in conformity with a special set of conditions to
which the novelist is not submitted. George Meredith may be a greater
author than Sir Arthur Wing Pinero; but Pinero is of necessity more
rigid in his mastery of structure.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Define the three moods of fiction,--epic, dramatic, and
novelistic.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the epic mood?

3. Explain the three influences under which the dramatist must always
do his work,--that of the actor, that of the theatre, and that of
the audience.

4. What sort of novel can be dramatized successfully?

SUGGESTED READING

Study, comparatively, the character of AEneas in Virgil's epic, the
character of Macbeth in Shakespeare's drama, and the character of
Sentimental Tommy in Sir James Barrie's novels.

Students who desire to pursue a special study of the materials and
methods of the drama will find a full discussion of these topics in
three books by Clayton Hamilton, entitled "The Theory of the Theatre,"
"Studies in Stagecraft," and "Problems of the Playwright."

CHAPTER X

THE NOVEL, THE NOVELETTE, AND THE SHORT-STORY

Novel, Novelette, and Short-Story--The Novel and the Novelette--The
Short-Story a Distinct Type--The Dictum of Poe--The Formula of
Brander Matthews--Definition of the Short-Story--Explanation of
This Definition: 1. "Single Narrative Effect"; 2. "Greatest Economy
of Means"; and 3. "Utmost Emphasis"--Brief Tales That Are Not
Short-Stories--Short-Stories That Are Not Brief--Bliss Perry's
Annotations--The Novelist and the Writer of Short-Stories--The
Short-Story More Artistic Than the Novel--The Short-Story Almost
Necessarily Romantic.

=Novel, Novelette, and Short-Story.=--Turning our attention from the
epic and the drama, and confining it to the general type of fiction
which in the last chapter was loosely named novelistic, we shall find
it possible to distinguish somewhat sharply, on the basis of both
material and method, between three several forms,--the novel, the
novelette, and the short-story. The French, who are more precise than
we in their use of denotative terms, are accustomed to divide their
novelistic fiction into what they call the _roman_, the _nouvelle_,
and the _conte_. "Novel" and "novelette" are just as serviceable terms
as _roman_ and _nouvelle_; in fact, since "novelette" is the
diminutive of "novel," they express even more clearly than their
French equivalen