"THE DECAY OF THE SHORT STORY."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 437, 20 February 1909, Page 9

"THE DECAY OF THE SHORT STORY."

' "In a recent number of the 'Fortnightly Review', thoro.appoared an articlo on 'Tho Decay of:the Short.Story.' VStrange as this caption must seem to ail' American reader," says the editor of "Harper's Magazine,"' "we .to ; Bpmo.-extent recovered- from our surprise wheh<>ej'foiind -th'at the writer of the article', Eughy ; lad mainly,/in .View the-pre-' sent v decadenjS3 of-:'tha-English' fcl&rt^stbrv;^ iuerelyj:temporarjl'l £t • • 'H® see&s!'tff. bla'iffe; the 'ffiSgazmes 'pf/liis' country for.-this. sudden falling off, and'wo confess that wo do not. fijid "in/the bestof thesiv-qven in stories at all" comparable to:-thoso of the Vlast: Perhaps if bo .would roa'd our'. bestAmericaii magazineshe would take heart again; finding" - there : .the; mosfclexcellerit. currentiexamples' of' ;the : worlj ofvthe'greatost'livin"g : English short-' story, writers..''; He', too .' hastily, w;o think., sucfi. excellence. as ..English .writers .have attained' ; itt';this' branch of literature'to'' the; fact .that they were disciples of Poe. In iA^?T^a ! tKe ; p,rincijpal.writers, jn!this ; :]ect^g'?oft.<4averiollbwed.-.ih''tee , of' BretyHar the ;footsteps"of-' pickeiis; ;iever".'quitej'afc"'his .Bestin the.short story:'- ... ... •...'• . .-• ■putting:aside, this exaggerated' 1 -' estimate of Bret Harte's, influence, wo cannot f even ; agree with Mr. Piigh' s\inorb guarded , statement that -all tho groat short-story writers 'of : America, JwitK the doubtful,.exception of such : asi.M4rki, Twain -and ' Artemus' Waird; bear- traces of tho-influence of /English ■ ■ authors.'-If-anythmgis clearly impressed' .upon one who' folio#, the'rourse of tho .American shor,t story;-it®; tho fact of- its ' ever-, increasing departure'; not- less*'from the lines byrEn'glish': flctioiiVthan,from':the ei-'-ample set by Poe. ' "It was -in .America'tTiat the- short proso st-ory, as we understand it, was first.; developea, a little before the middle of the nineteenth centunr, (when .we had ivory little to 1 show' m, ; the: field of 1 imaginative literature— a Bryant for Wordsworth, a Cooper for Scott, an Irving before Dickons. . Irving wort is hardly, to; be' ; rMkojiea -ill. any treatment of tho short .story.;.it .consisted ', rather-. 1 of sketches, alt 'is - to: Poo and" Hawthorne 'that' wo must'look for f'repr&entative examples. - "Of tho two Hawthorne, was the more creative, and ho meant far more than Poo in-the evolution of -a distinctly;. American literature' He. was directly subject to tho .now currents of New-England thought and,sentiment; which; . roacted • against a ; hitlierfco oppressively doniin'ant: Puritanism;:'.and:;which' at'.' the. same timo gave us Emerson. Tho importanco of > Hawthorne in-, this - contactVwith • tlip old : a&& ;the, new), was: due 'to 'his 'appreciation of' the rare imaginative. values, of'tie old for the purposes of his creative art, No such importance attaches to Poe, who _was .an eccentric, in this historical respect,without American genesis or succession.. "Hawthorne's fiction'was unique; it had no precedent/ and we do not regret-that its most' . striking , peculiarities have "not been perpetuated ;' but the' most modern of our American writers : feel' a ;spiritual kinship, with' his genius which; they,'cannot feel- with : Poe's. Nevertheless,; acosmopolitan- .distinction has been conceded to Poo; asi.to no. other American writer of fiction.: The English oritics confess ' his leadership'- in the / field- of ; the .'short'sto^',jand:,th'e.French,acclaim:it, -while even moro impressed-by. his poetry.'"appreciation iof"him by the .'countrymen ,'of. Guy; de; Maupassant is ,pe?ially ;sighificant.'-;,'Poe\was' more deliberately'a :master ! of .the technique of tho short story; .ho for .the' first, time, announced its ■ formula; his poetic temperament ma'do his work impressive in-;tone arid atmosphere. The technical master}'and the impressivoneps won : for; him especial regard ;in France'whore tlie insistence: .was , greatest, upon , academic canons."• -7; ■' 7 V ,\:'