f Falesa,"
which is conceived and executed as a novelette. Edward Everett Hale's
famous short-story, "The Man Without a Country," is long enough to be
printed in a little volume by itself. The point to be remembered,
therefore, is that the two different types of brief fiction are to be
distinguished one from the other not by comparative length but by
structural method. The critic may formulate the technical laws of the
stricter type; but it must not be forgotten that these laws do not
apply (and there is no reason whatever that they should) to those
other estimable narratives which, though brief, stand outside the
definition of the short-story.

=Bliss Perry's Annotations.=--Bearing in mind this limitation of
the subject, we may proceed to a further study of the strict
short-story type. In an admirable essay on "The Short Story,"[7]
Professor Bliss Perry had discussed at length its requirements and
restrictions. Admitting that writers of short-stories usually cast a
marked preponderance of emphasis on one of the three elements of
narrative, to the subversion of the other two, Professor Perry
calls attention to the fact that in the short-story of character,
"the characters must be unique, original enough to catch the eye at
once." The writer does not have sufficient time at his disposal to
reveal the full human significance of the commonplace. "If his
theme is character-development, then that development must be
hastened by striking experiences." Hence this class of short-story,
as compared with the novel, must set forth characters more unusual
and unexpected. But in the short-story of action, on the other
hand, the plot may be sufficient unto itself, and the characters
may be the merest lay figures. The heroine of "The Lady or the
Tiger," for example, is simply _a_ woman--not any woman in particular;
and the hero of "The Pit and the Pendulum" is simply _a_ man--not
any man in particular. The situation itself is sufficient to hold
the reader's interest for the brief space of the story. Hence,
although, in the short-story of character, the leading actor is
likely to be strikingly individualized, the short-story of action
may content itself with entirely colorless characters, devoid of any
personal traits whatever. Professor Perry adds that in the class of
short-story which casts the main emphasis on setting, "both
characters and action may be almost without significance"; and he
continues,--"If the author can discover t