The Short Story: The Reality of Artifice

The short story is one of the most difficult types of prose to write and one of the most pleasurable to read. From Boccaccios <em>Decameron</em> to <em>The Collected Stories of</em> <em>Reynolds Price</em>, Charles May gives us an understanding of the history and structure of this demanding form of fiction. Beginning with a general history of the genre, he moves on to focus on the nineteenth-century when the modern short story began to come into focus. From there he moves on to later nineteenth-century realism and early twentieth-century formalism and finally to the modern renaissance of the form that shows no signs of abating. A chronology of significant events, works and figures from the genres history, notes and references and an extensive bibliographic essay with recommended reading round out the volume.