The Anthem Guide to Short Fiction (Anthem Learning) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857287699 ISBN 13: 9780857287694

Verlag: Anthem Press, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Containing 20 classic short stories by a variety of renowned authors, including Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Rudyard Kipling, James Joyce and Edith Wharton, The Anthem Guide to Short Fiction has been designed to offer students and instructors both inspiration and guidance when thinking and writing about literary texts and their construction. Each story is followed by a critical ‘Thinking About the Story’ section, and is accompanied by a set of incisive discussion questions formulated to stimulate insightful literary thought. Similarly, the guide’s creative activities have been devised to engage critical and imaginative thinking, as well as to offer the reader an understanding of authorship and the creative process. Additional features include biographical notes, editorial introductions, and a concise glossary of literary terms.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Christopher Linforth was a finalist in the ‘Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook’ Novel Writing Competition in 2007. He has had work published in ‘Denver Quarterly’, ‘Permafrost’, ‘Camas’, and many other literary journals. He was recently awarded a Fellowship to the Colgate Writers’ Conference (2010) and a scholarship to the New York State Writers’ Conference (2010). For several years he taught writing and literature at Kansas State University and Northern Michigan University. He is currently a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) fellow at Virginia Tech.

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The Anthem Guide to Short Fiction

By Christopher Linforth

Wimbledon Publishing Company

Copyright © 2011 Christopher Linforth
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-85728-769-4

Contents

Acknowledgments, ix, 
Preface, xi, 
Introduction, xiii, 
The Art of Short Fiction, xiii, 
Reading Stories, xiv, 
Writing Stories, xv, 
How to Use This Book, xvi, 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1, 
"Young Goodman Brown", 2, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 14, 
Edgar Allan Poe, 17, 
"The Man of the Crowd", 18, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 26, 
Leo Tolstoy, 29, 
"How Much Land Does a Man Need?", 30, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 44, 
Mark Twain, 7, 
"The Californian's Tale", 48, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 55, 
Ambrose Bierce, 57, 
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", 58, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 66, 
Sarah Orne Jewett, 69, 
"A White Heron", 70, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 79, 
Kate Chopin, 83, 
"The Story of an Hour", 84, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 86, 
Arthur Conan Doyle, 89, 
"A Scandal in Bohemia", 90, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 111, 
Anton Chekhov, 113, 
"The Lady with the Dog", 114, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 129, 
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 131, 
"The Yellow Wallpaper", 132, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 147, 
Edith Wharton, 149, 
"The Choice", 150, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 163, 
O. Henry, 165, 
"The Ransom of Red Chief, 166, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 176, 
Rudyard Kipling, 179, 
"Mowgli's Brothers", 180, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 196, 
H. G. Wells, 199, 
"A Moth — Genus Novo", 200, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 209, 
Stephen Crane, 211, 
"The Open Boat", 212, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 235, 
Willa Cather, 237, 
"A Wagner Matinee", 238, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 245, 
James Joyce, 247, 
"Araby", 248, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 253, 
H. P. Lovecraft, 257, 
"The Outsider", 258, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 264, 
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 267, 
"Winter Dreams", 268, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 288, 
Robert. E. Howard, 291, 
"Circus Fists", 292, 
Thinking About the Story, Discussion Questions, and Activities, 308, 
Copyrights, 311, 
Glossary of Literary Terms, 313, 

CHAPTER 1

Nathaniel Hawthorne

We must not always talk in the market place of what happens to us in the forest.

Nathaniel Hawthorne — The Scarlet Letter (1850)

A contemporary of Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) is considered one of the preeminent novelists and short story writers of the nineteenth century. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, to a historically Puritan New England family, the young Hawthorne suffered two catastrophes: his father's death (1808), and a lame leg (1813). Hawthorne's time as an invalid allowed him to read widely, especially William Shakespeare's plays and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Later, he attended Bowdoin College and, after graduating, published his first novel, Fanshawe (1828). In 1842, after a three-year engagement, he married a talented painter and linguist, Sophia Peabody. The couple moved to Concord and had three children. After working as a Custom House worker for several years, Hawthorne and his family moved to the Berkshires. In 1853, college friend Franklin Pierce appointed him as a United States consul, and for seven years, Hawthorne and his family lived in Liverpool, England. On their return to the U.S. they moved back to Concord. Four years later, he died after a period of ill health.

During Hawthorne's career, he became friends with the writers Henry David Thoreau and Herman Melville, and he wrote several landmark novels, The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), and The Marble Faun (1860). The historic background for these books allowed Hawthorne to explore past guilt and sin in an innovative context. In tandem with the themes of his novels, Hawthorne's short fiction often comes in the moral tale form, as allegories that exist on two levels: characters and situations are set up to illustrate "good" and "bad" actions. Yet at the same time the stories are replete with bleak romanticism and historical allusion. Collections such as Twice-Told Tales (1837) and Mosses From an Old Manse (1846), from which "Young Goodman Brown" (1835) was later republished in, should be seen in this dual light. The narrative revels in a concoction of episodic drama and Gothic romance, highlighting a moral center examined and replayed through the main characters. Readers should consider temptation and rebellion, public good and private evil, as touchstones for interpretation. Hawthorne's Puritan past, and his guilt for his ancestors' actions during the Salem Witch Trials, combines within this story to provide a narrative complexity that demands multiple readings.

* * *

Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street at Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman Brown.

"Dearest heart," whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed tonight. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she's afeard of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year."

"My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?"

"Then God bless you!" said Faith, with the pink ribbons; "and may you find all well when you come back."

"Amen!" cried Goodman Brown. "Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee."

So they parted; and the young man pursued his way until, being about to turn the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons.

"Poor little Faith!" thought he, for his heart smote him. "What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight. But no, no; 't would kill her to think it. Well, she's a blessed angel...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Anthem Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0857287699
• ISBN 13: 9780857287694
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 334
• Herausgeber: Linforth Christopher
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland