y quoted, and to give a general currency to the theory that the
short-story differs from the novel essentially,--and not merely in the
matter of length. In the second section of his essay, Professor
Matthews stated:--

"A true short-story is something other and something more than a mere
story which is short. A true short-story differs from the novel
chiefly in its essential unity of impression. In a far more exact and
precise use of the word, a short-story has unity as a novel cannot
have it. Often, it may be noted by the way, the short-story fulfills
the three false unities of the French classic drama: it shows one
action, in one place, on one day. A short-story deals with a single
character, a single event, a single emotion, or the series of emotions
called forth by a single situation. Poe's paradox that a poem cannot
greatly exceed a hundred lines in length under penalty of ceasing to
be one poem and breaking into a string of poems, may serve to suggest
the precise difference between the short-story and the novel. The
short-story is the single effect, complete and self-contained, while
the novel is of necessity broken into a series of episodes. Thus the
short-story has, what the novel cannot have, the effect of 'totality,'
as Poe called it, the unity of impression.

"Of a truth, the short-story is not only not a chapter out of a novel,
or an incident or an episode extracted from a longer tale, but at its
best it impresses the reader with the belief that it would be spoiled
if it were made larger, or if it were incorporated into a more
elaborate work....

"In fact, it may be said that no one has ever succeeded as a writer of
short-stories who had not ingenuity, originality, and compression; and
that most of those who have succeeded in this line had also the touch
of fantasy."

=Definition of the Short-Story.=--On the basis of these theories, the
present writer essayed a few years ago to formulate within a single
sentence a definition of the short-story. Thus: _The aim of a
short-story is to produce a single narrative effect with the greatest
economy of means that is consistent with the utmost emphasis._[5]

=Explanation of This Definition: 1. "Single Narrative Effect."=--Because
of its succinctness, this sentence needs a little explanation. A narrative
effect necessarily involves the three elements of action, characters,
and setting. In aiming to produce a narrative effect, the short-story,
therefore, differs f