Probably this is hardly the place for an extended discussion of Poe, since the present volume covers neither American literature as a whole nor the American short story in general, and Poe is not a humorist in his more notable productions. Let it be said that Poe invented or perfected—more exactly, perfected his own invention of—the modern short story; that is his general and supreme achievement. He also stands superlative for the quality of three varieties of short stories, those of terror, beauty and ratiocination. In the first class belong _A Descent into the Maelstrom_ (1841), _The Pit and the Pendulum_ (1842), _The Black Cat_ (1843), and _The Cask of Amontillado_ (1846). In the realm of beauty his notable productions are _The Assignation_ (1834), _Shadow: a Parable_ (1835), _Ligeia_ (1838), _The Fall of the House of Usher_ (1839), _Eleonora_ (1841), and _The Masque of the Red Death_ (1842). The tales of ratiocination—what are now generally termed detective stories—include _The Murders in the Rue Morgue_ (1841) and its sequel, _The Mystery of Marie Rogêt_ (1842–1843), _The Gold-Bug_ (1843), _The Oblong Box_ (1844), “_Thou Art the Man_” (1844), and _The Purloined Letter_ (1844). Then, too, Poe was a master of style, one of the greatest in English prose, possibly the greatest since De Quincey, and quite the most remarkable among American authors. Poe’s influence on the short story form has been tremendous. Although the _effects_ of structure may be astounding in their power or unexpectedness, yet the _means_ by which these effects are brought about are purely mechanical. Any student of fiction can comprehend them, almost any practitioner of fiction with a bent toward form can fairly master them. The merit of any short story production depends on many other elements as well—the value of the structural element to the production as a whole depends first on the selection of the particular sort of structural scheme best suited to the story in hand, and secondly, on the way in which this is _combined_ with the piece of writing to form a well-balanced whole. Style is more difficult to imitate than structure, but on the other hand _the origin of structural influence_ is more difficult to trace than that of style. So while, in a general way, we feel that Poe’s influence on structure in the short story has been great, it is difficult rather than obvious to trace particular instances. It is felt in the advance of the general level of short story art. There is nothing personal about structure—there is everything personal about style. Poe’s style is both too much his own and too superlatively good to be successfully imitated—whom have we had who, even if he were a master of structural effects, could be a second Poe? Looking at the matter in another way, Poe’s style is not his own at all. There is nothing “personal” about it in the petty sense of that term. Rather we feel that, in the case of this author, universality has been attained. It was Poe’s good