The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-06-14
OUR LITERARY BUDGET.
l Comparison Of The Merits Of The Short
and Long Story.
POPULAR VEHICLE OF FICTION.
The Object for Which the Had and Odyssey
Were Written-The Literature Of the
Middle Ages-Other Selections.

A good many people who perhaps do not
know any better and good many educated
critics who ought to know better are making
8 great stir just now about what they call the
rise Of the short story" The occasion for
what they deem TO be their discovery is the
wide, popular success of several recently-pub-
lshed collections of short stories; in par
ticular, perhaps, the phenomenal advance to
popularity of that clever young chronicler OF
North Indian vulgarity, Mr.. Rudyard Kip
ling. From all this it is argued with un-
doubted truth that there never was time
when the demand by magazine and book pub
fishers was so great as 1t Is to-day. ms IS
certainly true. But then it is quite as true
that never before WAS there 80 vide market
for the long story. And, for the matter OF
that never before was there so wide mar
ket for popular works on science and on re-
ligion. all of which certainly proves nothing
for the Rudyard kipling school.
The fact is, the short story has been the
most popular vehicle of fiction since the
worlds literature began. Some of the very
best collections of short stories ever seen are
those contained in the Old Testament, stories
which. for concisement of language and pic
turesqueness of narrative, have probably
never been surpassed in any age. The works
of the Greek poet whom we call Homer We're
in their origin nothing more or less than short
stories. What we call the Had and Odyssey
were never designed by their author for long
poems, and were never thus regarded by
the people until Pisistratus gathered them
together and gave them the names by
which they are known to-day. Probably no
product of Roman literature is more familiar
TO the reading world of to-day than the Fables
of Esop. which were nothing more or less
than clever, short stories with morals. The
literature of the Middle Ages, so far as it
touched at all upon the domain of fiction, was
made up altogether of short stories. Even the
dreary chronicles of the saints were collec-
tons of this nature And from that time to
this short stories have continued TO enjoy in
especially large measure the favor of the read
ing public If these ill-informed critics would
devote themselves to studying the history Of
literature they would arrive at a very differ
ent conclusion from that which they are now
presenting. They would discover that
so far from being marked by the rise
of the short story, modern literature
has rs its Characteristic feature the
rise of the long story. That is to say. the
short concise narrative has always been
popular since literature began, but 1t was not
until the thinking and imaginative faculties
of the people were thoroughly educated and
developed into the spirit of modern times
that 10 was possible TO achieve success with
the long story as we understand the term to-
day. The works of Thackeray of George
Eliot. of Tolstoi. of Howels would have been
impossible in the time of BoccacciO and
Chaucer If they had been told at all in their
present form they would proably have been
locked up in the Libraries of the monasterleS
TO be devodtly pursued by the holy brethren
in hours of penance.-New York CONNER
cial Advertiser.