an and his acts, the
elements of drama, but there are three fundamental types of story, two
of which are normal and the other abnormal. The types are the story
stressing personality and the story stressing incident, which are
normal, and the story stressing atmosphere, which is abnormal in that
persons and events are subordinate to the emotional value of the whole
for a reader, which is usually determined by the setting. Personality is
the most prominent element of the story of character, and the events are
the most prominent element of the story of complication; each story
stresses one of the twin elements of drama, the persons and their acts;
and each story possesses both of such elements. That is, both the story
of character and the strict story of plot--plot as a mere sequence of
events--have some dramatic value. But the strict story of atmosphere has
no dramatic value; its nature forbids that it should. The emotional
effect is usually determined by the setting, and the human traits that
will intensify a setting--and with which the characters must be
invested--are not such as to give rise to a dramatic opposition between
the persons. The definition of the short story as a story embodying a
dramatic problem which can be presented adequately within brief limits
does not cover the short story of atmosphere.

In other words, there are two types of short story, apart from the three
types determined by the placing of emphasis upon any one of the three
fictional elements of personality, event, and setting--the dramatic
short story and the short story of unity of effect. The dramatic short
story is either the story of character or the story of complication of
incident; the short story of unity of effect is the story of atmosphere.
The two types here contrasted--the dramatic story and the atmospheric
story--could not be covered adequately or to any purpose by a single
definition; they are radically different. In defining the short story I
have defined merely the dramatic short story, and in discussing it I
shall confine myself largely to the dramatic short story likewise, for
the story of atmosphere has been considered elsewhere.

Knowledge of the origin of the two basic types of short story, the
dramatic story and the atmospheric story, will clarify the writer's
conceptions of the types. The story of atmosphere, or story of totality
of emotional effect on a reader, was first consciously perfected by Poe,
wherein lies Ameri