_THE SHORT STORY--POE, HAWTHORNE, MAUPASSANT._
As we have seen, the original form of modern fiction was that of the
short story--the tavern tale rendered in classic language by Boccaccio
in The Decameron and by the unknown author of The Arabian Nights.
All the great novelists wrote more or less short stories. Irving’s
“Rip Van Winkle” and “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” are classics. Balzac
was a master of the short story, and in “A Passion in the Desert” and
“La Grande Bretèche” we have two of the most powerful stories ever
written. Dickens and Thackeray are also short story tellers of rare
accomplishments. “A Christmas Carol,” “The Chimes,” and “The Cricket on
the Hearth” are among Dickens’s best work; and scattered through his
novels we will find such complete narratives as “The Five Sisters of
York” in Nicholas Nickleby. “The Princess’s Tragedy” is a chapter in
Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon.
But Edgar Allan Poe is the father of the modern short story, the short
story as a refined work of art rather than merely a simple short
narrative.
There is an impression that all of Poe’s stories are gruesome, but
this is not true. The most famous of his narratives are his three
great detective stories, “The Gold-Bug,” “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue,” and “The Purloined Letter.” Only the second has the elements
of terror in it. “The Gold-Bug” is the original treasure-finding and
cipher-reading story. “The Purloined Letter” and “The Murders in the
Rue Morgue” introduce Dupin, the French amateur detective, father of
Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (who by the way is an excellent son).
That Poe was a real and not a sham detective he demonstrated in
his analysis of the real case of Marie Roget, in which he used the
newspaper reports of a New York mystery and came to conclusions that
were afterward verified.
Another kind of story which Poe originated was the tale of imaginary
science. His stories of this kind are none of them gruesome, with the
single exception of “The Case of M. Valdemar.” The first story he wrote
of this kind was “Ms. Found in a Bottle.” This was followed by “Hans
Pfaal’s Voyage to the Moon,” “A Descent into the Maëlstrom,” “Mellonta
Tauta,” and “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherezade.”
A still different type of story is his prose poems such as the
beautiful “Eleonora,” and his studies in landscape such as “The Island
of the Fay,” “The Domain of Arnheim,” and “Landor’s Cottage.”
His terrible and thrilling stories, by which he is best known, have
never been surpassed. The best is “William Wilson,” the story of a
double; but still more gruesome are “The Black Cat,” “Berenice,” “The
Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Cask of Amontillado.” Less horrible and
unnatural, but curious and interesting, are “The Man of the Crowd,”
“Hop-Frog,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum.” His “Fall of the House of
Usher” is unique.
Poe’s life was one of hardship and unhappiness, and he was terribly
libelled by his biographer Griswold, who hated him for the scathing
reviews Poe had written of his books. So the great poet and
story-writer has been painted in the popular mind much blacker than he
really is, according to the latest and most authentic evidence. But
he was certainly the most original genius America has produced. When
he had made a success in one kind of story he did not care to go on
writing more stories of that kind, but originated another type.
Hawthorne is better known as a novelist, the author of The Scarlet
Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, Blithedale Romance, and Marble
Faun, than as a short-story writer; but he alone among Americans has
approached Poe as a teller of tales. His reputation was first made
by two volumes of short stories called Twice-Told Tales, among which
are the deeply interesting “Gray Champion,” “The Great Carbuncle,”
“David Swan,” “Howe’s Masquerade,” “The Ambitious Guest,” and “The
Three-fold Destiny.” Many like the Mosses from an Old Manse better,
considering “The Birthmark” his masterpiece. “Drowne’s Wooden Image”
is a remarkable tale, and “Rapaccini’s Daughter” (the girl who was
brought up on poisons and whose kiss was poison) is most weird. The
most popular story for children is “The Snow Image,” and “The Great
Stone Face” (which I like best of all) appeals alike to young and old.
“Ethan Brand” is another good story in this volume, and children will
be fascinated by “Little Daffydowndilly.”
Hawthorne’s stories are all more or less fantastic allegories, written
in unexceptionably beautiful and perfect English. The author was a
recluse, and his stories are stories of loneliness in one form or
another. Those who like solitude will be very fond of him; those who
like gaiety, liveliness, and society, will find him depressing.
The other great American short story writers include Bret Harte, author
of “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”; Edward
Everett Hale, author of “The Man Without a Country”; Frank Stockton,
author of “The Lady or the Tiger?” and Mary E. Wilkins. With these may
be included Thomas Hardy’s “Life’s Little Ironies,” which are full of
fun.
More perfect in his art than either Poe or Hawthorne is the modern
writer Guy de Maupassant. His stories are most of them very short; but
not a word is wasted, and they tell as much as stories much longer.
His most perfect tales are not accessible in English because they
are slightly improper. The two best are said to be “Boule de Suif”
(Butter-Ball) and “La Maison Tellier” (Madame Tellier’s Girls, or The
Tellier Establishment). The thirteen tales translated by Jonathan
Sturgis in “The Odd Number” are unexceptionable, however, and intensely
interesting.
The French have perfected the artistic short story or _conte_ as
they call it, and there are many good tales in that language. One of
the most famous is the old-fashioned “Paul and Virginia,” a simple
rustic love story, and Prosper Mérimée, the contemporary of Balzac,
wrote some excellent tales. One might mention also Daudet with his
“Pope’s Mule,” Gauthier, and Zola’s “Attack on the Mill.”
But far stronger stories than those just mentioned are the great
Russian tales of Tolstoi and Turgenev. Tolstoi is better known by his
great novels, “The Cossacks,” “War and Peace,” and “Anna Karénina.”
But “The Long Exile,” “What Men Live By,” and other short tales are
unsurpassed for dramatic force. Turgenev’s “First Love” is a rather
long short story, but an intensely interesting one. “A Lear of the
Steppes” is regarded as his classic. But there are others equally good.
Of modern writers of short stories Kipling is doubtless the greatest;
but his early books such as “Plain Tales from the Hills,” “Soldiers
Three,” “Phantom Rickshaw,” “Wee Willie Winkie,” etc., are probably
better than the later ones, though in the later books a strong story
will be found here and there.
No greater short story has been published in modern times than
Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and Gilbert Parker has published
some excellent short stories in “Pierre and His People.”
NOTE.--Many of the stories here referred to may be found in “A
Selection from the World’s Greatest Short Stories,” edited by Sherwin
Cody.