author had not described the robbery early in the book, but only here in the clearing-up? Is any portion really concluded here, or is something further anticipated? Explain.

CHAPTER XIX

1. Notice again the order in which the characters affected by the same disclosure are presented. Which come first-the more important? How many details in this chapter repeat or recall earlier ones? Is familiarity a principle of selection in narrating?

2. Was Godfrey right in wanting to carry out his resolution that very evening? Why was it an unfortunate time nevertheless?

3. Cite the small actions which mean so much in the visit of Godfrey and Nancy. Just at what point did Eppie cease feeling like an inferior? What indicates this? Is Silas right in letting Eppie decide? What helped a great deal in her decision?

4. What mistake did Godfrey make about people like Silas and Eppie? What threefold reason did Eppie give in refusing Godfrey's offer? Which part of Eppie's answer convinces Godfrey that his cause is hopeless? Why? How has the author provided against the possibility. that Godfrey would make a legal claim?

CHAPTER XX

1. Has Godfrey learned his lesson? Has he become any better because of his disappointment? Why does Nancy not want her father and Priscilla to know the story?

CHAPTER XXI

1. Why did Silas want to visit Lantern Yard? Was his reason a good one? What did he learn? Does Silas's description of the old Lantern Yard give a better picture than the earlier references? Does he still believe in the drawing of lots? What purpose does this visit serve? What effect has it on the characters in the story? Has Silas found happiness? What is his rule of life now? Would you feel satisfied if the story ended here?

CONCLUSION

1. Would such a conclusion be likely in a modern novel? Why? Is it necessary here? Is it interesting? Why was Godfrey away? How was his pride affected?

2. What do you think of Mr. Lammeter's philosophy in lines 77 to 80, page 256?

3. Does the author work in all the persons naturally or does her thoroughness appear slightly strained? Is Macey changed much? Is he still " 'cute"?

GENERAL QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

1. Which will you remember longest-the plot or the characters? Which incidents are most vivid in your mind now?

2. Could you make a play of this? The class might decide how many incidents are needed to convey the story, make an outline, decide on the acts, stage settings, etc., and perhaps, go so far as to complete and perform the drama. Would you include the Conclusion?

3. Explain what you enjoyed most in the story. What did you actually learn from it? Memorize a passage of half a page or more.

4. Imagine a gathering of the class at the Rainbow. Let each pupil represent a character in the story or some other villager and depict the discussion about the peddler's tinder-box. This exercise may be a class composition, planned, distributed, and written by all the members. Or it may be merely outlined and discussed, then become an exercise in oral composition, having the speeches and actions of the various characters spring from the conditions which arise in the general meeting at the Rainbow.

5. Sixteen years intervene between Chapters XV and XVI. Imagine some situations or incidents in the lives of the characters during this time. In your imaginary scenes try to harmonize your characters with what you know of their dispositions and actions. Here are some suggestions: Eppie at school. Godfrey chats with her. Marner delivers cloth at the Red House. Dolly tells Ben of a prank of Eppie's. The Gunns discuss the Lammeter sisters. The choir divides the Christmas money. Tookey proves that Mr. Macey cut a coat too large. Eppie cooks her first meal.

6. Read again the distinction between realism and romance (page 137). Illustrate the characterization of realism there given by concrete details from Silas Marner. Give illustrations of romance from Quentin Durward.

7. In what sense does the statement that "character is fate" (page 138) find illustration in the portrayal of Godfrey Cass? Review the story to find passages that bring out this idea.

Theme Topics. 1. The process of clothmaking today as compared with that of the hand loom. 2. Describe a stone-pit familiar to you (or something similar) and work out a possible mystery. 3. Write a brief scenario of such parts as you think would give action sufficient to interest an audience.

Library Reading. Other realistic novels that may be read in connection with Silas Marner are The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot; The Warden, Trollope; The Rise of Silas Lapham, Howells; The Woodlanders, Hardy.

A marked feature of literary history in the nineteenth century was the development of the short story. It is a common remark that life has become more complex in the last one hundred years. The complexity is in our interests no less than in our occupations. Thus, every person today has to read about more different kinds of things. This diversity of interest has produced the hundreds of magazines, which appeal not only to the desire for information, but to the delight in fiction. All these changes have contributed to the rapid spread of interest in short stories and their rise in dignity until now practically every producer of fiction engages in their composition.

The prevalence of the short story in modern times does not mean that there were none before the eighteen hundreds. For centuries there have been such short bits of entertainment, some as old and as famous as The Arabian Nights. Only, in modern times critical judgment has been exercised upon them, and authors have so emphasized certain phases of technique that today the short story is a well-recognized type of literature, with a method of composition as definite as that of the one-act play.

Much of this development in the technique of the short story is due to American writers. Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe, the first American writers of fiction of high literary quality, realized the possibilities in short fiction. The book which won fame for Irving, The Sketch Book, is a collection of sketches about persons and places, with small story-interest, plus stories. like "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle," in which we see some of the characteristics of the short story as written today. Hawthorne called his first collection Twice-Told Tales, a title that suggests his interest in this form of fiction. Some of the pieces that he included in this collection are merely descriptive sketches,

such as "Sights from a Steeple,' "A Rill from the Town Pump," and "The TollGatherer's Day," but there are also examples of the story with a definite plot and sequence of events, like "Endicott and the Red Cross," "The Ambitious Guest," and "The Gray Champion."

Hawthorne produced indiscriminately tales and short stories. At about the same time Edgar Allan Poe specialized in a form more closely approximating the real short story. His effective artistry in both plot and style impressed the entire world, especially France, where literary appreciation is always keen. The French authors who practiced the writing of this form became the greatest in the world, spreading the influence of their skill even to Russia, and influencing both English and American writers.

Our chief interest, in this part of our book, is not the history of the short story, but its characterization as a literary form. The first difference between the novel and the short story is one of length. Magazine editors frequently stipulate the maximum number of words which they will accept, ranging in different publications from four thousand to eight thousand words. The amount of space at his disposal determines to a great extent what the author may include. No long development or change of character is possible. The actions of the persons must be the logical result of character clearly indicated or described. Nor is a long progression of events possible in a true short story. A protracted, rambling account including a miscellaneous collection of interesting but rather unrelated details is now specifically classified as a tale, not a short story.

Intensity of impression, swiftness of progression, directness of effect, sureness and conciseness of style, clearness of character drawing, reality of dialogue, certainty of conclusion, close interdependence of all incidents or situations-these are

the recognizable qualities of the modern short story.

Because his space is limited, the author dare not use too many words to cover his introduction. Once begun, his events must not stray from the central theme. His plot must develop, not stand still, not wander needlessly. Without the need for contrast which the longer novel requires, he may dispense with all devices for securing variety, and press steadily to his climax. The interest must rise steadily. As the flight is a short one, to be impressive it must be a steep one. When the story begins, nearly all the persons must be what they are intended to be. Any changes must spring not only naturally, but quickly, from the initial circumstances. The author has little time to explain. The changes must be accepted by the reader as real.

If the plot is planned properly, the climax will indicate quite clearly all the resultant developments, or so satisfy interest and curiosity that what may happen afterwards has no attraction for the reader. Thus the highest point of interest may be quite close to the end of the story. It may coincide with the conclusion itself. It may be so effective that it renders unnecessary any conclusion other than itself.

Despite its limitations in space and character development, the short story affords opportunity for inexhaustible variety in range of material and method of treatment. As human nature has pro

nounced tastes, and certain forms recognized as successful are likely to be repeated, there are some well-marked types, every one of which is represented by hundreds or thousands of examples.

The "setting," or scene, of a story may be so interesting that the mind retains a deeper impression of the place than of the plot. Vividly picturesque life and scenes in different parts of the world are utilized in such stories-as the Mexican Southwest of our country, Creole life in the South, the foreign slums of New York, the languorous isles of the South Pacific, the frontiers of civilization in Asia and Africa, the unfamiliar steppes of Russia, the colorful banks of the Nile.

Authors vary greatly in their methods of composing short stories. The general starting point of Hawthorne has already been indicated (page 118). Others declare they start with an entire theme, which they then localize, and provide with characters. Another method is to start with the conclusion, then to work backwards in planning, until all the steps are determined. A problem may arise in conversation, or in an author's mind, which he then treats in short story form. Some authors declare they never construct two stories in the same manner. Many pick up bits of actual life by observation, conversation, reading the newspapers, frequenting the courtrooms. If you try to write short stories of your own, you will consider many different methods for your own guidance, and in all likelihood try them all, or combine them.

Son cœur est un luth suspendu; Sitôt qu'on le touche il résonne.* BÉRANGER During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of 10 Usher. I know not how it was-but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable, for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me— 20 upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain, upon the bleak walls, upon the vacant eyelike windows, upon a few rank sedges, and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees-with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium: the bitter lapse into everyday 30 life, the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it-I paused to think-what was it that so unnerved me in the con

*His heart a lute, in air slow swings, The gentlest touch, and lo! it sings." Béranger was a French poet contemporary with Poe; these lines have not been found in his works.

templation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy 40 fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different ar- 50 rangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate, its capacity for sorrowful impression; and acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a shudder even more thrilling 60 than before upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last 70 meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of the country a letter from him-which in its wildly importunate nature had admitted of no other than a personal reply. The MS. gave evidence of nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness, of a mental disorder which oppressed him, and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best, 80