A Companion to the American Short Story
Page 6
demonstrating the multiple ways in which the realistic short story could explore the
situation of women, these authors opened up a path that would be followed by Edith
Wharton, Mary Austin, Anzia Yezierska, Willa Cather, Ellen Glasgow, Katherine
Anne Porter, and others.
The fi nal decade of the nineteenth century also saw the development of a new kind
of fi ction, which we now call naturalism. Some critics seem to portray naturalism as
simply realism with a rougher view of the world, but this ignores the very real dif-
ferences between the two literary movements. Naturalism is best understood as a liter-
ary response to the ideas of scientifi c determinism, to the belief that we are victims
of forces, both external and internal, that we cannot control and perhaps cannot even
understand. As such, it is fundamentally opposed to realism
’
s focus on complex
choices made by complex individuals. In fact, naturalism rarely views human beings
as complex at all; instead, it sees and portrays people in fairly generic terms, usually
as victims. The naturalist sometimes does not even provide a name for his main char-
acter, and often relies largely on animal and/or machine imagery to describe human
behavior. Works of naturalistic fi ction often devote more time and energy to the
description of setting, which often embodies the forces operating on characters, than
to characterization. These stories frequently plunge rather crude characters into violent
situations, testing moments in which the human pretense to superiority over other
creatures is exposed as a sham. For naturalists, the world is a violent and dangerous
place and the best that a protagonist can achieve is a greater insight into his own
limitations. Although naturalists tend to emphasize the importance of their own
“ honest ” vision of the world over the niceties of literary style, naturalism produced a
remarkable number of brilliant short stories, including Stephen Crane ’ s “ The Open
Boat ” (1897), Frank Norris ’ s “ A Deal in Wheat ” (1902), and Jack London ’ s “ To Build
a Fire ” (1908). The infl uence of naturalism can also be seen in the harsh depictions
of Midwestern life in the stories of Hamlin Garland and in the Civil War stories and
horror stories of Ambrose Bierce. As a literary movement, naturalism produced a
number of powerful works and raised a number of crucial questions: Are human beings
more than animals or machines, and what do we have to do to remain or become
complete human beings in a dehumanizing world? While naturalism as a literary
movement fl ourished for a relatively short time, its infl uence on the writers of the
twentieth century was enormous.
By the start of the twentieth century, the American short story was clearly estab-
lished as a vital and vibrant genre with a wide readership. Strong periodical and book
markets offered aspiring writers the prospect of both signifi cant pay and critical rec-
ognition. In the early decades of the century, the short story would become an impor-
tant form for the development of a signifi cant multicultural literature and for a
remarkably wide range of literary experiments. Thus, within a hundred years of its
invention, the American short story had established itself as a highly fl exible, diverse,
Emergence and Development
19
and enduring form that could represent and explore the various phases of democratic
life in the United States.
References and Further Reading
Bendixen , Alfred . “ American Travel Books about
Martin , Jay . Harvests of Change . Englewood Cliffs,
Europe before the Civil War
.
”
The Cambridge
NJ : Prentice - Hall , 1967 .
Companion to American Travel Writing . Eds. Alfred
Matthews , Brander . The Philosophy of the Short Story .
Bendixen and Judith Hamera . Cambridge :
1901. Rpt. New York : Peter Smith , 1931 .
Cambridge University Press , 2009 . 103 – 26 .
May , Charles B. , ed. Short Story Theories . Athens :
Blair ,
Walter .
Native American Humor .
San
Ohio University Press , 1976 .
Francisco : American Book Co. , 1937 .
Mott , Frank Luther . History of American Magazines .
Colacurcio , Michael J. The Province of Piety: Moral
5 vols. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University
History in Hawthorne ’ s Early Tales . Cambridge,
Press , 1938 .
MA : Harvard University Press , 1984 .
Pattee , Fred Lewis . The Development of the American
Current - Garcia , Eugene . The American Short Story
Short Story . New York : Harper , 1923 .
Before 1850: A Critical History . Boston : Twayne ,
Poe , Edgar Allan . Essays and Reviews . New York :
1985 .
Library of America , 1984 .
Hedges , William . Washington Irving: An American
— — — . Poetry and Tales . New York : Library of
Study 1802 – 1831 . Baltimore : Johns Hopkins
America , 1984 .
University Press , 1965 .
Salmonson , Jessica Amanda , ed. The Supernatural
Fetterley , Judith . Provisions: A Reader from 19th -
Tales of Fitz - James O ’ Brien . 2 vols. Garden City,
Century American Women . Bloomington : Indiana
NY : Doubleday , 1988 .
University Press , 1985 .
Scofi eld , Martin . The Cambridge Introduction to the
Fetterley , Judith , and Marjorie Pryse . Writing Out
American Short Story . Cambridge : Cambridge
of Place: Regionalism, Women, and American Liter-
University Press , 2006 .
ary Culture . Urbana : University of Illinois Press ,
Sloane , David E. E. , ed. The Literary Humor of the
2003 .
Urban Northeast, 1830 – 1890 . Baton Rouge :
Habegger , Alfred . Gender, Fantasy and Realism in
Louisiana State University Press , 1983 .
American Literature . New York : Columbia Uni-
Tallack , Douglas . The Nineteenth - Century American
versity Press , 1982 .
Short Story: Language, Form, and Ideology . London :
Irving , Washington . The Letters of Washington Irving
Routledge , 1993 .
to Henry Brevoort . 2 vols. Ed. George S. Hellman .
Von Frank , Albert J. , ed. Critical Essays on
New York : G. P. Putnam ’ s Sons , 1915 .
Hawthorne ’
s Short Stories . Boston : G. K. Hall ,
Levy , Andrew . The Culture and Commerce of the
1991 .
American Short Story . Cambridge : Cambridge
Werlock , Abby H. P. , ed. Facts on File Companion
University Press , 1993 .
to the American Short Story . New York : Facts on
Lohafer , Susan , and Jo Ellen Clary , eds. Short Story
File , 2000 .
Theory at the Crossroads . Baton Rouge : Louisiana
State University Press , 1983 .
2
P oe and the A merican Short Story
Benjamin F. Fisher
The American short story and Edgar Allan Poe have a natural, strong bond. He created
some of the fi nest works in the English language in that genre and sub
sequently
offered the fi rst systematic critical principles for what constitutes true art in the short
story – though he preferred the term “ tale. ” Although American writers of short
fi ction have since moved into somewhat different pathways, Poe ’ s critical opinions
about the short story remain signifi cant in terms of both literary history and aesthet-
ics, just as his own short stories continue to receive accolades for their artistry. Thus
on several levels, Poe ’ s own fi ction and his critical dicta concerning the short story
are signal features on the profi le of World literature. Clarence Gohdes repeatedly
stated to his students that what the rest of the literate world in the nineteenth century
perceived as American writers ’ chief contributions to literature were in genre, the
short story, and in theme, humor. Poe ’ s own body of short fi ction reveals excellences
both in form and in comic substance; therefore, the stories, as well as his pronounce-
ments concerning the genre ’ s ideal qualities, invite attentive consideration.
A point to keep fi rmly in mind: when Poe contemplated turning author he initially
thought exclusively in terms of becoming a poet. Understandably, the antecedent
British Romantic movement
’
s focus on intense emotionalism customarily found
expression in the lyric poem. At an early age, when he realized that he was tempera-
mentally disinclined to take a place in the commercial business of his foster father,
John Allan, Poe determined that he would engage poetry as his chosen literary form.
For him, the most lyrical poetry in the English language was written by Shelley and
Byron, and his own poems bear signs of admiration for their works. In contrast, Poe
found that much verse published by Americans was not worthy to be called poetry
because it was far more didactic, i.e., preachy and moralizing, than artistic. Conse-
quently, his poetry seemed either too imitative or, given his own techniques, simply
too weird to win popularity among American readers and critics.
Gaining neither monetary returns nor increasing recognition from his three slim
volumes of poems, published respectively in 1827, 1829, and 1831, Poe turned to
Poe and the Short Story
21
short fi ction in hopes of realizing greater fi nancial remuneration. When we remember
that his total literary income for twenty - two years of creative writing and editorial
work amounted to just over ten thousand dollars (poverty level earnings even at that
time), we readily comprehend his frustration with what seemed to be minimal success
in the literary profession. His fame has certainly burgeoned posthumously, and he has
become a world renowned author. Ironically, Poe has not been nearly so well remem-
bered as a poet compared with his high status as a writer of fi ction – and, chiefl y, of
short stories, despite the serious attention that since the late 1950s has been given to
his novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym .
Several comments from respected specialists in American literature are noteworthy
in regard to Poe ’ s short fi ction. In Ideas in America , Howard Mumford Jones stated:
“ The seventy - odd stories he wrote had been anticipated in almost all their aspects by
British and American magazine fi ction, and what Poe was principally trying to do …
was to master a market ” (Jones 41). Another eminent scholar claimed that: “ Poe ’ s
tales are his chief contribution to the literature of the world ” ( Mabbott , “ Introduction ”
xv). That statement, coming as it did from the late Thomas Ollive Mabbott, long
recognized as one of the world ’ s foremost authorities in Poe studies, stands as powerful
testimony to Poe ’ s signifi cance in the history of the short story. Kindred thought
comes from Robert E. Spiller, who thought that in American literary history
(and today we might extend Spiller ’ s remark to include the histories of much non -
American writing), “ Poe makes his very signifi cant contribution … by bringing the
Gothic element … to the level of aesthetic maturity ” (Spiller 77). Taken collectively,
these observations, from several founding fathers of American literature as a subject
worthy of academic study, provide important testimony to Poe ’ s high place as a creator
of short stories. His critical ideas about the short story reinforce his position as a force
to conjure with in any discussion of the form.
I
With the preceding general background in mind, we may turn to Poe ’ s shift from
poetry to experimentation with short stories. Once he left West Point in 1831 and
traveled south to reside in Baltimore with his Grandmother Poe and her family, the
young writer must have undertaken what in today ’ s academic world would amount
to an independent study course in the writing of short stories. The preceding com-
ments by Spiller and Jones suggest that Poe looked to well - established models when
he ventured to write short fi ction. Like many other American writers in his day, Poe
was an attentive reader of such great British literary periodicals as the London Maga-
zine , Fraser ’ s , the Edinburgh Review , the Quarterly Review , the Metropolitan Magazine , and the New Monthly Magazine . As regards fi ction, however, he was even more attentive to Blackwood ’ s Edinburgh Magazine , which featured tales of terror as a staple. Such
fi ction enjoyed longtime popularity in the Anglo - American literary world. Many of
Poe ’ s stories seem at their surface levels to advance little beyond what typifi ed great
22
Benjamin F. Fisher
numbers of Gothic predecessors. Consequently, despite the high quality in his short
stories overall, many readers have presumed that Poe had no originality, and therefore
that his fi ction was never fi rst rate. 1
Divergent opinions are on record, to be sure, though many afi cionados of Poe ’ s
fi ction enjoy it mainly because of the obvious lurid sensationalism or ghost - story
trappings. Ironically, too, many readers who would claim considerable knowledge of
Poe and his writings are really unaware of all the stories in the Poe canon. Certainly
“ The Fall of the House of Usher, ” “ Ligeia, ” “ The Masque of the Red Death, ” “ The
Black Cat, ” “ The Tell - Tale Heart, ” “ The Cask of Amontillado, ” “ The Murders in the
Rue Morgue, ” “ The Purloined Letter, ” and “ The Gold - Bug ” are well known. Con-
versely, “ Silence – A Fable, ” “ Shadow – a Parable, ” “ The Conversation of Eiros and
Charmion, ” “ The Island of the Fay, ” “ The Oblong Box, ” “ The Business Man, ” “ The
Power of Words, ” “ The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, ” or “ Von Kempelen
and His Discovery ” are, for the average reader, far less familiar. In anthologies of
American literature aimed at the college market, we tend to fi nd the same half - dozen
titles selected as representative of Poe ’ s fi nest achievements in the short story, leaving
others to the dustbins of oblivion – though such shadowiness should be resisted. There
are, of course, many readers whose knowledge of and regard for Poe ’ s short stories
extend far beyond the few that often seem to represent his best (and, perhaps, his only
works of short f
i ction).
When he turned to the short story, what Poe rapidly comprehended was that (a)
not only could he write the tale of terror extremely well, but that (b) being so percep-
tive about what constituted a marketable piece of fi ction, he could treat comically
what he divined were its potential weaknesses. One may never be certain precisely
when many of Poe ’ s stories were composed, although he probably did not retain a
manuscript for extended periods, wanting instead to secure acceptance, publication,
and pay. 2 Five of his earliest tales were sent in late 1831 to a prize competition spon-
sored by a Philadelphia newspaper, the Saturday Courier . Poe won no prize; that went
instead to a greatly inferior piece. Publishing conditions being as they were, however,
with no systematic copyright laws governing the practice, the editor of the Saturday
Courier published the fi ve stories during 1832. All appeared anonymously, as was also
customary in that era, and the question remains whether Poe himself knew that they
had appeared.
The fi rst of the fi ve to see print, 3 “ Metzengerstein, ” would no doubt have impressed
most readers in that day as a specimen of typical “ German ” (what we today call
“
Gothic
”
) fi ction. The setting in a remote area of Hungary, the Metzengersteins
longtime feud with the neighboring Berlifi tzings, a family curse hovering over the
Metzengersteins, a profl igate heir succeeding to that family ’ s estate and fortunes, the
mysterious death of his aged opponent and a gigantic supernatural horse ’ s appearing
from the burning stables of the Berlifi tzings, a seemingly haunted castle for young
Baron Metzengerstein ’ s abode, implications of violence, death, and murder involving
the two families, a lurid conclusion to young Frederick Metzengerstein ’ s life, assisted
by the great horse who has come to overwhelm him (the animal is the reincarnation
Poe and the Short Story
23
of old Berlifi tzing): all these features would have found many readers easily satisfi ed
with this seemingly straightforward Gothic story.
Poe ’ s creative impulse gives greater artistic dimension to “ Metzengerstein, ” once
he revised it, however, than we fi nd in the general run of magazine terror fi ction in