Rudyard Kipling.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. 1839. Edgar Allan Poe.

THE GOLD-BUG. 1843. Edgar Allan Poe.

THE BIRTHMARK. 1843. Nathaniel Hawthorne.

ETHAN BRAND. 1848. Nathaniel Hawthorne.

THE SIRE DE MALETROIT'S DOOR. 1878. Robert Louis Stevenson.

MARKHEIM. 1884. Robert Louis Stevenson.

INTRODUCTION

HISTORY OF THE SHORT-STORY

Just when, where, and by whom story-telling was begun no one can say.
From the first use of speech, no doubt, our ancestors have told
stories of war, love, mysteries, and the miraculous performances of
lower animals and inanimate objects. The ultimate source of all
stories lies in a thorough democracy, unhampered by the restrictions
of a higher civilization. Many tales spring from a loathsome filth
that is extremely obnoxious to our present day tastes. The remarkable
and gratifying truth is, however, that the short-story, beginning in
the crude and brutal stages of man's development, has gradually
unfolded to greater and more useful possibilities, until in our own
time it is a most flexible and moral literary form.

The first historical evidence in the development of the story shows no
conception of a short-story other than that it is not so long as other
narratives. This judgment of the short-story obtained until the
beginning of the nineteenth century, when a new version of its meaning
was given, and an enlarged vision of its possibilities was experienced
by a number of writers almost simultaneously. In the early centuries
of story-telling there was only one purpose in mind--that of narrating
for the joy of the telling and hearing. The story-tellers sacrificed
unity and totality of effect as well as originality for an
entertaining method of reciting their incidents.

The story of _Ruth_ and the _Prodigal Son_ are excellent short tales,
but they do not fulfill the requirements of our modern short-story for
the reason that they are not constructed for one single impression,
but are in reality parts of possible longer stories. They are, as it
were, parts of stories not unlike _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ and _A
Lear of the Steppes_, and lack those complete and concise artistic
effects found in the short-stories, _Markheim_ and _Mumu_, by the same
authors. Both _Ruth_ and the _Prodigal Son_ are exceptionally well
told, possess a splendid moral tone, and are excellent prophecies of
what the nineteenth century has developed for us in the art of
short-story writing.

The Gree