OF THE SHORT STORY EDITED WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES BY GEORGE HENRY NETTLETON, PH.D. N475 PREFACE. THIS Collection of short stories has two purposes: first, to give to the general reader interesting specimens of the best narration; second, within small compass, to supply the teacher or student of English composition with varied and profitable material for study of the art of narrative writing. The stories were selected for intrinsic interest, for interest in their authors, and for variety. Literature does not draw hard-and-fast lines of distinction, but, roughly speaking, each of these spécimens may fairly be held to represent a different phase of narrative art. The Superannuated Man may be termed the Sketch; Rip Van Winkle, the Tale; The Great Stone Face, the Allegory; The Purloined Letter, the Detective Story; Phil Fogarty, the Burlesque; Dr. Manette's Manuscript, the Adventure Story, or Story of Incident; The Outcasts of Poker Flat, the Local Color Story; and Markheim, the Psychological Story. Such a selection, while obviously not all-inclusive, offers widely divergent material for reading or analysis. In thus insisting upon variety in the choice of stories it is inevitable that some authors are not represented by their best work. Admirable as is The Purloined Letter, few would rank it above The Fall of the House iii |