The Best Short Stories of 1918 Part 67

_Chronicles of Saint Tid_, by _Eden Phillpotts_ (The Macmillan Company).

Mr. Phillpotts has done well to collect his magazine stories of the past ten years. As a novelist he seems to me inferior to "John Trevena," who also deals with Dartmoor characters, but the short story with its narrow confines affords him an excellent opportunity to chronicle the whims of human nature which he has observed, and to set down simple chronicles of the countryside which have a romantic atmosphere of their own.

_Nine Tales_, by _Hugh de Selincourt_ (Dodd, Mead & Company). To those of us who found in "A Soldier of Life" last year a novel which revealed far more of the spiritual realities of this war than "Mr. Britling Sees it Through," these stories have been awaited with eagerness. In "The Sacrifice," Mr. de Selincourt has surpa.s.sed this novel for human revelation of war's spiritual effect on England, and "Sense of Sin" is as fine a story in a different manner. The whole book is an eloquent plea for spiritual freedom based on physical health and imaginative life. An art so delicate as this is rare.

_Some Happenings_, by _Horace Annesley Vach.e.l.l_ (George H. Doran Company). This is an entertaining collection of stories, by an English writer in the American manner, and ranges in breadth of interest from stories of the American West to English mystery stories and French pastorals.

III. _Translations_

_The Seven That Were Hanged_, by _Leonid Andreyev_ (Boni & Liveright).

These two sombre studies in death rank among the masterpieces of modern Russian literature. "The Seven That Were Hanged" is a study in the human reactions of seven different men between their condemnation and execution. Andreyev is a master of character, relentless in his probing, inevitable in his conclusions. "The Red Laugh," which is also included in this volume, is an unforgettable study of the horrors of warfare.

_Lazarus_, by _Leonid Andreyev_, and _The Gentleman from San Francisco_, by _Ivan Bunin_, translated by _Abraham Yarmolinsky_ (The Stratford Company). These stories, published together in one volume, are in vivid contrast. In "Lazarus" Andreyev has written one of his two great prose poems, relating how Lazarus revealed the mystery of the grave. "The Gentleman from San Francisco" has poetry too, but it is essentially an ironic study of the artificial values of commercial prosperity.

_We Others: Stories of Fate, Love, and Pity_, by _Henri Barbusse_, translated by _Fitzwater Wray_ (E. P. Dutton & Company). This collection of early stories by Monsieur Barbusse would have been important even if the author was not already known to us by "Under Fire" and "The Inferno." It includes forty-five short stories of remarkable technique in small compa.s.s, sounding almost every note of the human comedy and tragedy with the utmost economy of means and finish of construction. It is perhaps not an accident that the first two stories are the best, but the collection is unusually even and seems sure of reasonable permanence.

_Czech Folk Tales_, selected and translated by _Josef Baudis_ (The Macmillan Company). This is probably the best volume of fairy stories published this year and should interest students of folk lore and the general reader as well as children. There is a wild poetry in these brief tales, which is well rendered in Dr. Baudis's translation.

_Tales from Boccaccio_ (The Stratford Company). It was a happy thought of the publishers to select these seven stories at which the most puritan cannot carp, and to present them to us in such an attractive form. An old translation is used whose style faithfully mirrors that of Boccaccio.

_The Wife_ (The Macmillan Company), _The Witch_ (The Macmillan Company), and _Nine Humorous Tales_ (The Stratford Company), by _Anton Chekhov_.

Two new volumes have been added this year to Mrs. Garnett's admirable edition of Chekhov. It is now universally admitted that Chekhov ranks with Poe and de Maupa.s.sant as one of the three supreme masters of the short story. "The Wife" contains at least two of Chekhov's masterpieces: "A Dreary Story" and "Gooseberries." With these two stories I should rank "Gusev" and "In the Ravine." The little book issued by the Stratford Company reprints nine of Chekhov's less familiar stories, some of which cannot yet be obtained in English elsewhere.

_Peasant Tales of Russia_, by _V. I. Nemirovitch-Dantchenko_, translated by _Claud Field_ (Robert M. McBride & Company). These four poetic stories by one of the less known Russian masters are tragic studies of human conflict, softened by pity and a deep-rooted religious belief.

They are admirably translated in a style which reflects much of the poetry of the original. "The Deserted Mine" is one of the great short stories of the world.

_White Nights, and Other Stories_, by _Fyodor Dostoevsky_, translated by _Constance Garnett_ (The Macmillan Company). These seven short stories and novelettes range over a period of more than twenty years in Dostoevsky's career. "White Nights," which is one of his earliest works, is a poem of young love and its effect on solitude and spiritual isolation. "A Faint Heart," which was written seven or eight years afterwards, is a study of the will and morbid melancholy. It antic.i.p.ates many of the findings of modern psychiatry. "A Little Hero," written immediately afterwards, is a kind of autobiography, and sheds much light on Dostoevsky's early life. But "Notes from Underground" is the masterpiece of the book, and is one of the chief clues to Dostoevsky's own philosophy.

_Jewish Fairy Tales_, translated by _Gerald Friedlander_ (Bloch Publis.h.i.+ng Company). This collection of eight stories, translated from the Talmud, Yalkut, and other sources, has been wisely selected to cultivate the imagination of Jewish children, but should prove of much interest to the general reader who is likely to be unfamiliar with most of these legends.

_Taras Bulba, and Other Tales_, by _Nikolai V. Gogol_ (E. P. Dutton & Company). "Taras Bulba" and five of Gogol's best short stories are now added to Everyman's Library. The t.i.tle story is the national epic of Little Russia, and has a Homeric quality of s.p.a.ciousness, dignity, and imagination which places it among the world's great masterpieces. The other stories show Gogol in many moods, but chiefly as Russia's greatest humorous writer.

_Creatures That Once Were Men_ (Boni & Liveright) and _Stories of the Steppe_ (The Stratford Company), by "_Maxim Gorky_." These two volumes are in sufficient contrast to one another. The former contains five stories of life among the submerged cla.s.ses of Russia, which are n.o.bly told with simplicity, imaginative power, and sceptical philosophy.

"Stories of the Steppe" contains three prose poems full of a wild gypsy poetry.

_Men in War_, by _Andreas Latsko_ (Boni & Liveright). These six realistic studies of warfare by an Austrian whose book has been suppressed in his own country are a terrific indictment of the militaristic spirit which has brought on the great conflict and continued it relentlessly for four years. It shares with Barbusse's "Under Fire" the distinction of being one of the two masterpieces written by combatants during the last four years, and the spirit of the two books will be found to be essentially the same.

_Tales of Wartime France_, by Contemporary French Writers. Translated by _William L. McPherson_ (Dodd, Mead & Company). This anthology of thirty war stories is well selected, and shows that the war has produced many excellent French stories. One and all, they ill.u.s.trate the spirit of the nation, and show an artistic reticence which contrasts favorably with the work of English and American writers.

_French Short Stories_, Edited for School Use, by _Harry C. Schweikert_ (Scott, Foresman and Company). This collection of eighteen stories for the most part follows conventional lines, but the choice is excellent and introduces the reader to several unfamiliar stories by Coppee, Bazin, Claretie, and Lemaitre. The critical apparatus is competent, and the biographical notes should prove useful.

_The Spanish Fairy Book_, by _Gertrudis Segovia_, translated by _Elisabeth Vernon Quinn_ (Frederick A. Stokes Company). These eight fairy stories show much imagination, a pleasant unpretentious style, and a fine sense of form. While written for quite young children, they also possess much folk lore value.

_Serbian Fairy Tales_, translated by _Elodie L. Mijatovich_ (Robert M.

McBride & Co.). I would rank this with Dr. Baudis's "Czech Folk Tales"

as one of the two best books of fairy tales published this year. Like Ispirescu's collection of Roumanian stories it seems to bear traces of a secret animistic doctrine disclosing the mystery of change, and to have crystallized in literary form through centuries of traditional storytelling.

_Mas.h.i.+, and Other Stories_, by _Sir Rabindranath Tagore_ (The Macmillan Company). Of these stories it is difficult to speak without undue enthusiasm. With admirable economy of means, Tagore has succeeded in conveying the utmost subtlety of nostalgic remembrance, and the sensuous beauty of shrouded landscape in which he projects his figures sustains profound emotional revelation without undue tightening of the literary fabric. His literary method is a strange one to us, but it might well be the beginning of a new short story tradition in which an American writer could find inspiration as fresh as the new impulse that the discovery of j.a.panese prints brought to Whistler and others that followed him.

_Paulownia_: Seven Stories from Contemporary j.a.panese Writers, translated by _Torao Taketomo_ (Duffield & Company). These stories reveal a new world to us, as significant in its way as the world of Tagore's stories. Some of these j.a.panese writers have been influenced by European models, but their spirit is essentially national, and springs from an imaginative quality which it is hard for us at first to recapture. All the stories have a finished art, and so has Mr. Torao Taketomo's translation.

_What Men Live By, and Other Stories_, by _Leo Tolstoi_, translated by _L. and A. Maude_ (The Stratford Company). This collection includes four familiar stories by Tolstoi chosen for their social doctrine. The format of the book is pleasant, and the choice of stories excellent.

VOLUMES OF SHORT STORIES PUBLISHED, JANUARY TO OCTOBER, 1918: AN INDEX

_NOTE._ _An asterisk before a t.i.tle indicates distinction. This list includes single short stories, collections of short stories, textbooks, and a few continuous narratives based on short stories previously published in magazines._

I. _American Authors_

_Andrews, Mary Raymond s.h.i.+pman._ *Her Country. Scribner.

_Anonymous._ Thompson. Houghton-Mifflin.

_Antin, Mary._ *Lie, The. Atlantic Monthly Press.

_Bach.e.l.ler, Irving A._ Story of a Pa.s.sion. Roycrofters.

_Bacon, Josephine Daskam._ On Our Hill. Scribner.

_Bagnold, Enid._ Diary Without Dates. Luce.

_Barton, George._ Strange Adventures of Bromley Barnes. Page.

_Bell, Robert B. H._ Laughing Bear. Sh.o.r.es.

_Bellegarde, Sophie de._ Russian Soldier-Peasant. Young Churchman.

_Bierce, Ambrose._ *Can Such Things Be? Boni and Liveright.

*In the Midst of Life. Boni and Liveright.

_Bottome, Phyllis._ *Helen of Troy, and Rose. Century.

_Brown, Alice._ *Flying Teuton. Macmillan.

_Buffum, G. Tower._ On Two Frontiers. Lothrop, Lee and Shepard.

_Burt, Maxwell Struthers._ *John O'May, and Other Stories. Scribner.

_Butler, Ellis Parker._ Philo Gubb. Houghton-Mifflin.

_Canfield, Dorothy._ *Home Fires in France. Holt