Studying The Short-Story (continued 2)
Reading edition
4. Show how one such change could be made.
5. Does the external (visible or bodily) action stand out as clearly as the internal (invisible or soul) action?
6. (a) Is the story probable? (b) Usual? (c) Convincing?—That is, does it seem real?
7. What are its strongest points, to you?
8. Criticise its weak points, if any.
9. Can you suggest any improvements?
10. (a) Do you know any stories similar in theme? (b) If so, which is the better story, to you, and why?
11. Briefly write out the plots of three stories of action or adventure, taken from any book or magazine.
12. Compare one of them with one of these two stories.
TEN REPRESENTATIVE STORIES OF ACTION AND ADVENTURE
“After He was Dead,” Melville Davisson Post. Atlantic Monthly, April, 1911.
“The Attack on the Mill,” Émile Zola. Translated in Great Short Stories.
“The Taking of the Redoubt,” Prosper Mérimée. Translated in Short-Story Masterpieces.
“The Man Who Would be King,” Rudyard Kipling. In The Phantom Rickshaw (and other stories).
“The Sire de Malétroit’s Door,” Robert Louis Stevenson. In New Arabian Nights.
“The Diamond Lens,” Fitz-James O’Brien. In Short Story Classics, American.
“The Young Man in a Hurry,” Robert W. Chambers. Harper’s Magazine, Aug., 1903.
“A Fight for the Tsarina,” Maurus Jókai. Translated in Masterpieces of Fiction.
“The Window that Monsieur Forgot,” Mary Imlay Taylor. The Booklovers Magazine, Jan., 1904.
“Blood o’ Innocence,” George W. Knapp. Lippincott’s Magazine, Nov., 1907.
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