Modern Short Stories: A Book for High Schools

Fiction; Short stories

_One Hundred in the Dark_ illustrates that type of detective story
    that presents a problem but gives no solution. Giving all the
    information that one could be expected to have, it presents a
    problem with several different solutions possible. At the end of the
    story the problem is left unsolved—the reader is “in the dark,” but,
    because his mind has been awakened, he is fascinated. The author has
    gone further than usual, for he gives the story as if told in a club
    at the conclusion of a conversation in which several persons have
    taken part. The story is followed by further conversation that
    suggests a second problem—what did the members of the club think of
    the person who told the story? The result is that the author has
    cleverly established a definite setting, has aroused interest in the
    type of story to be told, and has emphasized the problem by giving
    it a new interest in the light of the question: What part did the
    members of the club think Peters played in the story that he himself
    told?

    Owen Johnson was born in New York in 1878. He turned his college
    life at Yale into literary account in his interesting novel, _Stover
    at Yale_. He is the author of numerous short stories and plays.


    =Bon mots.= Bright sayings.

    =De Maupassant.= Guy de Maupassant, 1850-1893. A celebrated French
      novelist and poet. In _Fort comme la Mort_ (Strong as Death) he
      tells of the life of fashionable society.

    =The Faust theme.= A reference to the great tragedy of _Faust_ by
      the German poet, Goethe, 1749-1832. Faust personifies humanity
      with all its longings.

    =The Three Musketeers, etc.= _The Three Musketeers_, by Alexander
      Dumas, père, 1803-1870; _Trilby_, by George du Maurier, 1834-1896,
      and _Soldiers Three_, by Rudyard Kipling, 1865-, all tell stories
      of the close comradeship of three men.

    =Vie de Bohème.= _Scènes de la vie de Bohème_ by Henri Murger. The
      opera _La Bohème_ is based upon this book.

    =Bluebeard and The Moonstone.= In the stories of _Bluebeard_, and
      _The Moonstone_, a famous mystery story by Wilkie Collins,
      1824-1889, curiosity plays a leading part.

    =Watteaulike.= A reference to the conventional pictures of
      shepherdesses by Jean Antoine Watteau, a celebrated French
      painter, 1684-1721.

    =Fines herbes.= Vegetable greens.

    =En maître.= As master.


                        A RETRIEVED REFORMATION
                              By O. HENRY

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

General

Modern Short Stories: A Book for High Schools

Fiction; Short stories

_One Hundred in the Dark_ illustrates that type of detective story
    that presents a problem but gives no solution. Giving all the
    information that one could be expected to have, it presents a
    problem with several different solutions possible. At the end of the
    story the problem is left unsolved—the reader is “in the dark,” but,
    because his mind has been awakened, he is fascinated. The author has
    gone further than usual, for he gives the story as if told in a club
    at the conclusion of a conversation in which several persons have
    taken part. The story is followed by further conversation that
    suggests a second problem—what did the members of the club think of
    the person who told the story? The result is that the author has
    cleverly established a definite setting, has aroused interest in the
    type of story to be told, and has emphasized the problem by giving
    it a new interest in the light of the question: What part did the
    members of the club think Peters played in the story that he himself
    told?

    Owen Johnson was born in New York in 1878. He turned his college
    life at Yale into literary account in his interesting novel, _Stover
    at Yale_. He is the author of numerous short stories and plays.


    =Bon mots.= Bright sayings.

    =De Maupassant.= Guy de Maupassant, 1850-1893. A celebrated French
      novelist and poet. In _Fort comme la Mort_ (Strong as Death) he
      tells of the life of fashionable society.

    =The Faust theme.= A reference to the great tragedy of _Faust_ by
      the German poet, Goethe, 1749-1832. Faust personifies humanity
      with all its longings.

    =The Three Musketeers, etc.= _The Three Musketeers_, by Alexander
      Dumas, père, 1803-1870; _Trilby_, by George du Maurier, 1834-1896,
      and _Soldiers Three_, by Rudyard Kipling, 1865-, all tell stories
      of the close comradeship of three men.

    =Vie de Bohème.= _Scènes de la vie de Bohème_ by Henri Murger. The
      opera _La Bohème_ is based upon this book.

    =Bluebeard and The Moonstone.= In the stories of _Bluebeard_, and
      _The Moonstone_, a famous mystery story by Wilkie Collins,
      1824-1889, curiosity plays a leading part.

    =Watteaulike.= A reference to the conventional pictures of
      shepherdesses by Jean Antoine Watteau, a celebrated French
      painter, 1684-1721.

    =Fines herbes.= Vegetable greens.

    =En maître.= As master.


                        A RETRIEVED REFORMATION
                              By O. HENRY

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Modern Short Stories: A Book for High Schools

Modern Short Stories: A Book for High Schools

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