Short Stories Old and New

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Short Stories Old and New Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith
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Title: Short Stories Old and New
Author: Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith
Release Date: December 17, 2003 [EBook #10483]
Language: English
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Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Shon McCarley and PG Distributed Proofreaders
SHORT STORIES
OLD AND NEW
SELECTED AND EDITED
BY
C. ALPHONSO SMITH
EDGAR ALLAN POE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, AUTHOR OF "THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY," ETC.
1916
INTRODUCTION
Every short story has three parts, which may be called Setting or Background, Plot or Plan, and Characters or Character.
If you are going to write a short story, as I hope you are, you will find it necessary to think through these three parts so as
to relate them interestingly and naturally one to the other; and if you want to assimilate the best that is in the following
stories, you will do well to approach them by the same three routes.
The Setting or Background gives us the time and the place of the story with such details of custom, scenery, and dialect
as time and place imply. It answers the questions When? Where? The Plot tells us what ...