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short story
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Analyze short fiction elements evidenced in “The Gift of the Magi,” “The Necklace,” and “The Magic Shop”
Learn about Ernest Hemingway's short story “My Old Man” and his time as an expatriate in Paris
The Panchatantra
Follow a dramatization of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic American short story “Dr. Heidegger's Experiment”
Learn why Herman Melville's enigmatic hero in the short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” prefers not
Explore Herman Melville's classic American short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” with Charles Van Doren
See Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short story “The Crocodile” brought to life
Examine how to direct a film adaption of Walter van Tilburg Clark's short story “The Portable Phonograph”
Know about Katherine Mansfield, her writing technique, influences, and contribution to literary modernism
“The Pit and the Pendulum”
For Students
“The Pit and the Pendulum”
short story summary
Quizzes
Row of colorful books on a bookshelf. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society
The Literary World
Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl S. Buck, at her home, Green Hills Farm, near Perkasie, Pennsylvania, 1962. (Pearl Buck)
Novels and Novelists Quiz
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Duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, illustration after a painting by J. Mund.
10 Famous Duels
Chapter 4 pg 42 - Chapter header of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Published in 1884 by The American Publishing Company
Periods of American Literature
poem. A poet in a Heian period kimono writes Japanese poetry during the Kamo Kyokusui No En Ancient Festival at Jonan-gu shrine on April 29, 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. Festival of Kyokusui-no Utage orignated in 1,182, party Heian era (794-1192).
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King Cobra snake in Malaysia. (reptile)
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The Jeff Koons tulips sculputure outside the Guggenheim Museums in Bilbao, Spain, Basque Country.
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Facsimile of one of William Henry Ireland's forgeries, a primitive self-portrait of William Shakespeare(tinted engraving). Published for Samuel Ireland, Norfolk Street, Strand, December 1, 1795. (W.H. Ireland, forgery)
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short story

literature
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Written by
Arlen J. Hansen
Professor of English, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, 1974–93.
Arlen J. Hansen
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short story, brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a few characters. The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few significant episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting, concise narrative, and the omission of a complex plot; character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed. Despite its relatively limited scope, though, a short story is often judged by its ability to provide a “complete” or satisfying treatment of its characters and subject. Before the 19th ...(100 of 7300 words)

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