Studying the short-story Sixteen short-story classics with introductions, notes and a new laboratory study method for individual reading and use in colleges and schools.

Growing out of my former volume, _Writing the Short-Story_, appeared the use for a new book that should contain a large number of short-stories arranged and annotated in form su...

In 1884, Professor Brander Matthews published in the _Saturday Review_, London, and in 1885 published in _Lippincott’s Magazine_, “The Philosophy of the Short-story,” in which,...

While inferior to Stendhal as a psychologist, notwithstanding the keenness of his analysis, he excels him in opening out and developing action, and in composing a work whose par...

87. She obeyed on the instant. He gave her the gun that was slung over his shoulder, and which would likely cause him inconvenience. He cocked the one he had in his hand and adv...

13. The wind was freshening without; it drove the snow before it, and sometimes raised its voice in a victorious whoop, and made sepulchral grumblings in the chimney. The cold w...

82. “To our better acquaintance,” said the poet, growing bold. A mere man of the people would have been awed by the courtesy of the old seigneur, but Villon was hardened in that...

Poe was the greatest conscious artist that American literature has ever known. He not only looked backward upon his own work and, as did Stevenson, clearly traced the operations...

86. “But,” said the Prefect, a little discomposed, “I am _perfectly_ willing to take advice, and to pay for it. I would _really_ give fifty thousand francs to any one who would...

116. “I protracted my visit as long as possible, and while I maintained a most animated discussion with the minister, upon a topic which I knew well had never failed to interest...

89. He sat staring blankly out at the window, and taking his wife’s hand between his own, pressed it as he had been wont to do in their old courting-days nearly forty years before.

9. Ordinarily, as school was opening, the uproar was so great that it could be heard clear out on the street--desk-lids opening and shutting, lessons droned aloud in unison, pup...

20. “The news does not come from my mouth, Protector of the Poor, but--” He held out his shaking hand as befitted the bearer of good news who is entitled to a reward.

125. “Yea, I knew,” said Ameera in a very small whisper. “But it is good to hear thee say so, my life, who art so strong to help. I will be a child no more but a woman and an ai...

William Sidney Porter, otherwise known as “O. Henry,” was born in 1867, in Greensboro, N. C.--the descendant of several governors of that state, it may be remarked in passing. W...

63. “For Heaven’s sake,” says Bill, “hurry back, Sam, as soon as you can. I wish we hadn’t made the ransom more than a thousand. Say, you quit kicking me or I’ll get up and warm...

89. Sam’l not being certain whether this should be received with a smile or a frown, opened his mouth wide as a kind of compromise. This was position one with him for thinking t...

241. “It may a’ be for the best,” added Sanders, “an’ there wid be a michty talk i’ the hale country-side gin ye didna ging to the minister like a man.”

11. A horseman slowly ascended the trail. In the fresh, open face of the newcomer Mr. Oakhurst recognized Tom Simson, otherwise known as “The Innocent” of Sandy Bar. He had met...

His short-stories are masterpieces of the art of story-telling, because he had a Greek sense of form, a Latin power of construction, and a French felicity of style. They are sim...

Hawthorne enjoyed the distinction of winning in his day the almost unanimous approval of critics both at home and abroad, and this in a period when criticism was not a gentle ar...

35. Meanwhile, the coach had wheeled round, with a prodigious clatter on the pavement, and rumbled up the street, disappearing in the twilight, while the ear still tracked its c...

14. The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient affect...

39. “Not hear it?--yes, I hear it, and _have_ heard it. Long--long--long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it, yet I dared not--oh, pity me, miserable wretch th...

François Edouard Joachim Coppée was born in Paris, January 12, 1842. He was educated at the _Lycée St. Louis_, and early attracted attention by his poetic gifts. He held office...

26. “All right,” said the voice of the householder; “we’ll search with Maria. So much the worse if you find nothing, and if the masons get angry. It is you who have forced me to...

32. Suddenly, from the street outside, a very jovial gentleman began to beat with a staff on the shop-door, accompanying his blows with shouts and railleries in which the dealer...

81. At this moment, the sharp note of the door-bell rang through the house; and the visitant, as though this were some concerted signal for which he had been waiting, changed at...