Construction--The Initial Position--The Terminal Position--Poe's
Analysis of "The Raven"--Analysis of "Ligeia"--Analysis of "The
Prodigal Son"--Style Essential to the Short-Story.

=Only One Best Way to Construct a Short-Story.=--Since 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, it
follows that, given any single narrative effect--any theme, in other
words, for a short-story--there can be only one best way to construct
the story based upon it. A novel may be built in any of a multitude of
ways; and the selection of method depends more upon the temperament
and taste of the author than upon inherent logical necessity. But in a
short-story the problem of the author is primarily structural; and
structure is a matter of intellect instead of a matter of temperament
and taste. Now, the intellect differs from the taste in being an
absolute and general, rather than an individual and personal, quality
of mind. There is no disputing matters of taste, as the Latin proverb
justly says; but matters of intellect may be disputed logically until
a definite decision is arrived at. Hence, although the planning of a
novel must be left to the individual author, the structure of a
short-story may be considered as a matter impersonal and absolute,
like the working out of a geometrical proposition.

=Problems of Short-Story Construction.=--The initial problem of the
writer of short-stories is to find out by intellectual means the one
best way of constructing the story that he has to tell; and, in order
to solve this problem, there are many questions he must take up and
decide. First of all, he must conserve the need for economy of means
by considering how many, or rather, _how few_, characters are
necessary to the narrative, how few distinct events he can get along
with, and how narrow is the compass of time and place within which he
may compact his material. He must next consider all the available
points of view from which to tell the given story, and must decide
which of them will best subserve his purpose. Next, in deciding on his
means of delineating characters, of representing action, of employing
setting, he must be guided always by the endeavor to strike a just
balance between (on the one hand) the greatest economy of means and
(on the other) the utmost emphasis. And finally, to conserve the
latter need, he must, in planning the na