English and american short Stories I-II. [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION A SELECTION of shoTt stories in English which would show the full development of this class of literature would make a volume many times larger than the present, and would demand serious study of a somewhat strenuous character. The collection here offered has been planned, in the first place, for enjo3mient, but at the same time an attempt has been made to give, in broad outline, some idea of the development of the short story written in English, from the middle ages to our oavn time. The selection does not lay claim to any critical or scholarly merit, but it is hoped that it may give a fairly clear impression of continuity sufficiently full enough to serve as a guide from century to century and supply material upon which an interested reader can work, if he feels inclined to go further in the pursuit of a fascinating subject. The history of the English short story is the history of changing tastes and fashions, and in judging the relative values of the tales here offered this fact must be remembered. The reader must bear in mind that any given story has been included not only for its intrinsic interest, but also to show the • } character of the short story which was fashionable at a certain period. A tale which, on its own merits, would now be voted trite or sentimental, moralising or stilted, was at one time in our history highly acceptable to English readers, and therefore serves to hold up the mirror to the life of a bygone period. This volume does not contain any examples of stories in verse, but in a review, however cursory, of the origin and development of the short story, the student must pay some regard to the tale told in verse, at all events in the early period, when this medium was usually chosen. The literature of the Cathohc church is the earliest source of English short stories, and from this source two streams descend, one carrying on the idea of conveying a moral, the other aiming at giving aesthetic enjoyment. The former stream, so far as real literature is concerned, may be said to have dried up about the time of Samuel Johnson's Rasselas, while the latter has broadened and deepened into the finished vii I''