American Short Stories of the Nineteenth Century [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Nowhere, with the possible exception of France and Russia, has the art of the short story flourished more abundantly than in the United States. Qualitatively and quantitatively, the shorter forms of fiction have, during the nineteenth century, shown such exuberant development that even if other literary forms were to be left out of the reckoning, this country would still have a place on the map scarcely to be ignored by students of literary geography. A glance at the crowded map presents an astonishing number of distinguished names: Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Fitz-James O'Brien, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Bret Harte, Henry James, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Sarah Orne Jewett, Frank Stockton, Ambrose Bierce, Mary E. Wilkins, Kate Chopin, Richard Harding Davis, Stephen Crane, Jack London, and last but not least, O. Henry. Still more numerous are the names inscribed in smaller letters, and by no means to be ignored. Many a "minor" artist pleads for remembrance in that he or she has written one or two stories worthy of the name of "masterpiece." Altogether, the cumulation and the variety offered are prodigious; moreover, the achievement has enjoyed a continuity and may, therefore, with justification, demand the attention of the historian. Many histories and handbooks have indeed been written; and the American short story has not been without its influence on the literature of other lands. Writers of such diverse gifts as Poe and O. Henry have countless admirers abroad; the author of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" has left his mark on French literature, the author of "The Four Million" is read almost as widely in Russia as he is in his native country. Various theories have been advanced to explain this preeminence of the American short story; the most interesting of these by the writers themselves. It has been vaguely asserted that the American temperament, evolved out of a preoccupation with concrete, practical matters, and a tendency to rush and hurry, demands its literature terse and to the point. An analysis of the main components should prove of some value in determining the most decisive factor in shaping the American short story. There is, first of all, humour. Humour in itself is not a quality peculiar to any nation; and while American humour undoubtedly has a quality of its own and therefore a factor not to be ignored v