Great Auk” what would youjudge to have been one of Mr. Cobb’s chief interests?What from reading “Boys Will Be Boys”?

Point out examples of this author’s humor.

What value has the fact (page 87) that the Court ofAppeals had affirmed a decision of the Judge?

What effects arise from the statement that Peep worea four dollar suit?

What forecast lies in O’Day’s admission of kinship toDwyer? (Page 91.)

How has the author handled suspense in the first incident—thescene between the Judge and O’Day?Where does he satisfy curiosity? Is this, then, a minorclimax of interest?

What reaction on the reader has O’Day’s statement,“I can’t neither read nor write”?

Note on page 100 the first indication that Peep’s sanitymay be suspected (Speech of Mr. Quarles). This questionof his sanity joins Dwyer’s interest in securing themoney—a double force against Peep’s retaining hisfortune. Were you in doubt, on first reading, thatO’Day would remain in possession? Is the struggle welldeveloped as the essential foundation of the plot?

Is the dénouement satisfactory?

Central Idea. The power of music is supreme.

The Struggle. The music-force opposed to themen’s disinclination to charge. Is there any doubt thatin singing the men “home” Chautonville turned themtoward the enemy?

The Setting. What are the place and the time ofthe action? Point out details that keep war dominant.

Presentation. Who is the narrator?

Characters. Who, specifically, is Chautonville?Why is the description of his voice put before his physicalpersonality? Value of the contrast?

Details. What determination of the narrator is usedto create suspense? How is the determination overcome?

Try to recall other examples, in literature, of thepower of music. Study its whimsical use in Kipling’s“The Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat”; its useto recall the past in O. Henry’s “The Church with anOvershot Wheel.” See how it is employed in connectionwith the climax in Mary Synon’s “The Wallaby Track,”and in Kipling’s “The Brushwood Boy.”

What tonal values exist in the suggestion of sounds?

What relation exists between the rhythm and thetheme?

Is the story pre-eminently one of theme, character, orsetting?

According to Mr. Dobie, “Laughter” was a work ofthe imagination in every detail. It had nowhere a startingpoint from reality, though—as he says—he nowand then draws a character from life, such as that ofJosef in “Four Saturdays,” and he occasionally shapesan incident to the needs of the story, as he did in “TheFailure.” In “The Failure” and other stories, however,as in “Where the Road Forked,” (Harper’s, June,1917), he states that the incident was really a mere pivotor peg on which he hung a cloak of almost pure imagination.

In regard to his maintaining his angle of narration soperfectly, he says this phase of his craft is rather instinctive.“Even before I became conscious of the forceof a single point of view I somehow managed to achieveit without thinking about it at all.”

Plot. The story being a psychological study of a manwho was untrue to himself and paid the penalty, onemight expect to find a lack of external incident. Herethe author accomplishes the difficult thing in that he hasdeveloped an outer action, which thus objectively exploitsthe mental processes.

Setting. San Francisco. “Fancy a novel aboutChicago or Buffalo, let us say, or Nashville, Tennessee!There are just three big cities in the United States thatare ‘story cities’—New York, of course, New Orleans,and, best of the lot, San Francisco.”—Frank Norris isthus quoted by O. Henry at the beginning of “A MunicipalReport,” which (frequently proclaimed O. Henry’sbest story) has its setting in Nashville. How many ofthe stories in this collection have their settings in NewYork? in San Francisco? What other localities are represented?What do you conclude?

How has Mr. Dobie kept setting before the reader?Is it the same city as Mrs. Atherton uses in “TheSacrificial Altar”? Has it the same atmosphere?

Characterization. Are Suvaroff and Minetti “living”characters? Is Suvaroff, in the beginning, obsessed?Does the obsession culminate in monomania?

Minetti’s physical self is given to the reader fromSuvaroff’s angle, which angle is consistently usedthroughout. What is Suvaroff’s personal appearance?How do you account for your answer? Whose mentalprocesses are not exploited? Why?

Why is the Italian’s mother introduced as a backgroundcharacter?

Details. The smaller features of the story revealalso the hand of the craftsman: the use of night, thewine-shop, ugliness, the shadows, and the arrangementof the steps to what seems an inevitable ending.“Seems”; for Mr. Dobie has a theory “that there isno such thing as an inevitable ending. Any openingsituation may work out fifty ways.” Is it possible, aftercertain steps in the action, to produce an ending otherthan inevitable?

How is the cold inflexibility of Minetti made convincing?

General. “In my days of apprenticeship,” Mr.Dobie says, “I planned my story out in detail and didmuch re-writing. I think one must do this at the beginning.But if one finally evolves an unconscioustechnique which does away with a scenario I think itmakes for more spontaneous writing.... But it isdangerous to advise methods. My point in dwelling onthe virtues of ‘planless stories’ is to encourage thosewho find their salvation along these lines and who areuncertain as to whether such a method will lead anywhere....I started ‘Laughter’ in September, 1916,wrote about five pages, got stuck, put it away, dug itup three or four months later and in about three weekscarried it to a conclusion....”

“It is rather hard to give a definition of a short story.I should say briefly that a short story is the reaction ofa character or characters to a particular incident, circumstanceor crisis. Obviously, as its name implies, thereshould be economy of line. Perhaps the shortest successfulstory on record is as follows:

“This narrative has also the virtue of suggestion: thegreater the suggestion, the greater the story. In otherwords, a story is artistically successful in proportion tothe collaboration exacted from the reader.”

To get the proper connection, the reader should firstknow “Laughter.”

Plot.

Characterization. Compare Fernet with Suvaroff.Which of the two offers the more difficult problem inpsychology? Is it easy to believe that Fernet submittedto the sway of Minetti? Why, for example, did he notgo away?

Compare, also, the subordinate characters with thosein “Laughter.” What do most of them in this storythink or feel about Minetti? How does the author indicatetheir attitudes?

Details. Is the angle of narration similar to thatin “Laughter”? What details appeal to the reader’sgustatory sense? Study the symbolic use of the pepper-tree.Compare it with the cherry-tree in “Cruelties.”What details of setting emphasize the locality?

Starting Point. The beginning of this story lay ina bit about an insane man in Missouri, a story whichcame to Mr. Dreiser quite ten years before he developedit. The story quality testifies to the value of the longdormant period.

Setting. Study the narrative, observing with respectto place that although you may feel you have your mindon the exact locality, it presently flits to another probablesetting. This is because Mr. Dreiser attaches no importanceto the locality of his short stories, so long asthe incidents are American—and either urban or rural.The gain is, of course, in favor of the essential nationality;the loss is to the individual community. Does thefirst grasp of setting bring with it the atmosphere of thenarrative?

Classification. A story of a search, at last successful.It may be classed, also, as a story of the supernatural,wherein the vision is one of a crazed brain. Sobeautifully has the author handled the fancy and thevision, however, that the reaction on the reader causeswonder as to whether sanity and insanity are not relative,or even interchangeable.

Presentation. By the omniscient author, who exercisesomniscience particularly over the mind of the maincharacter.

Characters. Henry Reifsneider, Phoebe Ann (hiswife), and background characters of the communityfolk. These last exist to give verisimilitude, for contrast,and as plot pivots. Cite an instance for each use.

Plot.

Details. Study the presentation of Henry, whichgives so clear an impression of his unbalanced mind.Study the motivation for this insanity, the author’sanalysis of Henry’s psychology, Henry’s acts, and hisspeeches. What contributory effect has the calling forPhoebe?

Would you agree that atmosphere is the dominant elementin the story? Is a supernatural story likely to beone of atmosphere? Why?

Study the way in which the author has made vividthe picture of the Reifsneider home. Observe the skillwith which he has contrasted the dull, even sordid, realismof the actual setting with the beauty of Henry’svisions. Why should the final one be the most beautiful?What color words do you find? How does color,or lack of it, aid in the unified effect?

Read Mr. Dreiser’s “Free” (see volume bearing thistitle) and compare it with “The Lost Phoebe.” Whichdo you regard as the more significant story?

This is a sketch, wherein the mist, the fog, the forest,and the shadowy figures combine with the muffled soundsinto a dim monotone. It is a picture galvanized into life.Notice that the narrative tense is not preferred.

The meaning of the sketch emerges in the last sentence.It is the idea which lends significance to the picture.

Classification. A novelette. The length (around20,000 words), the many and rapid changes of scene, theshifting from character to character, the broken progress,—theseare the outstanding characteristics not ofthe short-story but of a more leisurely type of fiction, onehaving a wider canvas, a larger significance.

Study

I

What part of the quotation prefixed to the beginningdoes the story emphasize? Has the quotation an interpretativevalue, even a constructive value, for the story?

What is the locale? Does the author know his settingor has he fancied it? (Read his “Stamboul Nights.”)Study the locale with a map at hand (preferably oneshowing both Turkey and Persia). With this map beforeyou, note the scene of each phase of the action.

Do you follow easily the identities of the boats andpassengers in Division I or is it necessary to study thesituation?

What is the significance of the “translucent” look inMagin’s eyes?

In the deck-house description why is attention drawnto the lion?

Why is so much space given to Gaston as early aspage 4 of the story (page 150, Yearbook)? Do you,having read the story, think that Gaston is sufficientlyplayed up to serve as the climax figure of the wholeaction? Are you satisfied that Matthews drop out ofthe story so inconsequentially, after his earlier prominence?

What is the purpose of the echo—“A bit of a lark!”

What dramatic value has the mention of the year 1914(page 151)? How is emphasis given to the date?

What is the purpose of the first meeting? The showingof the treasure?

Why is the dame de compagnie mentioned, by way ofclimax, at the end of Division I?

II

Significance of “propelled their galley back”?

Where is the city of Shuster? Notice its position withrespect to the city of Dizful and the Persian Gulf.

Significance in the use of the German tongue (page156)?

What is the purpose of the scene between Magin andGanz? Its relation to the scene between Magin and theEnglishman?

The “coronation” (page 158) refers to what? Seealso page 162.

“Are you the Emperor of Elam?” Who, by the suggestion,is?

Who is the Father of Swords?

Who is Magin, as revealed in part by the last paragraphof Division II? Has Mr. Dwight a fine sense ofterminal emphasis?

III

The scene shifts to Gaston and Matthews. After thedangers and difficulties of passage, the two reach Dizful.

Note the brief summary of the disposition of Gaston(page 161: So he packed off Gaston, etc.). Is it toocasual?

Where has Bala-Bala been mentioned previously?

In the descriptions, pages 162, 163, 164, what is thedominant impression?

On page 166 the Father of Swords speaks of his friendMagin. Do you see the point of the allusions?

What is the meaning of the paper signed by Magin?Whose emissary is he?

What dramatic value has the last speech of Matthewsin Division III? Why is it given the place of emphasis?

IV

This division opens with the Father and Magin, atBala-Bala. On the second page, however, it shifts toMatthews, at Dizful.

Notice that Matthews’ interest in Dizful is crossed bythe “Agent” of Magin.

What is the purpose of the scene at the beginning ofwhich Magin presents himself at Matthews’ gate?

Why did Magin glance at the make of Matthews’cigarettes?

Study the scene for the effective contrasts between theEnglish and the German points of view.

Why does Magin try to bribe Matthews to go away?

Is the dramatic forecast at the end of this Division(IV) justified? Is it good, in itself?

V

Notice the comparatively trivial manner in whichMatthews is removed from the scene. The real causefor his going away is “a stupid war on the continent.”This expression indicates that the cosmic significance ofthe war had not dawned upon Matthews.

Why did Matthews not pause to hear Magin play?Why is so much attention given to this playing?

What is the significance of the “Majesty” in Ganz’sfirst speech, page 190?

Is the dramatic forecast (page 191) justified?—“Whatif ... some little midshipman were to fire a shotacross your bow?”

VI

What artistry is there in the repetition of the meetingbetween the motor-boat and the barge?

Why is so much space given to the knife (page 192)?

What note is re-sounded in Gaston’s remark (page193) “Monsieur, you travel like an emperor!”?

What is the meaning of Gaston’s speech (the last onpage 195) regarding the object of virtue?

Why does Magin give his recent barge the slip andorder Gaston to turn the motor-boat upstream?

What is the purpose of Gaston’s long speech on page199?

What idea enters Gaston’s mind at the close of DivisionVI? Is it justified as dramatic forecast?

VII

This final division is almost, in itself, a short-story,and with very little work on the author’s part might havecontributed to a brief narrative of decided power. Atthe end of so long a one, its value diminishes; for thedénouement is out of proportion, even out of line, withthe beginning of the narrative.

What does the incident of Magin’s finding the knifemean?

Study the struggle between the two men.

The superb climactic speech of Gaston compels admiration:“This at least I can do—for that greatlady, far away.”

The method of the novelist is again used, by way ofepilogue, when the author turns to the peasant on thebluff.

Classification. A thematic story: dreams and idealsare the real power. The ideal citizen is also emphasized.Classed more directly, the work is a paean of patriotism.

The Outer Setting. An audience of two thousandforeigners who have just been admitted to citizenship.

The Characters. Ivan, Anna, his wife, and thespeaker—the President of the United States.

How is the President characterized? How is Ivancontrasted with him? How related to him?

Has Anna real place in the action?

The Presentation. The real story is recounted afterthe climax has been implied. Ivan and Anna are here.One knows the Dream has been made real, and reads tosee how it all came about.

The Plot. The dream of freedom, liberty, motivatesIvan’s determination to come to America. He and Annasuccessfully struggle to save money for the voyage. Theactual journey to America constitutes something of astruggle, in itself, for the poor ignorant peasants. Butthey are upheld by the dream, and are victorious.

Details. Compare the episodes of the Russian policeand the American police.

What can you say about the style as related to thetheme?

Classification. Miss Ferber recognizes the difficultiesof boxing into the shorter form the material whichwould accommodate a larger space. “The tale of howJo Hertz came to be a loop-hound should not be compressedwithin the limits of a short story. It should betold as are the photoplays, with frequent throw-backsand many cut-ins. To condense twenty-three years ofa man’s life into some five or six thousand words requiresa verbal economy amounting to parsimony” (page209).

She has, however, achieved the short-story effect increating one dominant character,—in unifying the action,and in conserving one purpose.

Proportion. One of the greatest problems in developingthe action of a story which covers twenty-threeyears is that of proportion. To hover over the “purplepatches,” to skip the unimportant stretches, and to linkthem all up in a coherent organization—this requiresa sense of relative values. Why has the author developedthe little scene at the death of Jo’s mother?Why, that is, did she not merely leave a statement of thepromise? Why is the rather full space (pages 210 ff.)given to the sisters? How, even in characterizing them,does the author keep Jo before the reader as theprominent character? “Which brings us to one Sundayin May” (page 213) indicates an episode of importance.How much time has, supposedly, been passed over?Why is this particular Sunday worked out in scene form?Why are the stages of Jo’s and Emily’s love passed overby leaps and bounds? Why is one brief paragraph,only, given to the final disposition of Emily? Why isgreater length comparatively taken up in the disposalof Eva and Babe and Carrie? How many years arecovered in pages 219 and 220? Why is a fair amountof development placed on the gradual withdrawal of Evaand Babe?

Roughly, fifteen pages are given to the narrative so far(208-222), covering, say, twenty years. The remainderof the story (pages 222-233) covers about three years,or the period from the beginning of the war in 1914 tothe time when America’s first troops for France wereleaving. What is the logic of this proportion with referenceto the climax? to interest? to current events?

What does the scheme of the proportion, in short,emphasize?

Plot. The struggle is between the individual, JoHertz, and the conditions of his life. The lattertriumph, even though they leave the conquered one outwardlysuccessful.

Characterization. What is the first picture thereader receives of Jo? Why is it given first? As relatedto the order of plot events, is it the dénouementpicture?

How does Miss Ferber enlist the reader’s sympathyfor Jo at twenty-seven? How is his unselfishness displayed?Why is it more credible presented in the littlescene-suggestions (pages 211, 212) than if affirmed bythe author? How does his falling in love with Emilyreveal his character? What trait is emphasized in hisletting Emily go? What traits are responsible for his developmentas a loop-hound? Is he consistently developed?Does the story, through Jo, present a universalsituation?

What traits of the girls, as a group, are contrastedwith the dominant one of Jo? What ironic moral isvisible, between the lines, in the dénouement on the respectiveadvantages of selfishness and unselfishness?

How is each sister respectively individualized withoutrequiring too much of the reader’s interest?

What are Emily’s most dominant characteristics? Isher portrait on pages 229 and 230 the fit successor to theearlier one?

Is there any objection to the names—Eva, Estelle,Emily, Ethel—used in the same story? Why?

Details. To use Miss Ferber’s own adoption of thephotoplay term, “throw-backs,” how many times has shereverted to preceding action? How many times, to notethe counterpart of the throw-back, has she introduced anact or picture which has its chronological place later on?What is the dramatic value of having the sisters waitfor Jo, to see him enter with red eyes, after which theauthor pauses to narrate the cause of his emotion (page228)?

What double purpose has the author in describing Jo’sbedroom (page 227)?

Point out striking examples of economy. An excellentone, for naturalness, suggestive power, and mere word-savingis to be found in the telephone message (page225). Economy, in general, is also bound up with theoperation of the excellent proportion.

What quality of style is most marked in Miss Ferber’sstories? How is it achieved?

Plot.

Presentation. The story is told by Marston to anurse, some time after the event. From Marston’s pointof view, therefore, the tale gains pathos, since his regretis still as unceasing as unavailing. Further, the methodallows the reader a large share in constructing the story;and, best of all, by changing the chronological order ofthe events to the logical (they are also chronological asfar as Marston is concerned), the author gains suspense.Reticence characterizes the handling of the uglier details,which every reader will fill in for himself. The envelopingaction closes with the breaking of the wine-glass.(Compare query, page 34.)

Characterization. The tragic failure of friendship,in the struggle with conflicting ideals of honor, givesthe story its poignancy. It belongs in the group, therefore,with “The Knight’s Move,” by Katherine FullertonGerould, and “Greater Love—,” by Justus MilesForman. If the ideal of the mental man is typified byhis appearance and behavior, how well has Miss Freedleysucceeded in the creation of Esmé and Marston? Towhat extent has she indicated the reaction in each aftercrucial moments? How far has she subdued the outer“I” narrator? If anticipated sympathy on her partmotivates Marston’s telling her the story, has the authorjustified the hypothesis?

Comment. In “Imagination” the author has directedhis skill toward revelation of character—a freerevelation produced by subtle provocation. A man hasreacted under a certain stimulus in a given way; underrecollection of the incident, twenty years later, he reacts ina manner that intensifies and gives significance to hisearlier behavior.

Plot, then, is minified; situation is magnified. Athis club, Orrington, literary adviser, is dining with thenarrator and Reynolds, a popular writer. Orringtonrelates an incident of the day, about a story and itsauthor: what might have been imagination proved to befact—the author of the story was hungry. Orringtonhas found a job for him. The conflict, by virtue of whichthe story interest develops, lies in the opposing views ofOrrington and Reynolds. The latter holds “It’s a verygreat pity that young men without resources and settledemployment try to make their way by writing.” Orringtonthen cites the case of twenty years ago. On thevery day that he, a young editor of a magazine on itsuppers, was offered a “peach” of a job, he read amanuscript which seemed to indicate that the authormight be starving. He surrendered his chance of thenew position, recommending the author of the story.He has never received a line of thanks; he has oftenwondered how the man “got on.” Incidentally, as anapparent by-product of his quixotism, his own stock beganto rise from that time. Reynolds states, at the closeof Orrington’s story, that he was the author who hadbeen given the “boost,” and that he had been too busywriting the articles to send a note of thanks. He hadsupposed that he was the recipient of a usual “tip.” Hedeclares, further, that he had not been in extremes, andthat his story was solely the product of imagination.After he leaves the club, Orrington then reveals to thenarrator: “Of course I knew. Later, of course, muchlater. The man who had hired him to do those articlesbragged about it to me,” etc.

The author has skilfully used the incident of the dayto force out the larger incident wherein Reynolds figures.They are similar, and yet bear to one another a peculiarcontrasting relation. The young man of Orrington’s immediateexperience had written from facts; there is arather strong suggestion that he may amount to something.Reynolds had written from imagination; thewhole characterization of his success, great as it seems,indicates that it is an “output,” so much the worse forliterature.

Characterization. “You add to my pleasure bybringing our friend”—what trait in Reynolds’ characteris announced in these first reported words? Follow thetrait throughout the story as it is expressed in hisspeeches or acts; as it is suggested by the narrator, andby Orrington.

“In motion he resembles a hippopotamus” ... “hisrather dull eyes” ... “his fat hand” ... “shruggedhis heavy shoulders” ... “as if he had been some fatgod of the Orient” ... “Orrington goggled”....Study the portrait of Orrington pictured in these andsimilar strokes by the narrator, and notice the evidencesof “contrast between his Falstaffian body and his nicelydiscriminating mind.” What first ingratiates him withthe reader?

Why is the first person the best one from whose angleto present the story? What is his function in the dramaticsituation?

Classification. A “problem” story: the settingforth in the guise of fiction of this question, “Shall aman useful to society lay down his life for a socialmember far inferior to himself?” The problem isargued through the concrete instance, and by twocharacters.

Summary of the Instance. When the Argentinawent down, Ferguson saved himself, rather than oldBronson or the Neapolitan peasant women and children.The world was the gainer by Ferguson’s survival.Later, Ferguson loved and became engaged to a girl.One day as they were out walking, they saw a bandy-legged,sore-eyed youngster dash upon the railroad trackin front of a train. Ferguson could just have saved theyoungster at the cost of sacrificing himself, and althoughhe alone knew this, he allowed the girl to understandthat he had made a choice. She “rounded on him,” and“spurned him in the grand manner.” Ferguson, lovingthe girl, died. He probably committed suicide, not becausehe had changed his own views, but because ofassuming the girl’s view to be correct. “He couldn’thave admitted in words that she was right, when hefelt her so absolutely wrong; but he could make thatmagnificent silent act of faith.”

Presentation. Ferguson’s story is given by Havelockto Chantry. Skill is evinced in so breaking therehearsed narrative as to allow discussion at properstages. The answers to the problem, supposed above,are in opposition. Herein lies the basis of the discussion,as of the struggle which Ferguson underwent.

Does the author in the presentation subtly convey herown attitude on the question? What is it? How doesit emerge in her characterization of the men? In thefinal sentence of the narrative?

Setting. Why in the story of Ferguson does the authorsubdue setting? Why is the setting of the rehearsalemphasized?

Read in connection with “The Knight’s Move,” andfor purposes of comparison, “Greater Love—” byJustus Miles Forman (Harper’s, April, 1908).

Starting Point and Fundamental Processes.“The starting point for ‘In Maulmain, Fever-Ward’ isin the first four words of the tale: ‘Flood time on SalwinRiver.’ Flood time! Then the flowers are rioting,the traders are coming in and of course all things elsefollow.

“Of course, I’ve read Poe’s ‘Descent into the Maelstrom.’Who has not? I do not believe that had anythingto do with my use of the whirlpool in the story.The situation had been created; it was inevitable thatthe agent of the priesthood of Siva, most subtle of allin the whole world, would bring the two, or the girl,into the folds of the python. But where? Surely, theonly place for this to happen was in the profundities ofthe whirlpool, traditional abode of the mother of allpythons of that whole region. Hence the necessity forthe flood itself to climax the action, to form the whirlpoolat its most tremendous phase, to take them down.I wasn’t thinking of Poe when I sent them down intothe abyss. I went with them—and brought them out.

Did I know a person who had made a whirlpooldescent? Yes; myself. A fearless swimmer in youth,I often dived under the swirls of falls and at the tailsof rapids, looking up to admire the way the whirls refractlight and to listen to the curious overtones the reverberationsof the water take on, and the singing of the gravelas it churns ceaselessly.

... The superstitions—I call them the religiousphases of the tale—are taken from the real life of thosepeople. I could give you a map of the region, drawn toscale. And there’s a temple in a certain Karen town,and in that temple a god with a necklace of human heads,or was, once in a way. (There never would be, however,a snake, I think, in a chest in a temple of Siva.Neither do they worship the snake, per se. They lookupon it as one of the agencies by which the Destroyerworks and will not even kill a snake that gets into ahouse or bed.) When I say Karen town, there aremany, for the Karens are a race and have many towns.Of course, I didn’t specify which one I meant in thestory. And I guess there isn’t such a whale-swallowingwhirlpool in that gorge, but I needed one right thereand what a fellow needs in fiction, he takes.”—GeorgeGilbert.

Plot. An excellent construction, the framework revealsonly one or two crudities to the eye of the critic.The author has motivated every act, which is followedby a logical effect; and in the presentation of the story, hehas chosen the order best calculated to win the reader’sinterest, curiosity, feeling of suspense, and finally ofsatisfaction.

The Narrator. The first person is preferable; forsince Paul learns but tardily certain steps of the complication,the reader (who knows only what Paul knows)must remain in suspense. Try telling the story froman objective point of view, placing every step in itschronological order. What does the story lose?

Characterization. Compare the characteristics ofthese Oriental figures with those in “A Simple Act ofPiety.” What have they in common? Why does Mr.Gilbert choose a half-breed as his narrator and hero?Point out every example of Paul’s fearlessness. Whydoes he not appear conceited or egotistical, as the firstperson narrator is in danger of seeming? What isPra Oom Bwhat’s distinguishing trait? Point out allexamples of his duplicity; of his religious or superstitiousnature.

Show that love, in one guise or another, largely motivatesevery stage of the action, with certain exceptions,which result from thwarted love. To what extent doesreligion motivate the acts?

Is the python a “character”? What is Nagy N’Yang’schief rôle? Is Ali Beg’s part too obvious?

Local Color. Why and how does the author emphasizethe setting in the first paragraph? Where is thesnake motif introduced? Trace its progress, not onlyfor its plot value, but for its contribution to the reader’srealization of setting. Where are the rains first mentioned?What inanimate objects contribute to the localcolor? What customs? What beliefs? Is the storyprimarily one of setting, plot, or character; or have theelements been harmonized into an evenly balanced narrative?

Atmosphere. Is the mood or “feel” of the story atrifle too near melodrama? What phases of the action,if any, would you subdue?

Details. “Take away the medicine” (third paragraph).Does this indication that a sick person is thenarrator surprise you? If so, is the technique sound?

Why are the details of Paul’s courtship left to thereader?

Is the fight between Paul and Pra Oom Bwhat presentedeconomically? convincingly?

Good dramatic moments are found in such passages asthose wherein the noise in the chest is indicated immediatelyafter Paul says he would seek the way of love;in the stirring immediately after Paul says, “I can killthe snake”; in Paul’s crushing the cobra and so drawingan immediate curse, etc. Point out several other examples.

Make a list of the struggles in order as they occurred.

What are the three main settings or scenes?

Does the happy dénouement convince you?

Author’s Concept of the Term Short-story

“No mere relation of harmonized incidents, no recurrentcrises, can make a short story. There must be aninner voice. To explain my meaning: I do not countChekhov’s ‘The Darling’ a short story. It is a fine charactersketch. It has a beginning, a very fine working out,but it gets nowhere. Three-fourths of the Russian shortstories, so-called, are not stories at all. They aresketches, narrations of incidents. They are like a song,finely wrought, but with no dominant chord to resolvethem into a real end.”—George Gilbert.

Title. The intimate relation between the one-actplay and the short-story may be seen in the fact that thenarrative here told has its dramatic counterpart in thestage production entitled “Trifles.” The latter waspresented in the season of 1916-1917 in New York City.What is the excellence of each title?

Germinal Idea. “A long time ago, when I was areporter in Iowa, I went to the house of a woman whowas being held for murder, and while the circumstanceswere not at all those of ‘Trifles,’ it was out of thatexperience the play grew.”—Susan Glaspell.

Facts of the Plot. Minnie Foster marries JohnWright. Basis for trouble lies in the fact that Minnieis a lively girl, with a love for color and action, whileJohn is a hard man, and “like a raw wind that gets to thebone.” They have no children, and as the years go by,Minnie is more and more lonely. The neighbor womenleave her to herself; her isolation is pronounced. Atlength, after many years, she comforts herself with acaged bird. In a fit of rage, John wrings the bird’s neck.Minnie, half-crazed, lays aside the body of the bird inher sewing basket. Shortly after, while her husband isasleep, she strangles him to death with a rope. The nextmorning, she explains to a passing neighbor, who dropsin on a business visit, that John has been strangled by“somebody”; that she is a sound sleeper, and sleeps onthe “inside” of the bed. The neighbor notifies thesheriff. Minnie is taken to prison. The next day, thesheriff, Peters, with his wife and the district attorneygo out to the Wright place to make an examination.Hale, a neighbor, and Mrs. Hale are with them. Themen seek a cause, a motive, for the killing of Wright,but find nothing. While they are making large andfutile observations, however, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Petersdiscover the dead bird and other evidence. Withawakened understandings, the women conceal the evidence—MarthaHale takes the bird away in her pocket.

Management of the Facts—The DevelopedPlot. The most noteworthy and striking managementlies in corralling the whole story into one “cold Marchmorning,” and only part of that. Unity of setting, theWright home, is a less difficult achievement. Noticethat the story introduction calls up a setting outside theWright home, whereas the play (“Trifles”) used onlythe kitchen at the Wrights’. Which is better forintensification?

The chronological order of the plot is rearranged forartistic purposes and for interest. The author beginsat the point of the visit to the empty house by the sheriff’sparty.

To understand thoroughly, the difference between theorder of plot presentation and the order of chronologicalgrowth, make out a list of the details as you gather themfrom the story progress. Then compare them with the“Facts of the Plot,” set forth above.

Story Presentation. The narrative is given to thereader according to the detective story method. MarthaHale’s point of view is used at the start, after whichthe dramatic method is employed, the spot-light shiftingfrom one woman to another, occasionally lighting on themen, but lingering most often on Martha Hale. Whyis she the best one through whom the reader may understandthe entire situation?

Where do you first feel yourself responding to a senseof mystery? How does the author convey this? Whatis the effect in the first paragraph of these words?—“Itwas no ordinary thing that called her away,” etc.

Observe the little apology (bottom of page 258) bywhich the author has kept the search delayed until thesecond day, after Minnie has been taken away. Whyis the latter accomplishment a plot necessity?

What contributory worth has the emphasis (page 259)on Mrs. Hale’s Harry?... How is it used to effectcontrast?

Pages 260 and 261 in effect convey a rehearsal; butthey have dramatic worth also. Why? (Note thatMinnie’s speeches are quoted, not summarized.) Seefollowing pages for similar dramatic accomplishment.

Study the natural way in which Hale and Peters arepushed off the stage (page 263), leaving the womentogether with the attorney. Purpose of his remaining amoment?

Observe the care with which every important detail ofthe plot is motivated.

Study the scene wherein the women, with an eye forlittle things, arrive at the truth. Is their solution stated,or is it suggested?

What do you deduce from the stove with the brokenlining? From the crazy stitches in the sewing? Fromthe bird-cage of the broken hinge?

What double meaning lies in the concluding sentence,“We call it—knot it, Mr. Henderson”?

Setting. Has the actual setting an influence on thecharacters with respect to the story action? How is thesetting given in the finished narrative? How is it connectedwith the theme?

Characters. Make a list of the characters and statethe reason for the existence of each with regard to theaction, to the verisimilitude, and to the need for contrast.It is a difficult thing to focus clearly before thereader a character who never “comes on the stage.”Has Miss Glaspell succeeded in evoking for you the personand the individuality of Minnie Wright?

Does one desire in a story of this nature types or individuals?Which character should be most individual,here, as regards the author’s purpose?

Starting Point. “Most of my dialect stories havesome basis of fact in their incidents,” says Mr. Gordon,“and in them I have sought to depict phases of the lifeand characteristics of the negroes whom I grew upamong as a boy, and have known more or less intimatelysince.

“‘The Silent Infare’ was a real occurrence, as wasthe pillow episode in ‘Mr. Bolster’; and the story of‘Sinjinn Surviving,’ in Harper’s Magazine, is in its mainfeatures true. Nearly all, if not all, of the stories in the‘Ommirandy’ book had some foundation of fact, andthe characters are amplified portraitures of ‘darkeys Ihave known.’”

Classification. Not a short-story, in the limitedsense of the term, but an interesting reflection of lifein the story that is short. The action is not all directedtoward one end; the main episode is almost incidentalin the casualness of its occurrence—as incidents occurin life;—character is the connecting link between theearlier and the later stages of the narrative phases. Incidentalaction contributes, rather to character than toaction; e.g., the business of the guinea nest is a highlight on Ommirandy, on the boy, Tibe, and on themistress of the house, whereas it has only slight suggestivevalue for the plot. Emphasis on the nest at theclose emphasizes the realistic qualities of the story.

The method of the author shows that he is “a bornstory-teller.” He has an appreciation of the life abouthim, he has the gift of literary expression, and he writesperfect dialect. Interested in larger literary worth, hecan afford to disregard the technicalities of the short-story—whichmay be, or may not be, a very wellexecuted piece of work and still fall short of permanentexcellence.

Characterization. Who is the main figure? Whatpictures of herself do her own speeches contribute?How does her attitude toward Mis’ Nancy emphasizethe portrait? Mis’ Nancy’s relations with her emphasizewhat qualities? Does the author’s own comment helpthe reader to an appreciation of Ommirandy? Where?

Give several examples of contrast and comparisonnoticed in your studying the portrayal of the variousfigures.

Plot. Studying the leisurely progress of the story,should you pronounce it a growth or a construction?Is there a struggle? Is the main incident presented inits chronological order? How is it enhanced by beinggiven through the words of Ommirandy, rather thanfrom her point of view, as she looked through “dewinder over de kitchen do’,” but in the words of theauthor?

Setting. What is the locale? Measuring the “localcolor story” by the dictum that it could have its actionnowhere except in the time and place indicated, wouldyou agree that this is a story of local color? What otherVirginian has used similar scenes? What stories akinto this, in regard to the value of setting, do you find inMr. O’Brien’s collections?

Mr. Gordon once said in a letter to Rudyard Kipling,so he states, that he regarded as the four best stories inthe English language, “Wandering Willie’s Tale” (In“Redgauntlet”), Bret Harte’s “The Luck of RoaringCamp,” George W. Cable’s “Posson Jone,” and Kipling’s“The Man Who Was.” In which of the four isthe element of setting foremost?

General Method. “If I should venture to say anythingabout the writing of a short story it would be this:the first consideration is that the writer must have a shortstory to tell; and the second consideration that, afterhaving learned by long and constant practice to writeclear and vigorous English, he must tell the storynaturally, after his own fashion. No one else’s fashionwill do.”

This explicit statement of Mr. Gordon should be consideredby every would-be writer of stories. Noticethat he does not say nothing can be learned from readingother stories, or from studying their mechanism.Would his own stories be what they are if a long lineof American writers had not preceded him? WouldShakespeare have written his dramas if his immediatepredecessors and contemporaries had not lived? In anotherage, when another literary genre was foremost,Shakespeare would have foresworn drama for the prevailingstyle.

Starting Point. Frederick Stuart Greene wrote thisstory out of his experiences and observations as an engineerin certain Southern districts. The pine woods,the wretched cabin, the cane-brake, the rattlesnake, thebrogan shoes—these are concrete instances of hisfamiliarity with the setting. The immediate germinalidea lies in an incident he recalled of seeing a severedrattlesnake head fastened to the leg of a man in camp.

Plot. The compactly wrought plot is one of the bestin recent fiction. It is formed, in the main, from theinterweaving of two lines of interest. One has to dowith the struggle between the yellow cat and the woman,Sally; the other spins out the sordid love affair betweenSally and the young engineer. The climax of actionshows a double defeat for the woman. The husband isthe connecting link, as he is the third figure in the trianglestory, and is the partisan of the cat in the otherline of interest.

Characterization. In a story of plot prominence,the characters need less individualization. Are these, inyour opinion, types or individuals? Which is the bestdrawn? Which the least convincing? How does Sally,early in the action, forfeit your sympathy?

Details. How is Jim’s love for liquor (a hinge onwhich the plot is made to turn) prepared for early inthe action?

How does the manner of the cat’s disposition of thefish-head make logical its subsequent interest in thesnake-head?

What intensifying value has the “sad, gray moss”?

What effect has Sally’s second encounter with the cat?

Study the naturalness, the dramatic development, andthe enriching quality of the scene wherein the rattlesnakeis discussed. How does it make plausible, also,the fact that the cat found the snake-head?

What contribution is made to the final effect in Jim’stoast to the cat?

What do you think of the final sentence by way of conclusion?

What is the length of the action?

This story, the first Mr. Greene wrote, after takingup the study of story technique, is particularly excellentfor showing early recognition of plot demands. If itsstructure is, on investigation, a trifle obvious, it will beall the better for the student’s purpose. On comparingit with later stories by the same author, he will find thatgrowth which means ability to conceal mechanism—orto forget it altogether.

The student needing exercise in plot constructionshould read Captain Greene’s “Molly McGuire, Fourteen”(Century, September, 1917; also reprinted in “ABook of Short Stories,” edited by Blanche ColtonWilliams), and should study his diagram of the lines ofinterest and their complications (See “A Handbook onStory Writing,” by Blanche Colton Williams, page 94).

Conditions which Preceded Composition. First,Mr. Greene’s profession—that of engineer; second, anacquaintanceship with two Irishmen having characteristicswhich suggested Larry and Dan; third, severalhours in the hold of a freighter, immediately before writingthe narrative, on a voyage down the Eastern Coast.

Plot.

Characterization. Make note of all the devices andmethods by which the author draws sympathy to Larry.Show that the emotional reaction you experience arisesdirectly from the concept of his character and his acts.

What are the dominant traits of Dan? What is thepurpose of the scene wherein Dan knocks out thestoker?

Originally, Mr. Greene called his character, Dan, bythe name of Mike. Why did he accept the advisedchange?

Is the personality of Mary properly subdued? properlyelevated? In connection with your answer, noticethe value of having her introduced early in the action.

Who are the background characters? Do they usurptoo much of your interest?

Details. What is the length of the action?

Is the business on pages 297 and 298 too technicalfor a layman’s comprehension? If so, can one, nevertheless,apprehend sufficiently to derive pleasure from therecountal? To what effect do the various mechanicalappliances and parts contribute?

Study all the details by which Mr. Greene has conveyedthe feeling of the big storm. Where is the firstpreparation for the fact that the incidents of this storywill be connected with the time of the Galveston Flood?

How did Larry receive the appellation of The BunkerMouse? Why is the episode told out of its chronologicalplace? Are any other important incidents presented outof their time order?

From whose angle is the story told?

Intensifying worth of the sentence?—“So’s a trout;but it’s got a damn poor show against a shark” (page289).

Reason for this statement of the author?—“I wantedto say that Dan purred like a tiger, but it was a junglefigure, and of course I had to give it up.”

Point out instances of the author’s keeping the readeraware of locality.

Show how the mood or feeling is harmonized with theplot, which is itself one of complication wherein thestages of the two main struggles are kept beautifullyparallel.

Classification. This seven or eight hundred wordshort-story illustrates the extreme type. The setting isthe end of a pier; the time, only a few minutes; theaction represents a crisis in the life of one character,the village drunkard; the struggle—which culminatesin the suicide of the drunkard—is between him andsociety. The unities are, therefore, well conserved; thesingleness of effect is pronounced. It is a tour de forcein its manipulation of story elements.

Is the motivation for John’s suicide sufficient?

What social relation does the policeman bear to thedrunkard? What contrast does the author employ?

Thematic Value. Society is not arraigned: a caseis posed. Has it propaganda value?

Comment. A capital example of a short-story builton two lines of interest neatly joined. One line arisesfrom the desire of Old Tom to reach Liverpool; it illustratesa passive struggle between wishing and waitingon the one hand, and fate or chance on the other.The second line arises from the situation of Spike’sbeing in prison, a situation motivated or brought aboutby the physical struggle between Spike and the bo’sun,and is marked by Spike’s attempt to escape. The twolines are connected by the fact that Tom has a queeranimosity for Spike, and that he is made the guardianof Spike. Old Tom’s relation to his wife offers aparallel to the relation between Spike and the missiongirl. Old Tom is unsuccessful, ironically so; Spikeescapes.

Is the motivation for Tom’s surrendering the keys ofSpike’s prison strong enough? What is it?

Plot.

Presentation. Who tells the story? Has he anypart in the action? How does the narrator bridge overthe long passage so as to secure emphasis on the storyaction?

Characterization. How many times does the narratorrefer to Old Tom’s scratching his ribs? Is therepetition of an act, emphasis on a habit, a sound methodof character delineation? Is it too “easy”?

What idea do you form of Tom from his speeches?

How does his animosity to Spike serve to portrayhim?

By what means does the narrator elicit from the readersympathy for Spike? How does he hold it?

Study the picture and the character of the missiongirl.

Atmosphere. Try to define the mood or feeling ofthe narrative. What influence has Fate in creating theatmosphere? Study the contribution toward the atmospherein the dramatic forecast on page 165. How isthis forecast properly subdued? Has the superstitionof sailors a dramatic value? How is the setting madecontributory to the atmosphere?

Setting. Mushrat Portage. The setting is of unusualimportance, since nowhere else, probably, wouldthe action be possible.

Characters. The woman employed at ScarecrowCharlie’s; Rainbow Pete; Pal Yachy; minor persons.Who is the narrator? Has he an acting part in thestory?

Plot.

Details. Does the explanation of Rainbow Pete’sname tie itself up with a clue to the final action? (Seepage 310.)

Study the story for the musical effects: Pete’s flute,Pal Yachy’s singing.

Is there a resemblance in any way to the opera, “Pagliacci”?Is the result of the voice similar to the effectof Chautonville’s singing? Are there other instancesof the power of music superior to the one of the sirens?

What suggestion is bound up with the idea, “Goldlies at the foot of the rainbow”? Has the authorhandled it skillfully?

Compare this story with film productions, which youhave doubtless seen, of the North Country. Whereinlies the popular success of such photoplays as those inwhich William S. Hart appears?

With Rainbow Pete’s point of vantage outside hiscabin, compare that which the narrator enjoys in “Ching,Ching, Chinaman,” when he looks under the window-shadeinto the room (Page 455, Yearbook, 1917). HasOmmirandy a similar good post? (See “The SilentInfare.”) Find other instances. What contributiondoes such a physical point of view make toward thevividness of the picture?

Comment. A student of the present critic made thiscomment on “Life.” Do you agree with it?—“The opposingforces are the man’s desire to know the meaningof life, and the darkness of his vision. It is hard to saywhich force wins. For though he does not discover themeaning of life, he discovers a simile sufficiently revoltingto suit his mood.... It is really a single incident,made worthy of expansion by its significance and symbolism.”...

Get the final implication which completes the story.In short, what is the final sentence when rounded out?

Read “The Workman,” by Lord Dunsany (in“Fifty-one Tales”) and compare it with this narrativefor atmosphere and philosophy.

Germinal Idea. “What started ‘The Father’sHand’ was the quotation from the fifth, no, the sixth,book of the Æneid,

I happened to have been reading it the day before.Then I could not go to sleep the next night, and it occurredto me that the lines were perhaps the most touchingI knew, and that they were an example of the modernityor rather the timelessness of all art. Then I triedto imagine a situation today that they would fit, and thewhole story was worked out before morning. My ownreaction about it is that I have stolen Vergil’s thunder.”—GeorgeHumphrey.

Plot.

Presentation. Mr. Humphrey has seen fit to presentthis tale as a rehearsed one. In so doing, he has securedmellowness—consistent with utmost economy, sympathyfor the stone-cutter, and an excellent apology for theLatin phrases. He evidently had in mind, whether atthe beginning or later, the resemblance between a fallenaviator and the luckless Icarus. To emphasize the relation,he needed to requisition classical atmosphere as wellas classical fact. This he has accomplished through thestone-cutter’s interest in “Phœnix-Latin,” and the OxfordDean, who lectures on Latin poetry.

Characterization. The reserve of the refugee stone-cutteris used to advantage in conserving economy and insuggesting facts, rather than stating them, to the reader.The Frenchman tells almost nothing of his past life, ofwhich much is nevertheless revealed through the illuminatinghigh lights of the action.

Setting. Why is an indefinite English village the bestlocale?

General. Fannie Hurst is represented in three collectionsof “The Best Short Stories.” The reason liesin the facts that she is one of the skilled technicians ofthe time, one of the hardest workers—sparing no painsto achieve that sound structure and perfection of detailwhich only the seasoned artist knows how to achieve;that by narrative, which stands without emphasis of didacticor propaganda purpose, she yet manages to conveyan idea much larger than the story itself, and that shehas quite literally created a unique world of men andwomen who nevertheless in their behavior reflect a partof the myriad-minded and many-mooded contemporarylife. Any one of the present stories will prove the truthof this assertion.

Starting Point of “T. B.” “The flint that struckspark for ‘T. B.’,” says Miss Hurst, “was the sight ofa humpy looking girl standing before the window displayof a Tuberculosis exhibit.”

Plot.

Characters. By what speeches and acts does theauthor flash the personality of Sara? By which onesin particular does she draw the reader’s sympathy toher? How is Hattie Krakow used to emphasize theappeal of Sara? What other purpose does Hattie serve?How is her interest in Sara motivated? How far isCharley one of a type? To what extent individualized?Is the type or the individual more necessary to the author’spurpose here? How does Charley’s treatment ofSara enhance the reader’s interest? How is Blaney’ssolicitude for the girl motivated? Do the three charactersconstitute the three figures of a “triangle” story?If so, is the triangle one of distinctly new features?

Setting. How many times does the scene change?How is contrast employed in the construction of settings?Does the change in scene conform to the plotaction? Has this relationship a necessary unifyingvalue? What is the time of the story?

Details. How much space does the author consumebefore gliding into the introduction of character and setting?What is its worth? A student once asked MissHurst why she chose such openings, suggesting thatquite frequently the reader found it difficult to see theconnection. Miss Hurst smilingly replied that it washer idiosyncrasy. “That’s where I take my fling.” Isthere more back of her words than her modesty allowedher to assert? What is the real contribution made bypage 84?

What are the principal features of the economy bywhich she presents to the reader the opening situation?

Note the many details by which throughout thestory the author keeps vividly before the reader theactual setting. Although her method is that of the romanticist,her result is one of reality. In listing thesedetails, notice that another purpose is also effected—anothereconomical device. “On a morning when thewhite-goods counter was placing long-sleeve, high-necknightgowns in its bargain bins,” page 85, conveys theseason, better than statement could do (because morepicturesquely) at the same time it builds up the scene.

How has the author enriched the main narrative bycontrast with lightly suggested situations? (See theVan Ness passages.)

Study the narrative for sounds and odors as well asfor pictures. Contribution to vividness of reality?What contrasts do you find in these sense appeals?

How does Miss Hurst make most of her transitionsin time and place? Is the double space well used?What is the acting time of the story?

From whose angle of narration is it told? Is therea shift from the objective to the omniscient point ofview? If so, is it justified by a gain?

Starting Point. According to Miss Hurst, “IceWater, Pl—!” had its germinal beginnings in the self-imposedquery: Given, a mother whose joys arelargely the vicarious ones that come through her daughter,to what extent can her own personal life becomemore and more submerged?

Setting. The locale of this story is the same as thatof “T. B.” Point out evidence, explicit or implicit, ofits being New York City. In general, notice that thelarger setting of Miss Hurst’s stories is frequently St.Louis or New York. Account for this fact. How longis the action of “Ice Water, Pl—!”?

Plot. The initial impulse, the force that sets thestory-action going, is Mr. Vetsburg’s invitation to Mrs.Kaufman and Ruby to “come down to Atlantic Cityover Easter.” (Fill in the important steps toward thedramatic climax.) The dramatic climax is a doubleheader: First, Ruby accedes, after a struggle, to herMother’s wishes that she accept Mr. Vetsburg. Second,Mrs. Kaufman gives in to Ruby’s marrying Leo.By this clever duplication, not only is the turning pointmade more emphatic, but the sympathy of the readeris evoked for both mother and daughter. It is anotherexcellent instance of economy joined to strength.

The climax of action follows without much delay:It is bound up with the dénouement, since in it Mrs.Kaufman learns that it is herself—not her daughter—whomVetsburg loves.

Characterization. What is Mrs. Kaufman’s outstandingtrait? Ruby’s? Vetsburg’s? Is Mrs. Kaufman’sdominant characteristic logically connected withher capability as a boarding-house keeper? Are thetwo so portrayed as to make satisfactory the dénouement,by which Mrs. Kaufman will be married to Mr.Vetsburg? What preparation leads to the happy outcome?

How is Ruby akin to her sisters, Sara Juke and SeleneCoblenz? How is she differentiated? Is the individualizationstronger than the type resemblance?

Close your eyes after finishing the story and call upimages of the two main women characters and of Vetsburg.Go over the narrative and see how the author hasgiven you these pictures, and also observe how accuratelyyou have registered the impressions. If there are discrepanciesbetween your memory and the presentation,whose fault is it?

What purposes are fulfilled by the background figures?Recall instances of humor to which they contribute.Have you ever met Irving Katz?

Why is Leo so slightly touched? Do you notice othermeasures taken to keep in the foreground the middle-agedpair? What are they?

Details. What popular attitude does the philosophyof page 181 subtly criticize? What is the link whichconnects the generalizing preliminary with the particularinstance? (Notice that the slide is effected on thetowels.)

Where is the first scene laid?

Who, in the first scene, reveals most of the situation tothe reader?

Page 187 contains an important clue to the subsequentaction. What is it?

What is the purpose of the next fully developed scene(in Mrs. Kaufman’s apartment)?

What is the purpose of the continuation of the scene(after Vetsy’s exit, page 194)? Does the division intotwo parts (before and after the women retired) contributeto more than an impression of reality?

Study the transition between the night scene andeleven o’clock the next morning. What value has theparagraph (page 205) beginning “At eleven”?

How does the author effect the return of Vetsburgand Mrs. Kaufman to the apartment? How is Rubydisposed of? (See page 107, “Down by Gimp’s I senther,” etc.).

Miss Hurst is an expert scene-developer. Her settingis clear; her characters move as they move in reallife; the action is in the right tempo for the conditionsand the time at hand; no scene exists without a definitepurpose. It is the fine scene-work which gives to herstories a dramatic quality equalled only by that of thestage.

Compare the scene-work of this story with that of “T.B.” and of “Get Ready the Wreaths.”

Has the Easter season a contributory significance?

Germinal Idea. “‘Get Ready the Wreaths’ was, ofcourse, inspired by the overwhelming drama of the RussianRevolution and my own feeling that even Siberiahad at last been justified.”—Fannie Hurst.

Analysis. The predominating interest and henceline of action, since it composes a line of action, isMrs. Horowitz’s desire, struggle, to return to Russia.This struggle has been going on for years; it has its rootsand beginnings in the past. Alone it would not make ashort-story; for the conflict is too level, too empty ofactual event.

The beginning of the complication is the engagementof Selene Coblenz, her love affair constituting the secondline of interest. This is the truly complicating line,although there is also a third line of interest, properlysubdued. It enters as a factor, first, in the first line.Mark Haas shows his interest in Mrs. Coblenz by offeringto arrange for her the details of the Siberian journey.For a long time this interest exists, seemingly, only as ameans for developing the main struggle: there is an entireamalgamation of the two interests. (See e.g., page342, “Mark Haas is going to fix it for me,” etc.).

Selene Coblenz’s request brings on the immediatestruggle. It is only a step, however, in Mrs. Horowitz’slong fight to get back. It turns out to be not a decidingstep, but one in complication. See that by consideringthe old lady’s struggle and the daughter’s mental anguish,Shila’s search for ways and means starts from it, ratherthan is decided by it. There is no specific struggle afterit, only a complication waiting to be solved. Mrs. Coblenzcould not have started for Russia until after thereception, anyway. If Mrs. Horowitz had lived, shecould have gone. Nothing is determined by this minorclimax: much mental trouble starts from it for Shila.It simply advances events to a state, where at a latermoment they will need a struggle and a decision.

But for another reason this decision of Mrs. Coblenz’sis a big crisis, though not the big plot crisis; especiallyis this true if you regard the story as a character story.Shila’s devotion to her mother: her devotion to herdaughter—which will win? Will her sense of dutytriumph over her indulgence? The girl’s reasoning, theimpracticability of her mother’s desire assist to “playup” the struggle. Selene is dominant with Shila. Sheis a great-hearted woman, but she has a weakness. Ifshe had not had, Selene might have been a less self-centredgirl.

With the news of the reception evening, the threelines of interest come together; the high point of thecomplication is reached. There is a momentary crisisfor Mrs. Coblenz. Her mother can go back to Russianow; she will insist. Selene’s line enters as an accomplishedfact to prevent: It helps with the other to composea crisis here. The third line is present as a factorto assist: But Mrs. Coblenz is blind to it: it is a suspendedresource.

If, as you might have expected, the writer had derivedher solution from that line, she would have donethe obvious thing. Also she would have made Shila’sescape from her weakness, easy. And, last of all, shewould have finished a struggle which had its derivationin blood and sacrifice with a conclusion too quiet andunheroic.

The author did what technically might have been avery bad thing. To get your solution out of a physicalor natural stroke, by sudden illness or an accident ofnature, is equivalent to using a god from the machine,—acharge often laid at the feet of Euripides. Buthere the death is so logical a consequence—so well preparedfor—that you cannot quarrel with it. And thereis a heroic touch in having Mrs. Horowitz die beneathher tremendous recollection and appreciation of all thetriumph had cost. The outcome is satisfying: she diedin a high moment. Shila is not too much to blame, andconsolation for her is at hand. And Selene, being rightfrom her angle of youth and life, is both happy and sufficientlyrebuked.

The story, then, has both an opposing and an assistingline. The climax at which all meet and the forces balanceis the Revolution news. It is not the deciding momentin the Selene story: that is over.

The emotional effect of this story represents in a highdegree one of the author’s best achievements. Herstories are notable for their human appeal. One manwent so far as to state to the present critic that he wouldwillingly have bartered his soul to enable that old ladyto go back to Russia. Study all the ways by which shereaches your sympathy.

General Methods. “Almost invariably my plotsemerge from characters, rather than characters fromplots. I doubt if this latter is ever as sound in methodexcept in the detective or picaresque story.

“I have never based a short story upon a concrete incident,written a character directly from ‘life,’ or, exceptrarely, incorporated a speech actually heard into dialogue.

“A situation may suggest the beginnings of a story, ora chance word be the seed of an idea, but most often Ifind myself puttering around the hypothetical psychologyof folks....

“... Unity of Effect, no matter how the unities mustbe smashed to attain it, I consider the corner stone ofshort-story writing. Without it, architectural beautyand continuity of development are impossible....”

—Fannie Hurst.

Starting Point and First Processes. “Mr. Eberdeen’sHouse” was to have been originally only the effectof an old New England House upon a New Englanderwho had become rather enfranchised from his austere beginnings,and returned to find them only more crabbed,more grim, than ever, and himself strangely, inexplicablyconnected with them. The explanation of how he wasconnected with this distasteful setting, and of why itwas distasteful to him evolved the author’s theme. Thehero’s great-grandmother had fled from the same grimnessand straight-lacedness and puritanism by runningaway with a Frenchman, just before the birth of herchild, of whom Mr. Eberdeen was, contrary to his bleak,orthodox suspicions, the father. The author’s plan wasto have Mr. Eberdeen, representing all that was distastefulto the hero (Hastings) in the New England character,the hero’s ancestor without his knowing it—the great-grandmotherafter she had fled, having presumably takenthe name, for herself and child, of Tremaine.

The ghosts seemed to Mr. Johnson the only mediathrough which to tell the story pictorially. Whetherone believes ghosts in a story real or not is, in his opinion,beside the point, so long as they seem real enough for thesake of the telling. They may be compared to the deusex machina of Euripides, of to the scenes in motion pictureswhich show what some one is dreaming or thinking.

Analysis of the Developed Story. Some innerstories may be detached from the outer husk as a letteris drawn from its envelope (find examples in these collections).Others are a necessary part of the externalinterest and refuse to be separated without damage toeach. This story is one of the latter sort.

Jack Hastings and Julia Elliott are betrothed. Hehas come to New England, after some time in Paris, tomake her a visit. It is understood, at the end of theaction, that they will go abroad to live. So much for theouter wrappings which are bound so closely to the heartof the matter, as is indicated in the

Comment. This, then, is a narrative the mystery ofwhich must be explained by each reader to his own satisfaction.If the reader “believes” in the supernatural,he will take the whole thing, ghostly scene and all, assomehow occurring. If he does not “believe,” he willthen accept the scene as the obsession of a sick man—witha few details left in mystery. I should class it asa story of the supernatural, wherein the appearance isvisible to the sick or the clairvoyant mind. Knowingthat the germinal idea had to do with the effect of ahouse upon a man, and that the story is developed byemphasis on this feeling, deepened by a ghostly visitation,one would find it impossible to characterize the story asother than one of atmosphere. And it is the best atmospherestory in the four Yearbooks. The right wayto achieve an atmosphere story, Stevenson told us longago, is to begin with a mood induced by a place; Mr.Johnson has pursued the plan.

Atmosphere is, then, bound up with setting; plot interestfollows in importance; character is of note mainlyin the unique manifestation of dual personality. Adreamer, an artist, an idealist—any sensitive medium—wouldfittingly play the part demanded. The love interestenriches the action and humanizes the character.

Comment. Mr. Johnson has here produced a satiricalcharacter study, wherein Mary Haviland Norton wellnigh stands in place of the story; but in playing up thevisit of Hurrell Oaks he has secured narrative interest.That a mere visit should have loomed as an event, andthat the loss of it should have proved so disappointingbecomes the test of Miss Haviland’s character. Buildinga story upon so negative an incident is a feat worthy ofHenry James—or Mary Haviland Norton.

Plot.

Presentation. The story is recounted ten years later,after a formal dinner, by the student whom Miss Havilandhad helplessly, impulsively, taken into her half-confidence.Her auditor is the narrator, presumably Mr. Johnson,himself. The related story is exceptionally well told withregard to the assumed narrator; she betrays just enoughof the school-girl character and manner to enliven thedrama of middle age. From a stylistic point of view, thenarrative testifies to the author’s craftmanship; for it isalmost as if told by a young woman.

Characterization. Mary Haviland was interestingto the girl narrator because of her native ability, determination,and her acquired connoisseurship. Harmonizingher fundamental power with her culture, hitting offlittle discrepancies and exaggerations that the readermight see her whole—these demanded a highly conscioustechnique. Further, to regard her half-seriously, half-lightly,yet in the end to demand the reader’s sympathyand admiration for her, required nothing short of Meredithiangenius. Finally, the bubble of fun blown out atthe last: “She was no doubt in the tub,” etc., indicatesan irresponsible humor which makes play of the wholesituation.

The Starting Point. “I got the idea for ‘TheStrange-Looking Man,’” says Mrs. Costello, “from readingof the homecoming of a Canadian soldier, limbless,partially blind, wholly demented, to his young wife—Homebringing,I should have said. As I read, I simplysaw the story as it was written, nor could I help feelingas I wrote that my little boy symbolized Germany as sheis and my young man life, as we are now so strongly hopingit may come to be.”

The statement from the author serves, also, to explainher symbolical treatment.

Setting. Should you judge, from the connotation,that the time is the near or far future? What is theplace? How is it indicated?

Action. Brief; it begins “One morning,” page 363,and ends with the final words, page 364. Do you foreseethe dénouement?

The narrative is remarkable in that it supposes a conditionthe reverse, in many respects, of life in ante bellumdays. The child rocks his father’s cradle. He isfrightened by a whole man. The wrecks of men, in thepictured setting, contrast sharply with the traveler, pages363, 364.

Theme. State the underlying idea, and show how itis intensified by subsidiary ideas.

Theme. Like “The Strange-Looking Man,” this storyis pre-eminently one of idea. Written before the UnitedStates declared war against Germany, it none the less isof the Allied spirit. At the same time, it hints that Germanyhas an ideal. (See page 151: “a vision which italone had understood.”) Would the same author probablyhold in 1919 his original concept? Does his dénouementnegate the ideal?

How is the “fear or desire” (page 145) bound up withthe dénouement?

Setting. What is the place of the dream? The timeof the dream? What outer occurrences emphasize it?(See, notably, page 152, where the place of emphasis isgiven to the “bold boom of the batteries.”) Give anexternal and an internal proof of the fact that “ChristmasEve, 1916” is the time in the dream.

How much of the prophecy (pages 147, 148) hasbeen fulfilled?

The Narrator. In what branch of the service isthe narrator? Value of his point of view? Why doeshe use the dream device? By what difficulties is thedream method usually attended? How successful hasMr. Jordan been in avoiding them?

The Action. What is the chief incident of the inneraction? How does it emphasize the theme? Whatrelation has the outer action to that of the dreamed action?Compare the technical device with that of “Mr.Eberdeen’s House.” Wherein lies the power of thedénouement? Why does the narrator say, “I thankedGod for the Germans”?

The Starting Point. Mr. Kline is not sure of hisbeginnings; perhaps it came to him out of the ether “orwhatever it is that niggardly generates ideas.” “If ithad any starting point, perhaps it was in a talk I rememberonce having with Braithwaite. I kicked because theembattled farmers and others of New England neverseemed to fire a shot but some ready recorder was instantlyon hand to jot it down in a paean of praise;while Pennsylvania, with pretty good history of its own,too, and full of legend and lore, had gone totally unreportedby comparison. Maybe I started out to huntup its legends.”

After this pleasant admission, Mr. Kline confessesthat “The Caller in the Night” is no rendering of anactual legend. “So far as I know there never was aScreamer Moll, and no skeletons. The thunderstormprobably happened. The rest is all made up.”

The statements are invaluable to one who sets out tojudge a piece of work with due regard to the author’spurpose. His motive, in brief, is comparable to that ofWashington Irving. Father Knickerbocker is the “createdlegendary” figure in which New York will takepride forever.

The Plot.

Setting. What is the locale of Mrs. Pollard’s home?Is this setting in any way a part of the plot, or does itmerely provide background for Moll’s story? Is it nearthe setting of the rehearsed narrative? Why does thethunderstorm form an essential part of the setting?How are the weather, the time of day, and the placeharmonized in the atmosphere or mood of the entirenarrative?

Characters. What characteristics of Mrs. Pollardand Mrs. Reeves make them especially desirable, forstory purposes, as listeners?

In what ways is the portrait of Moll given? Whatis the significance of the fact that she is introducedby her “unearthly cry”? (Page 369.) The main imageof her person is given (page 371) as “the tall and thinbut heavily framed figure of an old woman.” Is thispicture emphasized, for cumulative effect, or is it leftto stand alone? Are Moll’s first words well calculated,as her initial speech? Why?

Through Screamer Moll’s story, the story of an insanewoman, Fannie and George appear striking incertain details; dim in others. Is this both a necessaryfact, under the circumstances, and also better for theauthor’s purpose? Describe Fannie.

Details. Mr. Kline used the rehearsed method oftelling the main story as an unconscious effort, no doubt,to heighten the effect of legend, of “something by andgone, all shadowy as recalled.”

Where, in the finished story, does the author firstsound his legend idea?

Why does he introduce the thunderstorm? Even ifMoll had not died, would it have had logical place inthe story? That is, would the repetition of the stormscene cause a reaction from her crazed brain which wouldimpel her to speech? Does the duplication of the storm(the one of the inner story echoed by the one of thesetting) increase the totality of effect?

Why is the place of emphasis (the end) given to thefinding of the two skeletons?

What are the chief sound effects? Are they in harmonyor contrast?

General Views of Mr. Kline. He thinks Mr.Braithwaite is right. “The only test of a short storyis, ‘Has the writer something interesting to say, anddoes he say it in a manner to interest me?’” (See, byway of comparison, Mr. Donn Byrne’s statement.) Mr.Kline further believes that the great writers have neverhad to thrash the air with “plot”—“from Hawthorneand Poe and Bret Harte, from Balzac and Gautier andMaupassant, from Tolstoy and Turgenev and Dostoievsky,down to our own O. Henry.” According to hisstatement and illustrations, how is he probably consideringthe word plot? What difference is there betweenplot invention and plot presentation? Does De Maupassantshow skill in arranging the plot order in “TheNecklace”? What would have happened to the storyhad he not created the surprise? What would be the lossin these stories of O. Henry had he not carefully constructedhis plot—“The Gift of the Magi,” “A Double-DyedDeceiver,” “The Furnished Room”?

Mr. Kline thinks that the only way to learn to writeis to write and keep writing, under wise and kindlycriticism of course. And he adds that if one can besevere and honest enough one’s own criticism is best.“To be a real writer, one must master himself, masterthe world, and master his art.”

Plot.

Presentation. “It made a neat little story,” Mr.Kline says of the engineer’s reclamation and present customof signaling. But without the supporting band ofworkmen to throw it into relief it would hardly standalone. The group becomes, then, an integral part of the1,500 word narrative which is given to the reader.

Characterization. The girl, whose name is not evenmentioned, is the most potent character—or, perhaps,love as expressed through her makes her, symbolically,dominant. The engineer is the most important, by virtueof his active rôle; the workmen are the background characters,as they come under the influence of the simpledemonstration of affection; they are the foreground characters,as the story is presented. What traits are manifestin various individuals of the group? How do thesetraits sharpen the dénouement?

Setting. Why is Virginia chosen?

Details. What contribution is made by the choice of“Annie Laurie”? On what thought does the final barend? Did you, as you read, notice this sinister clue?Why not?

Starting Point and Structural Processes. “Youwere right,” Miss Lerner says, “about my knowing ‘theprototype of old Margaret.’ And every one of herstoried recollections is a real one, told for the most partin her own words. She still insists so stoutly on thereality of the ‘little old man with the high hat,’ the bewitchedchurn, the fairies’ chairs and tables, that oneends by believing in them, too. So you see the materialcame ready to my hand. All I had to do was tovivify it, and cast it in the most dramatic form possible.

“Old Margaret is not dead, however. She reads andre-reads ‘Little Selves,’ and says she can smell the peatfire and hear the kettle humming on the hob. It was anold friend of hers who died—of cancer, as the storyran; and Margaret used to spend many an hour talkingwith her those last days. Their reminiscences, however,were of the time of their young womanhood; they did notmeet in the old country.

“All this cherished material had long lain in my mind.Its greatest appeal to me perhaps depended on the factthat I, too, had always been an inveterate ponderer ofmoments of my extreme childhood. Even at eight orten, I used to re-live isolated moments of particular interestfrom my ‘past,’ which even then seemed bathedin a ‘livelier light.’

“The final impulse came one day on hearing Stevenson’sphrase, ‘Nothing matters much that happens toa boy after he is seven.’ At once I saw the whole story.Margaret must die, of course, and dying revisit thescenes of her childhood. That bit of manipulation would[Pg 127]heighten and intensify the whole tale. She must be asingle woman, too, instead of a wife and the devotedmother of a difficult but promising daughter. She mustbe considerably older. She must retain her skill withthe needle, and her piety. So I simply jotted down halfa dozen words to name the several incidents of her dream,then began to write, visualizing the opening scene as Iwent. It was like transcribing at some one else’s dictationmatter already an intimate part of one’s spirituallife. Isn’t that the way one’s best things come? Iwrote only one rough draft, then the final copy. Hardlya word was changed. The title, oddly apt, I think, cameto me when I wrote the line, ‘She recreated her earlierselves and passed them on, happy in the thought thatshe was saving them from oblivion.’”

This full description of the constructive process rendersalmost superfluous either questions or further comment.It should be compared closely with Mary BrechtPulver’s similar résumé of her “Path of Glory.”

“Little Selves” constitutes a happy cross between the“evoked ghost” story, such as one finds in Kipling’s“They,” and the pictures frankly labeled as memories,in a multitude of stories. For as Margaret says, theearlier selves “is realer” than the children of flesh-and-bloodwho surround her.

Theme. In what does the merit of the narrative lie,—theme,characterization, or plot? In connection withyour own answer observe that Miss Lerner says, “As forplot versus theme, I think theme usually dominates. Ihave some idea I wish to expound—to illustrate bymeans of interplay of character and action. Idea, Ifeel, is really The Thing, rather than mere complicationor rapidity of action.”

In how many stories of these collections, do you feelthe dominance of the underlying idea? In which, if any,is it lacking? In which do you feel the predominance ofidea to such an extent as to swamp the story values?

Plot. Show that the sentence on page 224, “Hervoice choked with sudden tears,” is a sort of dramaticclimax.

Why is it more artistic to leave the climax of action,the old woman’s death, untold?

Characters. In what sense is the narrative a “characterstory”? Is a whole life really re-constructed? Isthe author’s chief object this re-living?

How is Margaret best visualized for you?

What is Anna’s chief characteristic and what her mainplace in the plot?

Setting. In what respects is the story a national representative?How do the two larger settings, as indicated,aid each other? Which is thrown into subjection?Why?

Plot. In constructing his plot, the author devised aplan whereby a robber might escape with stolen money.Having invented it, he tested each part to make it seemdetective proof; and in following up this process he createda novel variety of the detective story genre. Similarstories have effected a resolution of the complicationby a pull at some loose end left hanging through inadvertenceof the criminal, and have so conserved justice.Mr. Lewis, avoiding this usual device, has requisitionedthe peculiar advantages of dual personality to bring aboutthe downfall of his criminal. (Compare with this motif,the one found in Frederick Stuart Greene’s “GalwayIntrudes,” a story which has much in common with “TheWillow Walk.”)

A thief, therefore, who plans his get-away by first inventingand then pretending to be his own “brother,”ultimately becomes the brother. The transformation ismade plausible through the histrionic gifts attributed tothe robber whereby he is, rather than merely acts, therepresented character.

To the end that ultimate confession will occur, thebrother must be religious; to the end that punishment isefficacious, the confession must be received with incredulity.These are necessary, if unconscious, preliminariesto this representative of the series which beginswith Poe’s “William Wilson,” and which includes “Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

Presentation. The author first sets forth detailsthat lead to the beginning of the action, the most importantof which convey that Jasper Holt is acquiring a newhand-writing, that he is a respectable paying teller, thathe is a good actor.

Action Antecedent to the Present: Read thestory, and find under its superstructure the groundworkof Jasper’s plan. How much preparation hasbeen necessary? How long has it required, probably,to accomplish it? Has the author begun at the bestpoint possible in the story action?

Incidents of the Complication Leading Immediately tothe Dramatic Climax:

Incidents of the Solution Leading to the Climaxof Action

Characterization. Bear in mind that the diversepersonalities of Jasper and John are bound up in Jasper,that although “John” was originally invented and thenassumed, he finally dominated. The dramatic climaxmarks the point at which the outer Jasper disappears; theclimax of action marks the disappearance of the innerJasper. The man who goes to work at the sand pits is,essentially, John.

Details. Suspense, one of the best features, in theearlier two-thirds of the story, operates progressively,the cause shifting with the various steps of the action.For example, perhaps the first important questionaroused is, “What is Jasper doing all this for?” Thesecond, “Will he succeed in carrying out his well-laidplans?” Meantime, subordinate questions arise, to besatisfied by the author in the unfolding of the narrative.Show that suspense works of necessity less forciblytoward the end, where the outcome becomes more andmore inevitable.

Do you know what became of the stolen money?Should that trailing thread be gathered up, or is it betterleft as it is?

Mr. Lewis declares that “The Willow Walk” has, sofar as he can remember, no history at all. But he contributesthe following by way of his views on the short-story:

“Technique defeats itself. The more nearly perfectit becomes, the nearer it is to stagnation. This rule holdstrue whether it be applied to ecclesiastical ceremony, tothat humorous art known as ‘the manners of a gentleman,’to the designing of motor-car bodies, or the practiseof the arts. Once your motor-body designer hasalmost approximated the lines of a carriage, an innovatorappears who boisterously ridicules the niceties of thattechnique, and, to the accompaniment of howling fromthe trained technicians, smashes out a new form, withmonstrous hood and stream-line massiveness. Withintwo years he has driven out all the old technique, and isfollowed by a ‘school,’ neatly developing a new technique,in its turn to be perfected—then destroyed bysome vulgarian who is too ignorant or too passionate tocare for the proprieties of design.

“Once the technique of the academic school of paintersof still life and landscape and portraits was practicallyperfect, a noisy, ill-bred, passionate crew of destroyersappeared, under such raucous labels as ‘futurists,’‘vorticists,’ ‘cubists,’ and despite the fact that their excesseshave not become popular in plush parlors, theseinnovations have forever ruined the pleasure of picture-gazersin the smooth inanity of the perfected old technique.And now their followers in their turn——! AsI write, the perfect militarist technique of the Germanempire has cracked into socialist republics. In timethose republics will build up a perfect technique of bureaus,and be ready for the cleansing fire.

“Technique defeats itself. I have repeated the word‘passion’ because that is the force that starts the rout.The man who is passionate about beauty or scientific facts,about making love or going fishing or the potentialities ofRussia or revolt against smug oppressors, is likely to findhimself cramped by the technique of the art which hechooses as a medium, to discard it, and to find a techniqueof his own. Austin Dobson could endure the triolet forthe expression of delicate inexactitudes regarding Frenchcurés, but when Shelley was singing a world aflame, hemade for himself a new mode of expression which, toformalists, seemed inexpressibly crude.

“And so to the short story. I am not afraid of thisnew technique of the proper beginning, the correct ending,the clever dénouement, the geometrically plotted curve ofaction—because I do not believe that anybody who passionatelyhas anything to say is going to cramp himselfby learning its pat rules. But I do believe that—beforethey go and smash the technique, anyway!—youngwriters may be saved much spiritual struggle if they betaught that there is nothing sacred, nothing they unquestionablymust follow, in any exactly formulated technique.

“They will, of course, if they succeed, make a techniqueof their own. That is a short cut to salvation for them.It is only when a technique is that of other writers, whenit is so crystallized that it can be definitely exhibited,that it becomes dangerous. I know that Joseph Hergesheimerin such absorbingly beautiful short stories as‘Wild Oranges,’ ‘Tol’able David,’ or ‘Asphodel’ has atechnique, a very definite idea of what he is doing; orwhat he is going to do before he starts, and of why he hasdone things after he has done them. But he has notobediently imitated the technique of other writers. Noneknows better than Mr. Hergesheimer the great art of suchmen as Conrad, Galsworthy, George Moore; but none hasless imitated them, less accepted their technique as hisguidance.

“Curse Stevenson for that ‘playing the sedulous ape,’which has led so many thousands astray. It was Stevenson’sweakness, not his strength, that aping; and becauseof it his light is flickering, while that of his contemporaries,Rossetti, Hardy, Swinburne, Flaubert, who werenot sedulous apes but men passionate about beauty or thecurious ways of daily man, burns evenly and forever.Stevenson had an unequalled opportunity; he was apioneer, with a pioneer’s chance to stake out the firstclaim; yet once Kipling galloped into sight, roaring atdeft Stevensonian technique, irreverent and violent as oneof his own Rajputs, doing really dreadful things to thebalanced decencies of proportion and melody, he routedStevenson in a handful of years ... and today we haveread Stevenson, but we do read Kipling.

“Of course, of course, of course. ‘Freedom is noexcuse for violence.’ ‘The young man must train hismind.’ ‘From a study of the elders youth learns toavoid their mistakes’ (but he doesn’t!). ‘Only thestrong are able to govern themselves, to make their owncodes of ethics or of beauty.’ All those sage warnings—usedequally against Martin Luther and the Bolsheviks,against the bad boy in school and Rodin. Basically, thedisagreement between classicists and modernists is temperamental,and will, under various guises, endure forever.Only, let it be clearly recognized for what it is; letthe classicist not mistake himself for a modernist; let theinnovator not suppose because O. Henry is still so livinga force that his followers have not already hardenedhis technique into a form classic and very dead.”

Comment.—The death of Harris Merton Lyon givesadded poignancy to the story whose idealism and inspirationmade for it a place in the first of Mr. O’Brien’scollections. Judged by the test of Beauty, it is perhapsfirst on the list. The satisfaction vouchsafed eachreader will be in proportion to his own Spirit of Workand his acceptance of the theme.

Theme. Since the Idea is foremost, it is quite fittingthat it should be sounded early. The first approach ison page one (153, Yearbook) and in the form of awonder as to what there could possibly be “in beinga worker at the other, the evanescent thing.” The answer,or the satisfaction of the wonder, is given in theessential story, stripped of its covering, pages 158-170.The theme is emphasized, strongly, in the sentence onpage 170: “You did the Work of your Hand!”

The Inner Story, which allegorically satisfies thequestioner, is the beautifully tenuous tale of the Mariner.It is woven of words in a style perfectly to suggest thespirit of summer and the evanescence of her garments,yet underneath the light superstructure are the foundationsof the short-story. The struggle of the weaver,Andy Gordon, was successfully repeated for forty years.He died, knowing that he had been “a master-worker ina fabric that immediately dissolved,” yet content. Hisdeath is the dénouement of the tale, just as the dialoguebetween the Voice and Andy (pages 159-161) forms theinitial incident. What is the dramatic climax?

Presentation. Andy Gordon’s story is told in anItalian restaurant, Pigalle’s, over a poker table. Thenarrator is at first denominated the Ancient Mariner;eventually he proves to be the Andy Gordon of his tale.(See pages 158 and 171.) What new evaluation of theweaver’s story do you make after learning that Andywas a violinist? Had you guessed any part of the wholesituation before reading to the dénouement of the envelopingstory? The narrator of the external action is,presumably, the author himself, who uses the first person“I.”

Contrast, between the restaurant scene and characteron the one hand and the summer scenes with Andy onthe other, is the chief aid used to enhance the narrative.Point out particular examples of its operation.

Details. Division I emphasizes the character of theMariner, at the same time it repeats the theme. (Seeabove), in the words, “Sufficient unto eternity is theglory of the hour.” Why does the author give an entiredivision (III) to the lines: “Abruptly the old manleft and went out into the snowy night. For there weretears in his eyes.”

What value has the reference to Bernhardt, page 153?

Why is it well to set the rehearsal on a snowy evening?(Study the story for the answer.) Where is Pigalle’srestaurant?

What effect has the tinkling of the door-bell, at eleveno’clock?

What principle of emphasis is at work on the descriptionof the maid who bore the “sweet ineffablename of Philomene”? On the Mariner (as described,page 155)?

What do you gather from the absinthe and thecigarettes jaunes?

What addition is made to the comprehension of theMariner in the suggested resemblance to Socrates andto Verlaine?

What colors and materials are used in Summer’sdresses? Would others have served as well? Afterknowing the dénouement (that Andy was a violinist)how do you interpret the passage “Andy was abouttwenty-eight years old then,” etc., through the words“done by hand”? What other passages need similarinterpretation?

How are the forty years so passed over as to emphasize,without needlessly repeating, Andy’s Work?

What is your own reaction to this story?

Starting Point. “You ask about the germinal ideaof ‘The Sun Chaser.’ How can I tell you, for how doI know, what the germinal idea of my story is! I canrecognize it after the story is written. But that makesit all the more difficult to say with certainty that the ‘idea’is germinal. What Ambrose seeks is what every one ofus in the world—even a Sun Chaser—wants: HAPPINESS.And the more ill-balanced or crippled a nature is,the more importunate is this demand for happiness....

“It is easier to tell you how I came to write ‘The SunChaser’ than to tell you anything about it.... Earlyone morning in October I was sitting at my writing tablein my little log cabin up in the Maine wilderness. Itwas about half past five, and I had started my fire andhad my cup of cocoa and my crust of bread and wasready for work. But I sat there watching the dawn.Ahead of me I had one of the endless pot-boilers todo by means of which I provided bread and butter andmet my responsibilities. The very thought of doinganother of these ‘things’ made me feel ill and tired.Suddenly up over the field before my cabin with thedawn I saw the fleeing figure of the SUN CHASER runningtowards me. More I cannot tell you except thatit was like listening to wonderful music as I sat thereseeing the story unfold. I did nothing that morningexcept ‘listen.’ And for the next month I did no pot-boilers,but work on this story.... January first ofthat year I took up college lecturing and since then Ihave written no pot-boilers....”—Jeannette Marks.

Classification. A novelette of twelve divisions, almostepical. (But see Miss Marks’s own comment, below.It is noteworthy that the present analyst uses theword “epic” to characterize the story, whereas MissMarks sees in it a lack of the epic quality. Or so theimplication runs.)

Apart from length, the character interest shifts fromthe Sun Chaser to his daughter, and his wife; thedénouement emphasizes the child’s sacrifice. The epilogueemphasizes the inhumanity of man to man, and itsabeyance in one case because of the sacrifice.

(The designation of the work as a novelette is, in allits bearings, indicative of values greater than those ofthe short-story.)

Plot. Enumerate the earlier stages of the plot action.The dramatic climax is formed by the vividly summarizedstruggle between the Sun Chaser and his wife and child.Important steps toward the end of the action are: theplacing of the Sun Chaser in the town lock-up; themother’s leaving Pearl alone while she goes to returnthe wash; Pearl’s journeying to feed her father. (Thisjourney is, in itself, the largest struggle within the narrative;for, the struggle to find happiness—as MissMarks has indicated—is the chief one.) Study thevarious phases of the child’s battle against the forces ofnature.

Characterization. The most remarkable characterizationexists in the case of the Sun Chaser. MissMarks’s ability to reflect the mentality of his brain is particularlyworthy of study.

In contrast to the Chaser, and yet not in violent opposition,is his wife. Study her portrait, looking for hersense of the practical, softened by her own love andgentleness. What reaction on you is effected by hereffort to keep her husband from the lock-up?

Pearl is tenderly and delicately drawn, and yet sheevinces the practicality of her mother. See, e.g., pages227, 244. In what ways is she the character who mostcompels sympathy? Would she do so, apart from thefinal supreme sacrifice?

Details. The clip-clop of Ambrose’s walk is a goodexample of the sound effects which increase the dramaturgicquality. Point out other instances. The lamp inAmbrose’s home, “torch of flame and blackened streamof smoke,” is illustrative of the color contribution. Giveother examples. But, in this story, greater in value thaneither sound or color is the sense of motion. Mr. O’Briencalls attention to the “rhythmical progression” of thenarrative. To this suggestion, add your own interpretationof the movement. Is there in the idea of thesearch for happiness a connotation of something neverachieved, never-ended? and with the search a constantnecessity for “Going—going—going”?

How does the story affect you emotionally? Withregard to individual moments, how does the behavior ofthe liquor dealer move you? Is “contempt” the feelingyou have for him, or is it stronger? What is yourpredominant feeling for Ambrose? Sympathy is incitedthrough a combination of human relationships:1. Pearl’s love for her father; 2. Sybil Clarke’s love forPearl, and 3. her pity for Ambrose, her husband. Whatreaction is aroused by the incident wherein Pearl andDavid figure?

Author’s Comment. “Is ‘The Sun Chaser’ anylonger than some of Stevenson’s short stories, or Balzac’sor Guy de Maupassant’s?... And what is a short story,anyhow? Isn’t the range of narrative the question involvedin a short story? In a play I can tell from the‘feel’ of the material whether it is a one-acter or fulldress length. Isn’t there a suggestion of the epic tendencyin the novelettes as well as the novel:—the incidentaluse of incident, for example, contributing to thesense of mass? This is the sort of tendency one maynot admit to short story or play where concentration isso much greater. As I see it, now that it is done, ‘TheSun Chaser’ structurally as well as spiritually is markedby extreme concentration, and for that reason, personally,it would seem to me to be a short story.... Theshort story appeals to me from the technical point ofview because it is more perfect than the novel, even asI consider the play to be more perfect structurally thanthe short story. I believe in concrete foundations andsteel superstructures, and these, I think, can be built forthe play, but not for the short story any more than forthe poem.... It seems to me that the well-equippedartist always has a feeling for structure. Analysis, however,does not precede creation. Because of the natureof the creative artist’s mind, it does not necessarily followcreation, either. There may be actual inability to analyze.It’s as difficult to see the sum total of the work you’vedone as to see the sum total of yourself. The creativeartist is not an analytical chemist of his own mentalprocesses.... I have no standards.... I think thatthe thing which ‘arrives’ in short story or play is, likebeauty, ‘its own excuse for being.’”—Jeannette Marks.

In this work Miss Moseley has presented a story of thewar, a narrative of the supernatural having points incommon with Mr. Rhodes’s “Extra Men.” In each,there is the spirit-world visitor, in each the truth conveyedby him which gives the story its thematic character,and in each the living power of the dead made manifest.As I have pointed out in “Representative Ghosts”(The Bookman, August, 1917), and elsewhere, mankindwill be interested in ghosts so long as earth endures.The most decided impetus to fiction given by the war hasbeen, so far, in the direction of the supernatural. It isinteresting to know that Mr. O’Brien considers this andFrances Gilchrist Wood’s “The White Battalion” thetwo most enduring legends contributed this year to thesupernatural literature of the war.

Plot.

Presentation. The single incident becomes subdued,rather than emphasized, by representing it as told to Vintonwho, in turn, repeats it to Ware and Abigail.Credulity is gained in assuming for each narrator an impliedor expressed belief,—“I said to her that I was themost believing man since the Dark Ages.” And theirfaith acts cumulatively to compel the reader’s acceptance.By rehearsing in New England the story of English backgroundand atmosphere, Miss Moseley gains for it sharpnessand, at the same time, a certain nuance. Thestormy night supposedly affects the hearers’ credulity, andthrough them, once more, the reader’s.

Comment and Query. “For me,” says Mr. Muilenburg,“the best story is the one that gives the readerthe greatest after-mood, and this can be done with verylittle action. To give the feeling of an environment, toshow character absolutely in a life-like manner, and togive nature and man an equal place: these I considernecessary to almost every story.”

Using his own criterion, how well has Mr. Muilenburgsucceeded in every respect mentioned above? Whatmood does the story give you? Where is the environment?Does the feeling that arises from it emphasizethe general atmosphere?

Pages 172 and 173 introduce the boy, Frank, in hissetting. Which is more important—character or place?Again measure your answer by the author’s ideals.

“Both stories have kept close to realism,” says Mr.Muilenburg, “as the greater part of both have beentaken from my own experience, and circumstances arereproduced rather than fancied.” Is there anything inthe characterization of the boy that tells you he is, insome measure, a reflection of the author himself?

“Isn’t it possible,” asks the author, “that only thestories that have some situation where the charactersmust be shown in primitive fashion are enduring?”How would you answer this question in general? Whatis the situation in this story? May it be termed “primitive”?

Details of Composition. Pages 173, 174 recount anincident which shows the elements of conflict in the boy’ssoul. How does it prepare for the greater struggle?(See pages 179, 180, 181.) What purpose has the scenebetween Frank and Bill with respect to later developmentsand particularly the struggle?

What contribution to the boy’s character is made inhis ceasing work only when the shadow of the cottonwoodtree pointed north? in his taking the milk-pailsfrom the hooks? (Page 182.)

In the “heart of youth” conflict (page 180) whatemotions are arrayed against each other?

What value has the episode of the bird and the snake?What conditions make it an integral part of the action,not a forced parallel?

What details of setting and circumstance, and whattraits in the boy combine to solicit your sympathy?

The little story is unified in character, place and time.It reveals by concrete symbol the significant phases ofthe struggle. It performs a tour de force in avoidingan extended analysis of the boy’s psychology. Eventhough the narrative is told from Frank’s “angle,” thereader knows what he thinks by what he does and says,rather than by the author’s analysis of his mental state.Further, the work makes a small contribution to literaryhistory, since it is representative of a period of life inthe Middle West, through which the author has passed;and it is reflected there now, to some extent. The factthat there is a strong vein of poetry throughout is because“poetry is found naturally in the life of a peoplewho must struggle with a hard physical environment.”

Mr. Clayton Hamilton says in “A Manual of the Artof Fiction” (page 187), “—although the novel may beeither realistic or romantic in general method, the short-storyis almost of necessity obliged to be romantic. Inthe brief space allotted to him, it is practically impossiblefor the writer of short-stories to induce a general truthfrom particular, imagined facts imitated from actuality:it is far simpler to deduce the imagined details of thestory from a central thesis, held securely in the author’smind and suggested to the reader at the outset. It is aquicker process to think from the truth to facts thanto think from facts to the truth.” And in illustrationof his statement, he adds that Daudet and de Maupassant,who worked realistically in their novels, worked romanticallyin their contes, also that the great short-storywriters of our own language have been, nearly all ofthem, romanticists—from Poe to Kipling.

With this interesting tenet in mind, look over allthe realistic stories in the four volumes we are studying,and try to apply to each the same methods by which theromantic stories are studied. Does the application breakdown? How far can you follow it? Try, for example,to analyze the plot of “At the End of the Road”according to the type used again and again in this book.

Why is this story told in the first person? Try tellingit in the third person, beginning that is, “The latter partof the summer found him tramping,” etc., and see whatis lost.

Recall stories which have for setting a picnic ground,a fair ground, or other community gathering. ReadThomas Hardy’s “On the Western Circuit.” (In“Life’s Little Ironies.”) Why is such a setting good formany types of story—whether realistic, romantic, comic,tragic?

Who is the central figure in Mr. Muilenburg’s Iowastory? Would his story gain importance if detachedfrom the subjectivity of the narrator—if the musings,observations and feelings were cut? What would happento the whole narrative if such a change were made?Sum up the gist of the “story” in a few words.

What is the struggle? Wherein lies the human appeal?

What is the end of the action? How do you know?

The drunkard is an age-old figure, whether humorousor tragic. What is the essential difference between thetragic and the humorous portrayal? Why, for instance,does one laugh at an actor who plays the part of Cassio,in the drinking-scene from “Othello”? Why does one“feel sorry for” Bill as here conceived?

What theme is lightly touched and where?

What has this example of Mr. Muilenburg’s work incommon with the preceding story by him?

What color comes to mind instantly on thinking of hischromatic effects? Is it in harmony with the other story-elements?Are there notes of contrast?

The artistry of the author has worked consciously orunconsciously to create a finished piece of work. Toldas a single episode in the experience of a traveler, it hasthe magnitude of the short-story.

Proportion. This essential is placed first, here, asbeing the chief means by which the effect is obtained.This effect comes, cumulatively, and is increased by givingclimactic value to a coincidence. The coincidence,properly prepared for, is not of the kind that would havehad great worth at the end of a longer story.

To illustrate how it might have been diminished, ratherthan increased:

Throw the time back to the youth of Giovanni andRosa. Develop, at length, the love affair of the twoyoung people. (This, alone, would require severalpages.) Show the struggle of the girl, torn betweenreligion and love. Present her prayer to the Virgin, theanswer, and her decision (done dramatically, all this,perhaps in two pages), and her entrance into the nunnery.(So much would be done, logically, from Rosa’s point ofview.) Shifting the spot-light to Giovanni, show himstabbing the picture of the Virgin; his disappearance;his meeting the funeral, and his being informed of Rosa’sdeath. The fact that it occurred at the time he stabbedthe picture, as the coincidence, revealed after so long adevelopment, would lack comparative height or worth.

Consider such treatment, and by force of comparisonsee that the author did best to treat the occurrences ata time long after they happened. The rehearsed storyis in this instance undoubtedly the best. Further, by itsuse, the last words (page 188), “I am Giovanni,” arepossible, intensifying the effect.

Considering the plot, what should you say are thechief steps in the development? Analyze both the innerstory and in its relation to the enveloping action. Theinitial impulse, for instance, in the whole narrative is,the motivation for the monk’s telling his story. Thedénouement, similarly, is the fact that Giovanni and themonk are identical. What are initial impulse anddénouement of the rehearsed narrative?

Setting. What is the worth of the setting in such astory, both as regards unity and convincingness? Noteall the details which are distinctly Italian. What connotationhave the cypress trees? Do they intensify themood? In connection with the immediate scene in thechapel, what value has the sentence, “Beneath it, on alittle stand, lay a slim-bladed vicious knife, coveredwith dust”?

Characterization. What added theme is conveyed inthe description, “He was old, the oldest man Blagdenhad ever seen, etc.”? Does one get it on first reading,or on reflection?

Is Blagden a character, or a reason for telling thestory?

Details. Point out the several examples of mysticism.

Classification. “You are right,” says Mr. O’Brien,“about ‘The Whale and the Grasshopper.’ It is asort of fable and like the other sketches in my book itwas written for the sake of the philosophy and humor.The starting point of the narrative was the remark ofPadna Dan ‘As the Whale said to the Grasshopper,’which I considered a good title, and accordingly wrote thephantasy.”

Read as a sort of parallel, Emerson’s “The Mountainand the Squirrel.” What is the difference in the mentalattitude of the two authors?

Setting. Why is such a fable particularly well setnear Castlegregory on a June morning? Note the intensifyingof the setting by means of dialect. Wouldthe place be realized without the Irish speech? Studythe selective processes used to make the dialect easy tounderstand and yet distinctly characteristic of the GreenIsle.

Characters. Standish McNeill and Felix O’Dowdseem to be real people,—at the very beginning, becauseof their names. The writer who is less careful wouldhave endowed them with Mike or Pat. How are theykept up from start to finish as real? Why, for example,do you know they took that walk? What characteristic(at once Celtic and individual) of Standish enableshim to “put across” so vividly a yarn which one knowsall along can be only fable?

General Methods. Mr. O’Brien states that he doesnot know how much he believes in or practices technicaldistinctions. “Writing, I think, is the art that mustevolve out of ourselves. I began life as an artist andspecialized in sculpture, but finding there were things Icould not express through such a medium I took to writing.When I am impressed by some important event,it fashions itself in story or drama form in my mind,without any conscious effort on my part, and when Ifeel intelligent—which is not often—I write.”

“In Berlin” is a tour de force of short-story construction.Miss O’Reilly has followed the well-known principleof beginning near the climax, that the story maygain intensity. The result is excellent for this one principle.But the whole composition of 125 or 150 wordsin reality plays up a single dramatic moment—not asingle Incident.

The advantage to the student in reproducing similar“dramatic moment” stories will be to show the valueof material in magnitude and worth, to teach him to appreciateclimax, and to feel the advantages—and thedisadvantages—of economy.

Read Chapter III in “A Handbook on Story Writing,”describing and illustrating the Anecdote and theIncident.

Starting Point. Mr. O’Sullivan states that the storyarose primarily from his foreseeing, in 1915, that oneresult of the War would be a revived interest in the supernatural.This foreknowledge illustrates that the authormust be a little ahead of his time, rather than a littlebehind it.

The clearness of his prevision is illustrated in suchstories as Gordon Arthur Smith’s “Jeanne the Maid”(1915), Edith Wharton’s “Kerfol” (1916), AliceBrown’s “The Flying Teuton” (1917), and FrancesWood’s “The White Battalion” (1918). It would besafe to hazard that these authors foresaw a similar demand.

Title. Meaning of “The Interval”? Is it apt?

Setting. Why did the author choose London, ratherthan an American city? Is it clear from the story alonethat Mr. O’Sullivan is thoroughly familiar with Englishlocale and character?

In the first paragraph occurs the sentence, “A densehaze, gray and tinged ruddy, lay between the houses,sometimes blowing with a little wet kiss against theface.” What color effects are in harmony with theatmosphere of the story?

Plot. The struggle is in the mind of Mrs. Wilton.She wishes to be assured that “it was not all over, thathe was somewhere, not too far away,” etc., page 385.The situation is here disclosed, suspense having been usedas to Mrs. Wilton’s purpose in the previous pages. “Thismust be the tenth seer she had consulted since Hughhad been killed,” page 384 is the most revelatory sentence.

Is the struggle successful?

The initial incident is this visit to the clairvoyant who“sees” Hugh.

Which of the incidents constitutes the dramatic climax?

“She slipped out of bed hastily ...” (page 390) isthe climax of action, or as much as is expressed. Thereader must finish it for himself.

(The final sentence, with seeming carelessness droppingthe information that “after her death the slippers couldnever be found,” is an incentive to the reader’s fancy.It has no plot value, except by suggestion.)

Did Hugh really return, or did Mrs. Wilton see himas a logical result of her brooding? If the former choiceis made, the inference is that the reader accepts Hughas a bona fide ghost; if the latter, then he is only existentthrough the sick-woman’s mind and the mind of theclairvoyant. (See article, “Representative Ghosts,”Bookman, August, 1917.)

Details. Does the author believe the clairvoyant wasgenuine? If so, why does he say (page 384), “A look ofcomplicity, of cunning, perhaps of irony, passed throughthe dealer’s cynical and sad eyes”?

Are the visitations of Hugh arranged in climactic order?

Is Mrs. Wilton’s illness adequately motivated? Whatis the double explanation of it? Do you accept the naturalor the supernatural reason?

Plot.

Details. Is there a constant struggle for one character,or does it shift from Jack to Betty?

Is there, accordingly, a stronger or a weaker effect?Is the action unified?

Did you find the time element confusing or anywheredifficult to follow?

What details mark the action as belonging particularlyto Vermont?

How many themes do you find in the narrative? Arethey brought into essential harmony? What purpose ofthe author interests you most? What does the authormean to convey in the recognition of Sam Hod andothers that Jack’s toast is almost identical with hisgrandfather’s?

What do you think of the introduction and the emphasison the wine? How does the following statementheighten interest?—“that liquor was consumed in thepledging of a toast.”

Why does the author add so long a conclusion after thestory action has been completed? Is he wise to give thefinal place of emphasis to the sentence, “All over Americaher name is legion”? Why?

The Starting Point. Mr. Pentz states, regardingthe story and its inception, “Substantially true in fact,it was told and retold to appreciative friends; then it waswritten at their suggestion. Probably it gathered mossduring its latent existence and probably something waslost....”

Technically, the story is an Incident. It has, however,an underlying significance elevating it above the Incidenttype. This significance becomes manifest in the dénouement,which reveals the influence of Lincoln.

Presentation. The story is told by the omniscientauthor, who uses Paul’s “slant.”

Setting. South Boston, March, 1860. Point out detailswhich keep the locality before the reader from beginningto end. Why 1860, rather than 1861 or 1862?

Plot. The plot being slight requires only a clear expositionof events in natural order. The author hasmade use of his one chance to create suspense andutilized it in holding up the name of the Big Stranger.One suspects, but is not sure until the last words.

Character. The main value of the story lies in its descriptionof Lincoln, both in the words of the author—fromPaul’s angle—and by what the great man saysand does. Which is more forceful?

Mr. Pentz’s prescription for a story is brief: “Havingthe material write it out.” He believes, further, inthe use of simple language. “The average reader mustnot be sent to the dictionary; it divides the interest andweakens the effect. A writer should eliminate his personalityaltogether; what he may know of other languages,or of intricate English, will not interest a readerwho is busy with a villain in pursuit of the heroine.‘The play’s the thing.’”

Classification. A perfect specimen of the short-story,even of the extreme type-form since all the unitiesare beautifully maintained. The setting is a dinner tablein a home of wealth and refinement; the time is thepresent; the length of the action is, perhaps, an hour.

Starting Point, and First Stages of Construction.The author was present at a dinner where a young manof wealth, the host, remarked in the course of a discussionof the war that he would willingly give his life ifthrough that sacrifice he could bring an end to the bloodglut. The remark impressed every one deeply and wasdiscussed at length. After due thought, Mr. Perry feelingthe “story” in the situation, decided that it lay inhaving the man make good. He mulled the matter overfor weeks before finding an answer to his next difficulty“In what way could he make good?” Then there occurredto him the expedient of having present an inventorwho had invented an appliance which through its completedeath dealing qualities would end the war forthwith.Here, then, was the complete thread of the story.Characters and descriptive background followed in duecourse. The author has an objection to sad endings andwould like to have made it clear that the man camethrough his test safely. But the whole spirit of the storymilitated against this. So he left the outcome uncertain,but the inference is that Colcord yielded his life.

Characterization. There are nine persons, eachdeftly made a living part of the assembly. They are, inapproximate order of importance: Nicholas Colcord andhis wife Evelyn. (They may be spoken of as untriedgold); Professor Simec (the assayer); Jeffery Lathamand Sybil his wife (tried gold); Arnold Bates (alloy);Jerry Dane and his wife Bessie (baser metal); Dr. Allisonand his wife(?).

In spite of the rather generous number of characters,the part each has is so definite, serving by contrast andcomparison to emphasize the main character—NicholasColcord—as to seem well-nigh indispensable. Moreover,apart from plot values and unity of effect, the numberat the table works for verisimilitude. It is just theright size for a party in a conservative home, and it embracesthe variety of types one finds in any similargroup.

The dramatic method of characterizing is used to greatestextent: the men and women describe themselves intheir remarks and in their behavior, particularly in thematter of measuring up to the test proposed. Go throughthe story with an eye to the speeches of each. Is any oneperson given many remarks? Who is the prominentspokesman? Why?

Analysis of Plot as Presented. The first significantstep in the action lies in Nick’s remark (page 399)that he would give his life if in so doing he could endthe war. (The foil to this remark is in Bates’s, “I’mwith Nick.”)

The dramatic climax is sounded on page 403: “Suppose ...that I could make this absurd condition ...exist....” It is emphasized in the clear call on page404: “I am going to ask you to make your offer good.”

The climax of action lies in Colcord’s words (page408): “When do you want me?” (This speech isemphasized by contrast in Bates’s, “I withdraw righthere.” It is strengthened by Evelyn’s acceptance of herhusband’s sacrifice.)

The dénouement is left to the reader.

Details. Carefully study the circumstances precedingthe initial impulse of the story action noting thedetails of preparation. For example, the “nationalcolors merged with those of the allied nations” (page391); “Rumor credited to him at least one of the deadliestchemical combinations” (page 392); “There’s asort of grace given, I fancy” (page 396); “Sacrifice,Mrs. Colcord” (page 397) deepening the note of patriotism.

Whose angle of narration is used? Does the authoranywhere depart from it, preferring his own angle?Does he anywhere seem to turn from the angle of thechosen one, putting her under the spot-light, instead?If you find these shifts, can you justify them by showingthat the author makes a gain greater than the loss hesustains? If he makes no shift, how does he widenthe narrow range afforded only one person?

By what preparation does Mr. Perry create the neededimpression that the Colcords were fully aware of thesacrifice involved? (Note, especially, the preparationin Evelyn’s response to Latham’s comment, page 393,... “you make me shiver!”)

Page 405: “He raised a thin forefinger and levelledit along the table.” What image is called up?

By what detailed description and exposition does Mr.Perry make you “believe,” at least momentarily, thatSimec had really invented the appliance?

What locale is suggested, outside the immediate setting?Does it matter, in a narrative of this kind?

General. Mr. Perry’s views should be spread abroadto all who would master the art of story writing. “Noart is rarer, or more difficult of attainment.... Firstthere is the plot. I think the good short story demandsa plot. Stylistic writing designed to atone forthe lack of a definite idea, or to stand in lieu of a definitelyworked out plot is not to my way of thinking apure short story. There must be a plot, a plot peculiarto itself and peculiar to the medium in which it is setforth. Very rarely, I believe, may the perfect shortstory plot be adapted to any other vehicle. Nine timesout of ten it would not serve as the motif of the play,the novel, the film or the sketch. The piece of shortfiction, thus, is sui generis. Again the scope is limited.There may be no leisurely characterization, no extendeddissertation; descriptions are admissible only where theyassist in carrying on the action—or at least do not interferewith it—and in the telling of the tale there isno place in the scheme for aught save the ultimate objective.

“Thus carried out and presented in type we have somethingwhich we may regard as the polished gem of literature,establishing a mood in the reader out of all proportionto its size—and perhaps its importance. For theshort story very largely is designed for entertainment,and rarely bears the moral purpose of the great novel orthe didactic intent of the essay.

“I say ‘very largely.’ There are, of course, shortstories written with a purpose—some great ones—butthat purpose is best realized when the essential characteristicsof the story form are observed, when the readerin other words feels whatever emotions, or grasps whateverlesson the writer intended to convey, through themedium of a strong, deeply marked plot carried withprecision from situation to clash to dénouement.”—LawrencePerry.

Starting Point and First Processes. “It so happensin the case of ‘The Path of Glory’ that I can giveyou exactly the germinal idea from which the storysprang. Three months before I wrote it a friend putinto my hand two letters. The first was written by PiattAndrew of The American Ambulance at Paris and gavethe full details of a wonderful funeral accorded a youngAmerican volunteer driver who was killed on an earlytrip; the second was the last personal letter of the youngman to his family—the letter of a young man of educationand breeding and in no way similar to the Nat letterof my story save as they both expressed a fundamentalhuman longing. Copies were being made and I wasoffered some. I carried mine home and laid them by.But they haunted me. ‘There’s a story there,’ I thought.However, I didn’t seem to get a story—at once. Neverthelessmy mind played with the letters. That funeral!The story of course lay there, but how to set it off,enhance it properly. One day thinking it over idly—Ihave a vagabond mind and never attack a problem in anylogical fashion—the solution dawned quite suddenly.It would be best set off by contrast, of course, with someunthinkably shabby funeral, and would receive its greatestforce by being reconstructed through the minds of apeople to whom a funeral is a precious event.”—MaryBrecht Pulver.

After a statement to the effect that she knows “peopleto whom the trappings and ceremonials of deathtake on a sense of privilege,” Mrs. Pulver continues:

“Just here I got some paper and a pencil and wrotethe story. Or rather it wrote itself—as my stories[Pg 166]usually do. When I began describing the lonely farmin which my people lived I had not the least idea whothe people were—how many, what sex, age, race, orprevious condition of servitude. There was a familyin that house. A family preferably in hard luck. Thenat the foot of the hill I saw a lame boy driving a cow.I walked along with him—and recognizing him as Luke,and acquainting myself with his ideas and frame ofmind, I knew of course who his people were, how many,their habits, their names—‘all’s to it,’ as Luke wouldhave said.

“And so I told their story—and about how one ofthem went to France and got killed. And how indirectlyhe helped them out of their hard luck. That isall there was to ‘The Path of Glory.’”

Plot. Note, first, that since the presentation is consistentlyfrom Luke’s angle, the plot events are givenin chronological order for him; but that from the pointof view of actual occurrence they are presented with someinversion. (For example, the experience of Mrs. Haynesin the town precedes her summary to Luke.) In thisrespect, the author—perhaps unconsciously—showsability to mass plot material to best advantage throughartistic adherence to one angle of narration. Manyshort-story writers appear to understand this principle,yet fail to master it.

Characters. If one test of the “short-story” isthat no character should enter who does not assist inthe action, will this story stand it? What, for example,is Tom’s part? Would you give him up? Is it permissibleto introduce characters to enrich the action? Thereis no question about the value from a literary consideration.

The part of each main character is well-defined. Luke,self-conscious, lame and sensitive, offers the mediumthrough whom the story is told. “Maw” suffers; it isshe to whom the turns of fortune mean most; she is thechief character. “Paw” is the cause of the Haynesstatus in the community. Nat, the prodigal, is the onethrough whom rehabilitation comes.

The personalities that enrich the action are: 1. Clem,his wife, and S’norta. They do so (a) by intensifying“Maw’s” sense of poverty, (b) by furnishing contrastin worldly goods and in character; 2. Tom. His misfortuneenhances the wretchedness of the main actors,and the probability of his being made sound in mindemphasizes their changed fortunes. 3. Background characters.All, practically, whom Mrs. Haynes meets onher famous day in the town.

Apply to these primary and secondary characters thetests suggested in previous exercises. Do they live?

Setting. What does “Stony Brook, New York”suggest by way of physical and spiritual conditions?How is the locality an integral part of the atmosphere?

Details. The “human appeal” in this narrative willmake it hard for any reader, however crusty, to refrainfrom tears or an awakened sense of pity. By what measureshas the author brought about this desired result?The list should be long. After you have made it, seehow far you can generalize from it as to provocationof emotional reaction.

“What I like in reading a story,” Mrs. Pulver says,“is a simple gracious English, a shade whimsical perhaps,that concerns itself with a situation and peoplewho palpitate, in whose fate you become sincerely interested,as humans, not merely a clever bit of literarybridge. And the whole must be laced for me with adash of humor, that tender fun-poking that will savethe written human appeal from being heart-throb stuffor the handiwork of a sob-sister.”

Some examples of contrast have already been offered.Point out others, even stronger.

In Division II (pages 421-425) the focus is on Nat,the action seemingly held up, meanwhile. Did you, inreading, feel this long delay to be irksome, or were youcompensated by the matter itself and the vision of itspromise?

In Division IV, what intensifying value has the rain?

In Division V, what intensifying value has the firstsentence?—“It was dusk when Maw came back; dusk ofa clear day, with a rosy sunset off behind the hills.”

General. Mary Brecht Pulver declares she is afraidshe is that “hooted-at and disbelieved-in thing,” an inspirationalwriter. “Given a major premise, an argument,some slight flash of idea, for a chart and I amready to sail over the smooth white main. My crew willcome to me ready named, ready behavioured, and willnavigate my bark for me.... All of my stories arepictures. They unroll like a cinema in colors just offmy left shoulder. They move so fast my wrist achesto keep up with them. I never rewrite anything unlessan editor requests it. My first draft is the only one.As you see, this is not intellectual but emotional work.I can do only a thousand words at a sitting because ofthe emotional strain. This seems deplorable, consideringthe product but it seems necessary. Like the Japin the legend, I must mix a little blood with my clayto get any kind of pottery.”

At first, this passage would seem to say, “There’s nouse trying to learn to write.” And it may be urged herethat the young fiction aspirant who feels impelled tocreate, and according to his own bent, should give hisgenius a full chance. Any student may glean this, however,from the words of Mrs. Pulver: Without emotionof one’s own, success is impossible.

Starting Point. “Somewhere I read in the summerof 1917 a reference to a legend of either a poor saint livingas a hermit or a holy abbess (I can’t really rememberwhich) who entertained a company of horsemen onenight. In the morning the field where the horses hadgrazed was untouched and the realization came that atroop of angels had been that way. I am sorry not to bemore definite as to this source.

“Washington and the war are wholly of my own invention,and the miracle of the meadow grass became incidentalas I wrote the story, which I had at first plannedto call ‘The Green Meadow.’ As to the actual processesof invention I should say no one can quite explain theleast important of them.”—Harrison Rhodes.

Classification. On concluding “Extra Men” if areader asks, “What is its purpose?” he will reply in substance,to his self-query: “To convey the thought thatspirits of our heroic dead support the boys at the front.”Theme is dominant. “I cannot say that I believe in thesupernatural or miracles,” Mr. Rhodes states, “but Ibelieve the story of ‘Extra Men’ to be essentially andsymbolically true.”

Plot. Plot sinks, therefore, into comparative insignificance.A single incident serves to convey the truth.Whereas the miracle of the meadow grass might havebeen the chief event, its purpose here is rather that of adetail, substantiating the visit.

Characters. The spirit of George Washington is themain character of the incident. Since, however, it isfitting that the past be subordinated to the present (inconformity with the author’s purpose), the old lady isintroduced previous to the story-action, and is, therefore,the main figure of the entire narrative.

Notice the suggestive method used in identifying thespirit of Washington—nowhere is he openly named.For example, he speaks of Arlington, “the house whichonce belonged to a relative of mine”; and says elsewhere,“You would not now know Valley Forge.”

Mrs. Buchan was favored with the visit not by accident.The motivation for it is unobtrusively and perhapseven unconsciously conveyed, but none the less withpotence. How has the author enlisted sympathy forher.

What is the rôle of young Buchan? Is there a reasonfor his name—“George”?

What plot value has Al Fenton, “the farmer”?

Setting. The scene is important, since nowhere elsecould the action have occurred with equal fitness. “Thequaint name” of the hamlet at once calls up the historicepisode of Washington crossing the Delaware.

Atmosphere. The realistic mood of the story contributesto its power of conviction.

Classification. This short-story illustrates groupingfor sake of climactic effect. Events of forty yearsare illuminated by the happenings of a day. The narrativehas both an outer and an inner action.

Plot. The plot of the combined inner and outerstory is quite simple. The initial impulse consists ofMark Faraday’s interest in Miss Allison Clyde. Thedramatic climax, if such it may be called, lies in the findingof the love-letters which his Uncle William hadwritten and never sent to Allison. The climax of actionis his handing the package of letters to Allison.

The inner plot is found in the letters. The initial impulseof William’s love for Allison operates until thedramatic climax. This dramatic climax is William’sknowledge that he must die and his feeling that he mustnever speak again to Allison of his passion. Up to theclimax of action (his death) his letters have the noteof renunciation; before the dramatic climax they lookedto union with the girl he adored.

The two parts are linked in William’s giving the packageto Allison. Would you have been satisfied to seehim read them without passing them on to her? Areyou satisfied to construct your own dénouement—Allison’semotion, etc.?

Characterization. Since development or deteriorationof character is difficult to indicate within the compassof the short-story, this specimen shows a distinctadvantage in massing the incidents near the climax. ForAllison may be shown finished, perfect,—the lovely“personage,” to quote the oracle, Mrs. Herrick,—whomMark finds. At the same time, her development is madelogical by the emphasis on her youthful beauty of mindand heart as her lover saw it. Study, in the usual way,the many methods by which Mrs. Roof has made vividher portrait. Mark’s point of view regarding her isparticularly good; also, the foil, Stella, serves adequatelyto set her off. Observe, too, the relation she bears toher setting, her fitness for it.

Since Mark is the one through whom the reader learnsthe facts of the action, his mind is open to the reader’svision. Is there too much of the artist about him, notenough of the man? Would you have him different?Is he the nephew of his uncle, from a consideration ofsentiment?

What effect is produced by the names, in connectionwith their owners?—Mark, Stella, Allison, William?

Details. What is the intensifying worth of the sundial?Of the buzzing bee? A second line of interestmay be said to lie in the music theme, which intensifiesthe line of the love interest and Mark’s interest in MissAllison.

Do you feel jarred or pleased by the shift to Allison’sangle (in her letter, page 204)?

Does Mark too easily come across the daguerreotype,or does the casual manner of his finding it fit into thesmooth and leisurely progress of the story?

Why is the picture of Allison “standing by the tallmantle in the candle-light” one that lingers? Why doesone remember the picture of Beatrix (in “Henry Esmond”)coming down the stairs in white, with cherrycolored ribbons, holding the candle in her hand?

Do the letters of William strike you as having beencomposed by a man or a woman? Why?

Classification. “Zelig” is a character story, withdecided emphasis on the character. There is just enoughplot to lift it from the realm of the sketch into that ofthe narrative.

Plot. The struggle lies in Zelig’s attempt to savesufficient money for returning to Russia. It is unsuccessful.

What is the initial impulse, the first hint of a storymotive?

The dramatic climax is preceded by a minor one:the death of Zelig’s son. The real turning point, thedramatic climax, is made up of the wife’s statements(page 224), the most important of which is the referenceto the son’s death.

The climax of action and the dénouement fall togetherin the final speech of the story, being suggested ratherthan stated.

Characterization. The old man is characterized bythe author’s description (the direct method, so called);by the summary of what his brethren felt and said (combinationof direct and indirect methods); by the opinionhis fellow-workmen held of him; and by Zelig’s own actsand speeches in addition to his habitual manner. Hashe the greater part of the stage for most of the time?Purpose of his wife? Son? Grandson? Of the backgroundcharacters?

Setting. “New York’s East Side.” The secondvalue of the story lies in the setting. Indeed, the charactervalue would be lost without it, and the unificationis therefore noteworthy. Is the setting made contributoryto atmosphere, also?

Details. Are you satisfied with the ending? Is thesense of tragedy at the failure of the human elementstriving against circumstance relieved by the recognitionof Zelig’s rehabilitation, or revivification? Has he, ina deeper sense, conquered in that he has conquered self?

General Methods. That Benjamin Rosenblatt createshis characters, not “lifting” them from life, is manifestin his statement: “As to Zelig, I really haven’t metany one just like him, so that I couldn’t have had anyindividual case before my mind’s eye when I wrote thestory.”

Starting Point. “A few years ago I passed one ofthe congested East Side streets just when a fire brokeout in one of the tenements. I saw climbing down thefire escapes of the burning building a very old Jewessdragging some of her belongings with her. Among thesebelongings was a pair of old-fashioned, common-placecandlesticks used for ‘Sabbath blessing.’ That startedme on the way to ‘The Menorah.’”—Benjamin Rosenblatt.

Classification. “The Menorah” offers itself as a fitcompanion-piece to “Zelig.” In the latter, the setting isNew York, the character is an old man, the struggle issuccessfully unsuccessful. In this, the setting is “a littletown in Russia,” the chief character is an old woman,the struggle is successfully unsuccessful. It is to beremarked that the two settings are equally well-knownto Mr. Rosenblatt.

Plot. The struggle is on Lea’s part to preserve appearancesin her rapidly deteriorating circumstances,to find a match for her daughter, and to keep the Menorah.The last is the most important. Although shefails, she does so in a way to relieve the reader’s distressat her failing.

A minor climax is in the death of the younger girl.

The dramatic climax is the securing of the properyoung man as bridegroom for her daughter.

With the dramatic climax is bound up the climax ofaction (of the largest struggle): the Menorah must besold.

Characterization. The story is told, as was “Zelig,”from the omniscient author’s point of view with theomniscience exercised over the chief character. Studythe portrayal of Lea, as you were recommended to studythat of Zelig. What is the purpose of Reb Schloime?Compare him with “Paw” Haynes in “The Path ofGlory” as to his function.

Details. These two stories by Benjamin Rosenblattperform a service for the Jewish people, in rationalizingthe desire for money, a desire about which volumes havebeen written. It is to be observed in these narrativesthat the possession of worldly treasure in each case issecondary to another ideal. In Lea’s case it is her lovefor her ancestors and their glory joined to a sensitivenessat the fall in her worldly station. What is the primaryideal in “Zelig”?

What clue to the disposal of the candelabrum occursearlier in the narrative?

What national and racial customs intensify the setting?

“To me, a narrative that has for its aim to interest thereader in its plot is an anecdote, be its plot ever so thick.A narrative that aims to interest the reader in a slice ofpalpitating life—the joys or sorrows of people—be itsplot ever so thin, I call it a short story.”—BenjaminRosenblatt.

Classification. This work, and the following one,“Penance” might be characterized as stories thatare short, rather than short-stories. If the point wereargued, however, it might be said that because of thesituation, the theme quality, and the historic interest, allof which contribute to unity of effect, the two are outlyingspecimens of the genre. The time of the action,here, is forty years. So it is in “The Waiting Years”(Page 172), but whereas there the time of the actionis only twenty-four hours (see the management) here itis the full forty.

Plot.

Theme. It arrives fully in the reader’s understandingthe significance of the dénouement, or seeing in it a symbolicunity between North and South.

Details. What trait of human nature is displayedin Adam? Is it consistent in its operations?

What is the setting? What integrative worth has it?How greatly does the possibility of a “story,” in thefirst place, depend upon it?

Classification. See classification of “The Survivors.”Here the elements all work toward unity of effect:even the thirty year period contributes to the same unity.It is even necessary to the working out of the penance.(Could it have been massed in such a way as to give thereader the same consciousness of retribution as it hereconveys?) But the length of the action is not the lengthof the best short-story action.

“Penance” provides an interesting companion-pieceto “The Survivors.” Notice that whereas in the formerinstance the initial incident was separated by the longspace from the turning point of the action; here the plotis completed except for the fact that Buckingham’s understanding(the dénouement) comes after thirty years.

Plot. The initial impulse lies in Buckingham’s interestin Minnie.

Fill in the steps that follow immediately, culminatingin

The Dramatic Climax: Minnie detains Buckingham.

Fill in the steps that precede

Details. What is your opinion of Buckingham? Bywhat methods did you receive the data on which you baseit?

Where is the guide (page 292) first mentioned? Whyis this an instance of good workmanship?

Is it better that Minnie drop out of the story, not toreappear?

“Minnie stood on the stairway and looked down athim, the light from the candle in her hand flickering overher.” (Page 287.) See the query on “The WaitingYears,” page 173.

Classification. This is one of a series of stories centeringaround the life of Ferdinand Taillandy, a lovablehero akin to William J. Locke’s “Beloved Vagabond”and “Aristide Pujol.” In such a series it is not necessaryor even desirable that the short-story type be sought.All the narratives, from start to finish, as a completeseries, are more likely to reveal a general structure culminatingin a climax (which will probably require awhole story) than any one of them is likely to possessdefinite and clear-cut mechanism.

The three necessary stages of narrative, according toAristotle, are beginning, middle and end. These stages,as to action, are well-defined in the present story. Butone feels at the beginning that here is a hero broughtover from a preceding adventure, as one knows at theend that he is off for new experiences. Is the action inregard to Diane complete?

Plot.

Characterization. For what reasons do you likeTaillandy? Wherein lies the significance of “Feet ofGold”? Read the final story in this series, “At theEnd of the Road,” and observe whether the author haskept Taillandy’s character consistent. Take note of thecharacters who know Taillandy in the present narrative,observe the feeling each has for him, and see how wellMr. Smith has used their opinions to emphasize Taillandy’scharacter as described. What does Taillandythink of each of the other characters?

By what means has the author chiefly pictured Diane?How has she been enhanced by the two settings? Whatinteraction have character and setting throughout thestory?

Details. What value has the following statement ascompared with the more direct one, “Taillandy was generous”?

“Of that thousand francs Taillandy spent seven hundredand ninety-six during the next four days—ninety-six,possibly, on himself, and the balance on his friends.”

What other characteristic is implied, also?

Study the management of suspense (pages 313, 314,315). Why are you held waiting?

Why (on page 317) did Taillandy whisper to thedriver?

Why (page 298) did Diane weep at the mention ofMadame Nicolas’s name?

What place references keep the locale before you?

How in the speeches and manner of the characters areyou kept aware of the French race?

Starting Point. “You ask about the origin of ‘Solitaire,’which chances to be rather easier to trace than theorigin of most of the stories I have written, since I moreoften begin with an abstract ‘idea’ and work outwardto character and plot. When a story begins otherwise Ihave discovered (and all such things are matters of discoveryafter the fact, and never of premeditation) that itis almost invariably the result of some purely visual impressionof a single person, detached from any incident orcomplication. A stranger, seen once, who recurs againand again to my mind, and about whom my curiosity increases,I have learned to rely upon, in a kind of occultunstatable way, to bring home his own plot.

“The opening scene of ‘Solitaire’ is an exact transcriptof one of those visual impressions. I did see theman who afterward became ‘Corey’ in the restaurant ofa small Paris hotel. My vis-à-vis did say, ‘Look at theAmerican!’ and I did turn to meet the twinkle I havedescribed in the story. The curious thing is that I cannotnow remember whether he wore a decorative ribbonor not. My impression is that he did not, for it was notuntil several weeks later that the idea of decorations as a‘motive’ occurred to me. What mattered, what reallyroused my curiosity, was my surprise at seeing him there,when I knew nothing at all about the man,—my immediatesense of his playing a strange rôle, of his being awayfrom home. He was a physician, he had been working inthe Balkans, and he was going back again the next day.Also he had been in Russia. These things he told meafter dinner in the salon, when we talked together; andhe was from the Middle West, and called it ‘God’scountry’ and said he wanted to get back. I did not seehim after that night, but he kept coming into my mind,and each time I would wonder how he had ever come intomy mind, and each time I would wonder how he had evercome to leave his home in the Middle West, and in the endit became, I suppose, a kind of subconscious abstract problem.At any rate the solution appeared one day—andall I had then to do was to write the story. So, after all,it was a story of ‘idea’ worked out to plot,—but a visualimpression put the idea into my head. One thing only,I believe, I knew all the time,—that whatever his motivewas, he was as much in the dark about it as I. That, perhaps,was what attracted me, what kept my curiosity alive,and what, in the end, made it an acceptable story.”—FletaCampbell Springer.

Plot. Unsheathed from the tissue of its presentation,the essential plot of this character story is as follows:

Presentation. The facts of the plot, extending overa long time, are unified through the device of the narratorwho, first becoming curious about Corey and enlistingthe reader’s curiosity, learns them from Mr. Ewing.Ewing, then, becomes an inner narrator, and hisstory, in turn, encloses that of Burke. The skill of theauthor is manifest in the process by which she has sointerwoven the various pieces of information about Coreyas to make a smooth and perfectly joined story. Theelement of Chance plays a strong part, but so natural arôle that it meets with no lack of credulity. That is,Chance caused the first meeting, but since in that contretempslies the base of the story, it is accepted. Chancealso causes the meeting between the narrator and the onlyman, perhaps, who could have given the facts aboutCorey’s career. But it is naturally brought about,through the setting and the preliminaries antecedent tothe recognition that here was some one who knew Corey.

Do you anywhere feel that the narrator is a woman?Is the narrator’s delicacy in the smoking car, for example,greater than a man would have felt? Would a manapologize for hearing the story.

Character. The story exemplifies to an unusual degreethe unity which results from emphasizing one character.Every other is ancillary to Corey. Even his wifeis but a human means for bringing home to his own consciousnessthe question as to his motives. The othersexist mainly as links between the reader and Corey.The interest in the physician, for the reader, lies inspeculating over his acts, his whereabouts, and the opposingforces of his nature. In the end, it is seen thathe has been all along a single-hearted American, one whofollowed his nature, but who, when his attention wasdrawn to the sort of nature it appeared to be, determinedupon a course of punishment. The title of the storystrengthens this interpretation. The summary episodeof the Western miner strengthens it: if the miner cheatedat solitaire he shot himself. Corey felt that he hadcheated unaware and set himself to the task of flagellation.

Setting. The contrast between the Middle West andFrance emphasizes the apparent contradictory qualities inCorey’s nature. The shift in settings is in itself conduciveto unity and short-story effect only through contrast;but the rehearsed method of telling the story, withthe accent on Corey, properly subordinates the divergencein locality and swings it into harmony.

Fleta Campbell Springer thinks a short-story is whateverthe author makes it. “That is why I believe in it,in its possibilities. The very fact that you can’t put yourfinger on it, can’t ticket it, or define it, is its fascination.Its limits are the limits of the author’s ability, and thereare several kinds of authors in the world. The word‘short-story’ is sufficient definition in itself, length beingthe only quality to come under restriction.”

Mr. Steele’s twelve or fifteen years of studying thetechnique of story writing have resulted in his masteringthe power of suggestion, found at its height in Kipling,and the clear vigorous expression for which Stevensonis famous. Without a statement to the contraryfrom the author himself it would be safe to assume thatthey were his models.

“The Yellow Cat” is told in the first person byRidgeway, aided by McCord, and it is in part createdby the reader. One who likes to create with ease willfind a strain upon his powers of construction; the morehe takes his reading as a narcotic, the less he will enjoyit. The constructive reader will delight in it.

As a change from the analysis of plot in the presentation,it will be profitable to construct the events in chronologicalorder.

A. The master of the Abbie Rose fears his Chinamancook; he enters his fear in his log, intimating that hemay do away with the Chinaman.

B. The second seaman, Bach, also becomes a victim offear. The two men find that their revolvers are stolen.

C. (Invented by every reader to suit himself. Perhapsthe two seamen deserted the ship?)

D. The Chinaman is left on board. (Is he innocent?)He climbs into the shrouds, when he sees the smoke ofan approaching vessel.

E. The vessel is descried, soon after C, or D, by theMercury. (... “the stove in the galley still slightlywarm.”) It is seemingly empty but for a yellow cat.

F. McCord and Björnsen are detailed to steer theAbbie Rose to port, over a hundred miles distant. McCordis the engineer.

G. Björnsen, going to shake out the foretopsail encountersthe Chinaman.

H. (Invented by the reader. Björnsen was probablyknocked into the sea, and may have made his escape to theland. Was he killed?)

I. McCord missing Björnsen, and becoming obsessedby the yellow cat, begins to consider the theory of transmigrationof souls.

J. (Suggested to the reader: McCord thinking theChinaman is dead—for he has read the log entries—suspectsthat his soul has come back in the body of thecat.)

K. He undergoes a period of mental agony, duringwhich time he brings the vessel into port. He sees theshadow of the Chinaman; he shoots at the shadow; hemisses the water, etc. He cannot sleep and the cat hasdisappeared.

(Note that all the incidents above are of the timepreceding the “acting time” of the story, or the immediatesituation and action.)

L. The narrator, Ridgeway, here comes on board thevessel lying in the upper river.

M. As the men talk, McCord relating his experiences,the cat re-appears.

N. She hears a sound, rushes amidships, and the menfollow.

O. They look aloft. (See page 255, top.)

P. (Suggested: McCord sees something in the shroud.)

Q. (Suggested: He shakes down the Chinaman.)

R. The Chinaman escapes, leaving his slipper.

S. McCord from the mast brings down the two revolversand other things.

T. McCord now understands the whole business; hegoes to sleep at once.

Such an order would have spoiled the story. Noticein the presentation:

1. The gathering up of the greater part of the incidentsat the shortest possible distance from the climax ofaction.

2. The economical and dramatic method by which thepreceding circumstances are set forth. The reader knowsonly what McCord knows.

3. The large employment of suggestion.

4. The keeping of the place—the boat is the scene ofaction for three different groups, only the last group beingthe immediate actors.

5. The excellent clues to the shrouds as the hidingplace. (See pages 237, ... “top-sails being pursed up... but not stowed”; 238, ... “handing down like huge,over-ripe pears,” etc.)

6. The logic of McCord’s not finding the hiding placeof the cook. (First sentence, page 255.) This illustratesPoe’s theory as set forth in “The Purloined Letter.”

7. The use of suspense. The reader wonders whetherthe explanation will lie in the supernatural or the natural.Suspense is satisfied only in the dénouement, after whichthe end comes quickly.

8. The motivation for the whole story. It lies infear: “the one universal and uncontrollable passion.”And it is heightened by placing in opposition representativesof two races, neither of which understands theother. Here, then, is the real struggle.

Classification. This is, primarily, a love story, havinga strongly marked struggle between the first and secondcharacters, and a complicating thread of interestdrawn from the relations between the first and thirdcharacters. It is of the familiar “triangle” type, butof a unique individuality.

The struggle appears to be motivated by something likehate; but the dénouement reveals that the acts resultingfrom apparent hatred or contempt were only negative ordistorted expressions of the real or positive passion.

Presentation. The narrator is the author (third person),who focuses the spot-light on Angel.

Plot. Analyze the plot, marking out the main steps.What is the turning point in the struggle, or the dramaticclimax?

Compare the manipulation of the plot elements with themanagement of those in “The Yellow Cat” plot. Whichis simpler?

Setting. Among the Portuguese on Urkey Island.The time is the present.

Characterization. The racial type chosen is one,through which passionate and contradictory expressionmight well flow. A colder-tempered, more logical people,would here be impossible. Or if individuals of themilder tempered race were chosen, the task of makingthem convincing (as a group) would be an added difficulty.

What impression of Peter Um Perna do you receive atfirst? By what method or methods of portrayal is thisimpression conveyed?

Where is the second Peter, his second self, first revealed?[Pg 193]Where in full? What is the significance of therelationship of the one who explains him?

What is the chief trait of Angel? How is your opinionof her maintained or changed? At what point, andwhy, does she leave off caring for Man’el?

What marked characteristics of Peter and Man’el arecontrasted? (See e.g., page 329: “Yeh!” He hadplanned to lie about that.”)

What is the value of the older characters—the Avoand Mena?

Why are the life-savers numbered 1, 2, 5 and so on?

Details. Is there anywhere a clue to Angel’s love forPeter? To his for her?

Wherein lies the element of suspense? Where is yourcuriosity first satisfied? What becomes a new cause forreading on? How is suspense increased near the finaloutcome?

Why at first reading are you not sure of the place atwhich Angel no longer loves Man’el? What purpose ofthe author leads him to leave the reader doubtful?

What vividness is given to the description of the setting,in the first paragraph?

What plot convenience exists in the Avo being Peter’slaundress?

How is the name Philomena used? In what otherstory of these collections do you find it similarly non-descriptive?

Why is the title “Down on Their Knees”?

What indications in this story, in the way of colorand form, do you find of Mr. Steele’s being also an artistof the brush?

What plot purpose does Man’el perform in his dareto Peter, to “go fishin’”? Does he serve to get thesituation over the impasse? Is it a too obvious trick?

The struggle in the last lap of the action is one againstthe elements. What are the two subdivisions of thisstruggle? Is the outcome satisfactory? What symbolicvalue has the final sentence?

Presentation. The story is told in reminiscent veinby one who uses his own angle as a boy. It recalls themanner of “Treasure Island,” as “The Yellow Cat”recalls Kipling. The boy’s angle is faithfully kept, withexcellent results. The first value of the boy’s angle isthat much of the action was unclear to him, as itprogressed chronologically, and this obscurity is carriedover to the reader. The reader, then, is kept in suspense,as the boy was, until the outcome. It is a well-knownand capital means of creating and heighteningsuspense. The second value is that the boy’s point ofview is the best for unity of effect. Observe that this istrue in studying the

Plot.

Theme. The story is thought-provoking in its bignessof theme which every reader will express for himself.Many will see no further than the concrete events.Others may be tempted, perhaps, to read more into thestory than the author consciously included. But it seemsto be clear that the end of the struggle is in the yellowman’s favor. The closing sentence emphasizes the ironyof mission work.

Characterization. Is the boy’s angle uniform inregard to his apprehension and comprehension at the ageof thirteen? Does he occasionally seem older? younger?

What attributes of the Minister invite your sympathy?How are his qualities given—through the boy,or through his report of acts and speeches?

At what point do you begin to watch for trickeryon Mate Snow’s part? What is his dominant trait?

What trait of the Chinaman is exploited? Is it racialor individual?

Setting. Point out links that connect the locale ofthis story with that of “Down on their Knees.” Noticethat the chief scene-settings are: the Chinaman’s scow,the church, the home of Sympathy Gibbs. Why is thedrug-store residence of Minister Malden not used? Whynot the transactions at Infield? Give two reasons, onewith regard to unity, the other with regard to handlingof plot.

Is there reason that the action might have strayed overtoo much time and place for the purpose of the short-story?Could a novelette be constructed out of the materialincluded?

Details. By what early preparation does the deathof Snow from poison become so logical as scarce tochallenge question? (See page 442.)

“Tubbed box trees,” “the big green door,” “lilacpanes,” “silhouetted against the open door,” “a steam-blurredsilhouette,” “shadows of the uneasy flock movedacross the windows,”—these illustrate what ability ofthe author? Point out other examples.

Page 447—“If—if one had faith!” To whatdénouement is this a clue?

Page 448—“He’s gone out in the back-country topray alone.” Clue to what? Do you think it crediblethat Mate Snow never suspected where Malden went onthese occasions? If he knew, what motive kept himsilent? Where did Mate Snow suppose the Minister gotthe hush-money?

Page 449—“The door was still open, a blank, brightrectangle giving into the deserted vestry, and it wasagainst this mat of light that I spied Minister Malden’shead,” etc. What processes work to make this a memorablebit of description. Point out similar examples inthis story and in the other stories of Mr. Steele. Pointout examples in stories by other authors.

Study Mr. Steele’s use of shadows, here and in “TheYellow Cat.” Compare them with Mr. Dobie’s shadowsin “Laughter.” The value of shadows lies in their suggestion.They call up the real thing in fiction more easilyand economically than the thing itself, as described, cando. The reason is obvious. If there is a shadow, thereader knows, unconsciously, there must be somethingto cast it. Hence, curiosity may be aroused; in anyevent, “belief” is secured in the reality of the object.

“Approaching ... I put one large, round eye to theaperture.” (Page 455.) Did the boy think of himselfas having a “large round eye”? Or does the narratorthink of himself (now a man of years) as he looked?Is it sound technique, either way regarded, or would itbe better to leave out the “large, round”?

Is it more fascinating to read of something viewedin part and surreptitiously than it is to read of the samescene viewed as a whole and freely under usual conditions?What primitive impulses are appealed to?

Page 457, in the paragraph beginning, “I shall neverforget the picture,” occurs preparation for the “Chinaway” departure. What is it? In the same paragraphwhat excellent bit of description occurs?

What do you think of the idea “—the emotion ofhumor, which is another name for perception”? (Page458.)

Page 459, in the paragraph beginning, “Yes,” he murmured,is an excellent example of irony. How does itaid the action?

Do you believe that in the struggle of wills Mate Snowwould have given in to the urge of the Chinaman? Whatcircumstances argue for the result? What is against it?

Page 465. Do not fail to take the full meaning ofthe paragraph to heart: “He lay so still over there onthe couch.” In what lines is the thought most poignant?

Page 467. Why is the expression “Urkey’s unwashedcollars” used with fine effect?

What satisfaction do you find in the closing tableau?

“The Dark Hour” has, in the story sense, no plot.The only action lies in a fragmentary discussion betweenthe sick man, Hallett, and his physician who paces thedeck of the homeward bound vessel. The only hint of astruggle lies in the conflicting viewpoints of the two men.

Hallett holds that Germany has a vision—“a red,bloody, damned vision”—but a vision. The Allies have,as yet, no vision.

The doctor argues that the Allies want to win the war.

Hallett replies that this desire is nightmare.—“Theonly thing to beat a vision black as midnight is a visionwhite as the noonday sun.” He eventually gives the possiblevision,—symbolized earlier by his words, “There’sa bright star, doctor,”—in the thin-worn word, “Democracy.”He declares that such an impossible Utopia mustcome—or “Hamburg to Bagdad.” As the doctor declaresthat this wild empire of the spirit is impossible andHallett agrees, cryptically, that it is impossible, the watchcries “All’s well.” Hallett then says we may do theimpossible, after all; in all the world is nothing but thesound of the barricades of revolution. He sees the star,as he has seen it in the beginning of the dialogue.

The argument thus becomes an optimistic prophecy ofthe final vision of the Allies. At Thanksgiving, 1918, theimpossible seems about to be realized: Hallett was essentiallyright, in his point of view.

The sick man, one who probably dying is assumedlyclose to the spirit-world, is well-balanced by the materialphysician, representing the earth-spirit.

Besides suggesting a nexus between America and thefighting Allies, the homeward bound vessel affords fromits deck, quite naturally, the view of the star, which becomessymbolically useful; and, further, the cry of thewatch, “All’s well,” which also conveys a deeper meaning.

The story should be read as the counterpart of VirgilJordan’s “Vengeance is Mine.” (See page 119.)

Starting Point. In “The Bird of Serbia,” Mr.Street desired to say through the medium of fiction acertain thing. “Perhaps I wanted to say: ‘Nothingis so small or so nasty that it can not be made to serve anautocratic ruler in carrying out his designs.’ So, then, Itook as my symbol for smallness and nastiness, the louse.And then I set out to prove that lice could serve the autocratwho wished to start a war. I wanted to show howvery true that theory is, and I should say that the qualityof truth in that story—the convincingness of it—is thebest thing about it.”—Julian Street.

Plot.

The struggle, then, is one of wills—Gavrilo’s againstMara’s. The two lines of interest forming the complicationare 1st, the love story of Gavrilo and Mara; 2nd, therelations between Serbians and Austria. This complicationbegins with the initial impulse of the story and findsits solution only with the climax of action.

Examples of good craftsmanship in details are 1st,making Gavrilo a good shot, and at the same time introducingthe bird motif; 2nd, strengthening Mara’s willand antagonizing Gavrilo by the cousin, who is introducedwith the first mention of Gavrilo’s love affair. Point outother instances of plot finish.

Presentation. The story, as told by a man in asmoking-car, is immediately and logically motivated bythe newspaper account of Gavrilo Prinzip’s death. Thedénouement, therefore, is presented first, though it appearsfrom the conclusion that the narrator’s fellow-travelersdo not recognize this fact until the series ofevents comes full circle.

In connection with the plot, notice how the narrator isbound up with it. What advantages do you find in theauthor’s presenting the story in the rehearsed, ratherthan in the dramatic way? “In order to show what Iwas driving at,” says Mr. Street, “it was necessary forme to use the form of the inner, related story—a formwhich is always awkward, but which sometimes succeedsin spite of its awkwardness, for the reason that thereader becomes so absorbed in the inner story that heforgets that an individual is supposed to be speaking,and that, too often, that individual is talking like a book,rather than a human being, let alone an easy raconteur.

“My story, ‘The Bird of Serbia,’ is not without thisfault. The man who sits in the smoking-room of aPullman car and relates the inner tale, would not, inactual life, have spoken altogether as I made him speak.To that extent, then, the story is imperfect; but this imperfectionis not likely to be noticed by the average reader,because it is not sufficiently glaring to remind him thatthe man in the smoking-room is supposed to be talking allthe while.”

Characterization. What traits in the chief actorsare most conspicuous? Are they “played up” convincinglyand economically? What value have the backgroundcharacters—the mother of Gavrilo, for example?What points of the Austrian character are noted, becauseof which sympathy is diverted from the Archduke?

Is the narrator of Gavrilo’s story, the man in the smoking-car, a minor character or a disinterested chronicler ofthe events he followed so minutely and accurately?

Setting. Notice that Mr. Street restrains his narratorfrom stating the name of the place, Sarajevo, untilnear the conclusion. Does its reserve increase the finaleffect? What details indicate the author’s familiaritywith local conditions, customs, dress, and language? Towhat end do these local color data contribute?

Details. What clue do you find in the narrator’sstatement about the “microscopic unclean forces ofwhich historians will never know”?

Do you regard the ending as one of “surprise”? Ifso, is it calculated as such, or rather a chance offshoot ofwhat was intended, rather, as a strong closing sentence?

On the subject of story writing in general, Mr. Streetmakes a valuable observation:

“It seems to me that there is a tendency, in discussingthe art of short story writing, to confuse manner andmatter, and to conclude that the story with a big, sombretheme must necessarily be superior, as a work of art, tothe story which is lighter in subject and treatment.When I say ‘light’ I do not mean frivolous or false.De Maupassant, Leonard Merrick, and O. Henry havetaught us better than that. A story can have the qualityof truth, and can be rich in character and observation,yet be done with splendid deftness of touch—and oftentimesthis very deftness, which we so seldom see in astory, is regarded too lightly by critics. It is much asthough we were to insist that the wood-chopper hasgreater skill than the tight-rope walker, valuing the heavystrokes of the one more highly than the poise and adeptnessof the other. A light touch in a story often suggeststhat it has been produced with ease; and a lightstep on the tight-rope suggests the same thing; but whenwe see a man swinging a heavy axe at a huge tree trunk,breathing hard and sweating, we readily perceive that heis doing real work. Hard work. I do not dispute thatthere may be certain lumber-jacks who handle the two-edgedaxe with a practiced skill rivaling or, perhaps, evensurpassing the skill of a fair tight-rope walker; butneither do I hold with those who see art only where thereis sweat and smell and swearing.”

Opening Situation. James Thorold, of Chicago, hasjust been appointed ambassador to Forsland. IsadorFramberg has fallen at Vera Cruz. Thorold is makinghis way to the station to meet his son, Peter, who comeson the same train that brings the body of Framberg.

The initial incident, then, of the complete story is themeeting of father and son.

Brief steps in action.—The two pay their respects toFramberg’s remains, at City Hall. This becomes themotivation for the story Thorold tells his son and for hisgiving up the appointment. (See final paragraph.)

Plot of Inner Story.

Characterization. Thorold is the chief figure, emphasizedfrom beginning to end by the author’s comment,by his own recollections, by his son’s remarks to him, andby his own confession. The struggle is Thorold’s.What aspects has it?

The second figure is Framberg—dead. He is thecause of the immediate phase of the long struggle, theclimactic phase. He is the contrasting element, theheroic young man, even an alien by birth, who was neverthelessa better American than Thorold. (Notice the informationgiven, page 262, about his foreign birth.)Through whom does the reader get most of the informationabout Isador?

The third figure is Peter, a foil of another sort forhis father. He is the judge. “Our children are alwaysour ultimate judges”—page 268. Is Peter, at anypoint, inconsistent with your concept of a sixteen yearold boy? How do you account for the fact, with respectto authorship and artistic purpose of the author?Are his personality and influence, joined to that of Framberg’s,strong enough for the motivating force? Thatis, would Thorold have told his story? Would he havegiven up the ambassadorship?

Setting, Etc. The narrator brings together in anapparently easy yet powerful way in a tempo suited tothe happenings in real life the forces of half a century.(Compare with this management that in “The WaitingYears.”) The action occurs within a single morning.Chicago is kept before the reader by numerous references.The magnitude of the narrative is increased by the spiritof Lincoln; the poignancy of sentiment by the lilac fragrance,the picture of the hearse, the reminiscence of thedead Lincoln.

Presentation. How consistently does the authorkeep to the mind of Thorold in exercising her power ofomniscience? When she shifts to the boy’s mind, doyou feel a break in the unity? What alleviating circumstanceshelp to preserve the unity?

Atmosphere. The tone is restrained, sad from the innerfailure of the man who has known worldly success;yet it is hopeful in the spiritual outcome of the struggleand in the promise of the young boy Peter. Is it characteror setting which, in this story, contributes most toatmosphere?

Classification. A story of situation, suggestingnumerous small struggles. (See below.) It is a remarkableexample of the multum in parvo managementrequired of the short-story. The action requires a briefpart of one day.

Plot. The impulse of the action lies in the telephonemessage announcing Bessie Lowe’s death.

The dramatic climax is in Dick’s perjury: his declarationthat Bessie Lowe was the girl he had cared for.

The climax of action lies in the narrator’s discoverythat Standish—not Dick—had been Bessie’s lover.

The dénouement is the narrator’s “poisoned arrow”flash of light that Dick had loved Leila and had sacrificedhis own fiancée to the hurt to save Leila’s feelings.With the recognition dawns the realization that she andDick must go their ways.

Struggle moments suggested are: 1. In the heart ofStandish. Shall he confess to his wife? 2. In the heartof Dick. Shall he sacrifice his fiancée to save Leila’sfeelings? 3. On Leila’s part. Shall she indicate thatshe knows Dick is lying? 4. On the part of the narrator.What shall she do about it? In each case, the outcomearrives with celerity, and love is the ruling motive in eachstruggle. The decision, as affected by love, testifies tothe character of each person.

Characterization. Is each character so described,and does he show such action and interaction as to makelogical the behavior in the particular struggle? Mustthe reader accept any one of the decisions on faith alone?

Setting. What is it? Has it particular contributoryvalue, or might the locale have been, say, New York?How is it integrated with atmosphere and action? (See,e.g., page 468, “Through the purpling twilight of thatSt. John’s eve.”)

Details. How might the narrator have hoodwinkedherself as to Dick’s motive? How might Dick have explainedso as either 1. to satisfy the narrator, or 2. toleave her—and the reader—in doubt? Which of thethree choices would have been cheapest and easiest?Which would have destroyed, altogether, the individualityof the story?

Study the sound effects, beginning in the very firstparagraph; Is there a suggestion of disturbed harmonies,in a spiritual sense? Notice that the sounds suggest theentire London background against which the individualtragedy stands out, etched in a few lines.

What value have the poetic passages which Miss Synonis fond of introducing into her stories? Do they seemto be external, or have they been made an essentiallyvital part of the whole?

What does lavender, at the close, signify?

Wherein lies the deepest pathos of the story? How isit conveyed—by notice or neglect or by a happy restraint?

Classification. As a short-story of situation, thisnarrative achieves that concentration found in Barrie’s“Half Hour” Plays. It may be studied as all the precedingexamples have been studied, but attention is calledto

Skill in Presentation.

1. In the suspense, (a) the reader senses a tragedy,but has not all the details until the end of the first sevenor eight hundred words, (b) the reader waits the newsof Jim’s death.

2. In the new rise of interest after Al’s announcement,“All over.”

3. In depicting the characters almost wholly throughacts and speeches.

4. In satisfying the reader. Jim died for a crime committedby another, but he seems to have deserved deathon general principles. Again, the surviving family havethe poor knowledge and consolation that he was immediatelyinnocent.

5. In the objective method (already suggested under3) which conveys directly the grim tragedy and sordidrealism.

A slip in the method is found in the fact that the mindof the child is invaded once or twice. It would seem thatat the beginning the author meant to present the wholetragedy from the point of view of Rhoda, who wouldnot comprehend it all, of course, and would thereforeserve a purpose similar to that of the thirteen year oldboy in “Ching, Ching, Chinaman.” But either the taskproved too difficult, or the author changed her purpose,without the revision which would have given perfectionto the method. (See, e.g., page 349, “Rhoda took stockof them....” This illustrates her “angle” or theauthor’s exercise of omniscience over her baby mentality.)

Setting and idea overbalance plot and characterizationin this story, which hardly concerns itself with narrativeform. True, it supports—rather than is supported by—anembryonic plot; and, true, the plot is marked bya struggle element in the guise of antagonism between twomen. But the author is interested in his question andin the debate.

The starting point of the argument is this query, propoundedby Norvel, at Isham’s restaurant: “If Marsis inhabited by a race so similar to ourselves, what meansof communication between us is there so unmistakablyof human origin that a sight of it or a sound from itwould unmistakably convince them of our relationship?”

As suggestion after suggestion is dismissed, it seems tobe clear that nature can imitate everything. Then Savelledeclares that man can only imitate nature. Philbin retorts:“That’s contrary to every teaching of Christ youever raved about.” Philbin goes away. Savelle continuesto maintain that all that is human is imitation.

Then comes the great war. Philbin returns to Isham’safter five years, in the second of the world conflict. Depressed,old, and distrait, he announces that he has losthis son. He produces the bronze cross, bestowed uponhis son for saving the lives of two fishmongers. YoungPhilbin was going back for the third when he was killed.

Norvel asks what part of nature Mr. Philbin was thenimitating.

Savelle affirms, “It is the divine phenomenon ofCalvary.” But Philbin replies, “When my son was alive,he was a man. I believe he, too, died like a man. Iprefer that to an imitation of anything—even God.”

There is, then, no outcome; for the conclusion butemphasizes, further, the two separate views. A largertruth is conveyed, however, which as if incidentallyusurps the end to which the story seems headed. It isthis: Sacrifice of life for a weaker brother is either Godlikeor manlike. With this dawning thesis in mind, thereader recognizes that Mr. Venable has answered emphaticallythe question set up in such stories as “GreaterLove—” and “The Knight’s Move.” (See page 75.)

Are the views of Philbin and Savelle, in the end, thesame each held at the beginning?

Plot.

Characters. In Hazelton, the dominant character,Mrs. Vorse presents an interesting study of dual personality.She gains the reader’s sympathy for himchiefly by showing that his better nature, as revealed inhis “first manner,” lacked appreciation from the artisticworld. He was, in a measure, forced to rely upon his“second” or “darker” manner. In this respect thenarrative offers a novel divergence from other stories ofthe type. At the same time, the contrasting features inthe man’s physical appearance, in his craftsmanship, andin his behavior toward De Vilmarte testify to the indubitablepresence of light and shade in his intrinsicmake-up.

De Vilmarte is only a foil, but sufficiently vitalized toshare, proportionately, the reader’s interest.

Setting. Nowhere except in France could the developmentof events be so easily compassed. From thesalon of the beginning to the hospital at the close, thesetting is an integral part of the story.

Starting Point. “It was in those intolerable days of1917 when Russia had fallen away and America seemedperilously unready; when German intrigue helped bytreachery behind the allied lines in France, England andItaly was winning the war for Germany; intolerable tothose of soldier blood whose years put them beyond thedead line of enlistment requirements and who could donothing more than work and earn and give over here.

I was haunted interminably by the suffering of thewomen of France whose men had died on the field ofhonor—wasted suffering if, in the end, the German won.I knew the women would fight against any—is there astronger adjective of horror now than Germanic odds?How could these widowed women, or even the dead bearit—and in a flash “The White Battalion” came.

Always the supernatural stories “flash” in this way,apparently in answer to a long sub-conscious demand forjustice beyond human power to compass. Other storiesbuild more or less painfully, save for the big scene.”—FrancesGilchrist Wood.

Plot.

Presentation. The rehearsal of this dramatic occurrence,so shortly after the event, scarcely detracts fromits stirring qualities. So striking are they, in fact, thatpresented directly they would probably suffer from over-emphasisand consequent lack of conviction. Moreover,reality is conveyed through

Characterization. The individual characters of themain incident are lost in the group—save for the brightpassage about the dead woman captain. Avenging theirdead, righting a wrong, holding sacred a trust, keepingfaith with the Fatherland, dying in performance of duty—ofall these the avenging women were nobly capable.The struggle, in its relation to woman nature, is one ofthe most psychologically true found in fiction. It wasall over in forty seconds; yet the so-called instinct ofwoman—in reality her ability to judge and decidequickly—terminated the struggle between tenderness andtrust, with ample time left over. Faith would be kept,even at the expense of their mortal bodies and of theirimmortal souls.—The characteristic of the White Battalionis the spirit of protection. The characteristics ofFouquet and Barres are simplicity, honesty and an almosthomely every-day-heroic quality, all of which workto the conviction of the reader. Because of the familyrelations, the fundamental notions of honor, and elementalideals exhibited, this story is destined to last.Founded on bed-rock principles of life itself, it towersinto the realm of spirit.

“The short-story is, of course, the recountal of somestruggle or complication so artistically told as to leaveupon the reader one dominant impression. Perhaps the‘artistic’ is redundant, for can a story leave such animpression unless it be artistically told? Even geniusesmust master their vehicle of expression or remain dumb.To win the sought for reaction to a short-story, painting,play or oratorio, one learns either in the hard, blind schoolof ‘rejection slips’ or by the intelligent method of skilledcritic and master, but learn one must.

“The high water mark in story writing is reached mostoften for me by the dramatic story, objectively told. Itis the genius who selects just the right, again the artistic,material which limns the personality of the character andreveals it to us through that unconscious tell-tale, thecharacter himself; whose story-people talk in just thetone that makes even the impossible carry conviction; andwho last, or perhaps first, has a story to tell and an unhackneyedway of telling it.

“Suggestion and restraint in a story appeal to memost strongly.... And when in ‘the joy of working’one masters the writer’s art, genius as well as mere talent,the reaction will come; the audience will laugh or cry—orboth, if the gods are kind.”—Frances Gilchrist Wood.