Word: tale
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Dates: during 1910-1919
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...recent critics of the University in a worthy and dignified manner. The story, "The Best Laid Schemes," begins with elaborate plans to catch the reader's attention, and then after complicated stimulation of his interest, leaves him with the sense that he has been duped into reading an inconsequential tale. Mr. Williams's "An Inexpensive Tragedy," though much less pretentious in its form, is much more interesting in its substance...
...should not the Monthly and the Advocate muck-rake each other? We offer a few suggestions for the Monthly's opening attack. It may point out that the account of the Council of Federated Clubs is informing but prosy; that the "Tale--Full of Sound and Fury" really signifies nothing, and is unspeakably silly; that in "An International Love Affair" a fair story is marred by an effort to be smart; that the "Three Moods of the Marsh" are vague and vapid. (Alliteration is always effective in muck-raking; the fitness of the words is less important). The critic...
...entitled "The Heritage." It belongs to that type which has grown and spread like a weed in American literature of the last twenty years and which, because it is the peculiar property of the modern magazine, we may say is characterized by the "periodical" style. The recipe for a tale of this type is very simple; only two precautions are necessary. First, you must never tell your story directly and fully, you must only suggest its outline and leave the rest to your reader's imagination. Kipling is largely responsible for the vogue of this method, but his followers, among...
Next most notable are the two contributions of Mr. C. P. Aiken. Both the poem and the prose tale show considerable originality in conception and skill in the minor points of technique; neither quite carries conviction. The story leaves one a little in doubt as to whether it is an allegory or a hold-up; and the theme of the poem is such that at best it could give opportunity for little more than ingenious fancy. Here, as in much of his writing, Mr. Aiken suffers from a tendency to get too remote from actuality...
...Room-mate's Side of It"--is merely vulgar and uncharacteristic. An artist may sometimes feel inclined to experiment with this kind of subject, but the present very conventional treatment of it would bore even a lumber-camp. On the whole, I am inclined to care most for the tale of the Idiot Boy, "Jonathan," who inadvertently slew his pet cricket. The tragedy was due to an indigestion brought on by eating dough. The end is charming: "Jonathan is 'a great hand,' his father tells me, at running a village store. But somehow I wish I could forget the dead...