Crafting the Very Short Story: An Anthology of 100 Masterpieces / Edition 1

by Mark Mills

Overview

This outstanding anthology is comprised of acclaimed authors from diverse cultures and both genders. Organized alphabetically and stylistically, CRAFTING'S wealth of classic, modern, and avant-garde fiction features numerous genres and serves as an excellent introduction to the authors' longer works. The text includes writing instruction, exercises, a glossary of literary terms, scholarly commentary, and 14 personal essays by the writers on form, key stylistic elements, and stories included in the collection. The rich variety of narratives and the overall reader-friendly structure make this compendium an essential tool for teaching fiction and crafting the very short story.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780130867629
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	06/20/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

Read an Excerpt

This first edition of Crafting the Very Short Story comprises five parts. The first section is composed of 100 stories and 26 critical essays. The stories are organized alphabetically by author. The narratives represent diverse types of fiction ranging from antiquity to the present, such as Luke's parable, Galeano's fable, Calvino's folktale, Wilde's prose poem, Mann's sketch, Theroux's humor, Maupassant's satire, Moore's realism, S. L. Wisenberg's naturalism, Garcia Mdrquez's magical realism, Frame's fantasy, Le Guin's allegory, Bukowski's dramatic monologue, Woolf's experimental prose, Lispector's stream of consciousness, and Poe's gothic horror. Among the internationally acclaimed authors are Pulitzer Prize winner Eudora Welty, James Joyce, and Nobel laureate Naguib Mafouz, as well as three of the finest writers of this relatively new genre: Yasunari Kawabata, H. H. Munro, and Amy Hemple. Many of the stories will serve as engaging introductions to the authors' longer works. For example, there are pieces by Alice Walker, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Herman Melville. The rich diversity of excellent literature is designed to provide a global array of choices that peak your students' imagination and desire to write creatively.

The first-person and commentary essays by distinguished writers and scholars appear immediately after their corresponding stories. In many cases, these essays explicate the writers' motivation and stylistic choices, enabling students to better understand how stylistic elements—such as character, dialogue, and mood—work seamlessly with the governing pattern of the whole to engage the reader and achieve the writer's predetermined goal. You may want to direct students' attention to how the writers dispense with impedimenta to craft lean subtle prose, how they pare the narrative down to its most salient details, thereby achieving economy and grace.

The second section is a stylistic table of contents listing each story by one of the three stylistic devices that dominate this often quickly paced form: voice, point of view, and setting. The section that follows is a Top Ten, if you will, of guidelines for crafting a very short story. More suggestive than prescriptive, it is meant to stimulate thought about stylistic choices as students embark on the creative process. The fourth section comprises 20 exercises that will challenge students' ability to craft succinct narratives that balance emotional pitch and intellectual power.

The above-mentioned literary terms, as well as others, can be found in the glossary, the text's last section.

I must thank certain individuals whose sage counsel has been invaluable throughout the development of Crafting, from its embryonic form to its final proofing: Halina Makowska, whose tact, incisiveness, and translation services were without peer; the exemplary design and edit staff at Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, from Thomas DeMarco and Carrie L. Brandon to Katie Huha and Maureen Benicasa; educators and writers Siobhan Benet, Edwidge Danticat, Barbara McFarlane, Luz Tellez, Kay-Ann Boswell, Beth Coleman, Lisa Jones, Meg O'Rourke, Helen Schulman, Philip Lopate, Mary Gordon, Hemie Kim, Heather Malloy, Ras Baraka, Kevin Powell, and Richard Goldstein; and the following reviewers: Marvin Diognes, University of Arizona; Loren C. Gruber, Missouri Valley College; Frederico Moramarco, San Diego State University; Scott Odom, Loyola Marymount University; and Christopher Trogan, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Table of Contents

(NOTE: A Stylistic Table of Contents is included in the second part of the text, which arranges the essays and stories by specific elements of style.)

I. STORIES & ESSAYS.

Cata 1., 2., and 3., Jonis Agee. Hands, Sherwood Anderson. First Person: Sherwood Anderson on "Writing Stories". Commentary: Robert Allen Papinchak on "Anderson's Prose Style". Happy Endings, Margaret Atwood. My First Goose, Isaac Babel. Words, Amiri Baraka. First Person: Amiri Baraka on “Voice and Beginnings”. Janus, Ann Beattie. The Pot of Basil, Giovanni Boccaccio. The Book of Sand, Jorge Luis Borges. The Astronomer's Wife, Kay Boyle. The Monster, Berthold Brecht. My Madness, Charles Bukowski. The Tale of the Cats, Italo Calvino. First Person: Italo Calvino on "Economy of Expression". The Werewolf, Angela Carter. Popular Mechanics, Raymond Carver. First Person: Raymond Carver, "On Writing". The Physician's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer. The Worm in the Apple, John Cheever. The Huntsman, Anton Chekhov. Commentary: Vladimir Nabokov on "Chekhov's Prose". Caline, Kate Chopin. My Name, Sandra Cisneros. Bygone Spring, Colette. Continuity of Parks, Julio Cortàzar. An Episode of War, Stephen Crane. Night Women, Edwidge Danticat. First Person: Edwidge Danticat "On Writing Night Women". The Sock, Lydia Davis. The Child's Story, Charles Dickens. Vag, John Dos Passos. The Heavenly Christmas Tree, Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Colonel, Carolyn Forche. The Other Side of the Hedge, E.M. Forster. The Press Gang, Janet Frame. The Subversive, Bruce Jay Friedman. The Story of the Lizard Who Had a Habit of Dining on His Wives, Eduardo Galeano. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Gabriel García Màrquez. Is There Nowhere Else Where We Can Meet? Nadine Gordimer. The Innocent, Graham Greene. The Hollow of the Three Hills, Nathaniel Hawthorne. A Very Short Story, Ernest Hemingway. Weekend, Amy Hemple. The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry. A Penny for Your Thoughts, Chester Hines. Symphony, Pam Houston. Jazz, Jive, and Jam, Langston Hughes. Janice, Shirley Jackson. First Person: Shirley Jackson on "Notes to a Young Writer". Araby, James Joyce. Commentary: Medieval Romance and the Structure of "Araby", Jerome Mandel; Analyzing "Araby" as Story and Discourse, James Sonoski; Aspects of Milton's "Paradise Lost" in "Araby", Steven Doloff. First Sorrow, Franz Kafka. The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket, Yasunari Kawabata. Girl, Jamaica Kincaid. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Ursula K. Le Guin. First Person: “The Sound of Your Writing; Sentence Length and Complete Syntax; and Point of View,”Ursula K. Le Guin. Soulstorm, Clarice Lispector. The Prodigal Son, Luke. Half a Day, Naguib Mafouz. A Lost Grave, Bernard Malamud. A Vision, Thomas Mann. Miss Brill, Katherine Mansfield. First Person: Katherine Mansfield on “Crafting Miss Brill.” The Return, Sadat Hasan Manto. The Ant and the Grasshopper, W. Somerset Maugham. A Piece of String, Guy de Maupassant. Daniel Orme, Herman Melville. Sand, W.S. Merwin. Under the Sand, Mark Mills. Swaddling Clothes, Yukio Mishima. The Kid's Guide to Divorce, Lorrie Moore. “The Fetish, Alberto Moravia. First Person: Alberto Moravia on The Short Story and the Novel.” Courtly Vision, Bharati Mukherjee. Prue, Alice Munro. Reginald's Choir Treat, Hector Hugh Monro. The Open Window, Hector Hugh Munro. Signs and Symbols, Vladimir Nabokov. Text Analysis: Decoding Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols", John V. Hagopian; “Sacred Dangers: Nabokov's Distorted Reflection,” David Field; “Innocent Trifles,” or "Signs and Symbols", Carole M. Doe. Mallorca, Anais Nin. First Person: “Out of the Labrynth: An Interview,”Anais Nin. Politics, Joyce Carol Oates. First Person: Joyce Carol Oates on The Very Short Story; The Nature of Short Fiction; or The Nature of My Short Fiction; and Fictions, Dreams, and Revelations. The Bridal Night, Frank O'Connor. The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick. A Conversation with My Father, Grace Paley. Soldiers of the Republic, Dorothy Parker. The Widow of Ephesus, Petronius. Sweethearts, Jayne Anne Phillips. The Little Hut, Luigi Pirandello. The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe. First Person: Edgar Allan Poe on The Single Unifying Effect. A Story of Don Juan, V.S. Pritchett. Before the Night, Marcel Proust. Distant View of Minaret, Alfia Rifaat. Yours, Mary Robison. The Third Night, Natsume Soseki. Breakfast, John Steinbeck. The Young Lady of the Tung T'ing Lake, P'u Sung-Ling. Neighbors, Paul Theroux. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, James Thurber. Love of His Life, Wilmar N. Tognazzini. The Three Hermits, Leo Tolstoy. First Person: What is Art? Leo Tolstoy. Fern, Jean Toomer. Lifeguard, John Updike. I'm Your Horse in the Night, Luisa Valenzuela. The Doctor's Heroism, Villiers de L'isle-Adam. The Moths, Helena Vivien Viramontes. Plato's Dream, Voltaire. Roselily, Alice Walker. Commentary: Edwidge Danticat on Crafting Roselily. Mislaid Plans, Monica Ware. A Visit of Charity, Eudora Welty. First Person: Eudora Welty on setting: Place in Fiction. The Richer, The Poorer, Dorothy West. The Artist, Oscar Wilde. Tent Worms, Tennessee Williams. Big Ruthie Imagines Sex Without Pain, S.L. Wisenberg. Powder, Tobias Wolff. A Haunted House, Virginia Woolf.

II. STYLISTIC TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Voice.

Point of View.

Setting.

Crafting Guidelines.Glossary.

Preface

This first edition of Crafting the Very Short Story comprises five parts. The first section is composed of 100 stories and 26 critical essays. The stories are organized alphabetically by author. The narratives represent diverse types of fiction ranging from antiquity to the present, such as Luke's parable, Galeano's fable, Calvino's folktale, Wilde's prose poem, Mann's sketch, Theroux's humor, Maupassant's satire, Moore's realism, S. L. Wisenberg's naturalism, Garcia Mdrquez's magical realism, Frame's fantasy, Le Guin's allegory, Bukowski's dramatic monologue, Woolf's experimental prose, Lispector's stream of consciousness, and Poe's gothic horror. Among the internationally acclaimed authors are Pulitzer Prize winner Eudora Welty, James Joyce, and Nobel laureate Naguib Mafouz, as well as three of the finest writers of this relatively new genre: Yasunari Kawabata, H. H. Munro, and Amy Hemple. Many of the stories will serve as engaging introductions to the authors' longer works. For example, there are pieces by Alice Walker, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Herman Melville. The rich diversity of excellent literature is designed to provide a global array of choices that peak your students' imagination and desire to write creatively.

The first-person and commentary essays by distinguished writers and scholars appear immediately after their corresponding stories. In many cases, these essays explicate the writers' motivation and stylistic choices, enabling students to better understand how stylistic elements—such as character, dialogue, and mood—work seamlessly with the governing pattern of the whole to engage the reader and achieve the writer's predetermined goal. You may want to direct students' attention to how the writers dispense with impedimenta to craft lean subtle prose, how they pare the narrative down to its most salient details, thereby achieving economy and grace.

The second section is a stylistic table of contents listing each story by one of the three stylistic devices that dominate this often quickly paced form: voice, point of view, and setting. The section that follows is a Top Ten, if you will, of guidelines for crafting a very short story. More suggestive than prescriptive, it is meant to stimulate thought about stylistic choices as students embark on the creative process. The fourth section comprises 20 exercises that will challenge students' ability to craft succinct narratives that balance emotional pitch and intellectual power.

The above-mentioned literary terms, as well as others, can be found in the glossary, the text's last section.

I must thank certain individuals whose sage counsel has been invaluable throughout the development of Crafting, from its embryonic form to its final proofing: Halina Makowska, whose tact, incisiveness, and translation services were without peer; the exemplary design and edit staff at Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, from Thomas DeMarco and Carrie L. Brandon to Katie Huha and Maureen Benicasa; educators and writers Siobhan Benet, Edwidge Danticat, Barbara McFarlane, Luz Tellez, Kay-Ann Boswell, Beth Coleman, Lisa Jones, Meg O'Rourke, Helen Schulman, Philip Lopate, Mary Gordon, Hemie Kim, Heather Malloy, Ras Baraka, Kevin Powell, and Richard Goldstein; and the following reviewers: Marvin Diognes, University of Arizona; Loren C. Gruber, Missouri Valley College; Frederico Moramarco, San Diego State University; Scott Odom, Loyola Marymount University; and Christopher Trogan, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.