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Short-stories: I write them, I read them, I love them. Let’s talk about them!Though not always recognized as such, short stories are considered a genre of literature and have never been more respected.Alice Munro, who only writes short stories, won the Noble Prize in 2013 for being “master of the contemporary short story.[1]”Yearly anthologies of contemporary short stories include The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best British Short Stories, and The Best American Short Stories - all excellent. Many short story writers like Carver, Chekhov, Mansfield and Joyce have had their work republished with new critical introductions.The short story is everywhere, not just in the New Yorker.And yet, it’s still difficult to define a short story.First and foremost, a short story is not a condensed novel. It lacks things a novel has; including multiple character arcs, three or five section plot development and multi-dimensional scenes.It also has something a novel doesn’t; a singular, connective tissue of concept and an impression of a theme (more below).On the other hand, short stories aren’t one scene, or even one character. Munro’s The Love of a Good Woman has three different stories, several highly-developed characters and the essence of a full plot.Short stories can be parables, tales, folk-tales, allegory, riddles. They are written in the style of realism, naturalism, magic realism, romantic, gothic, southern gothic, and fantasy, science fiction and humor. (An stellar anthology that demonstrates the range of stories over the last 150 years is Victoria Hislop’s three collections of short stories written by women entitled Love, Life and Loss).A short story is many, many things. How did it get here?The easiest way to explain a short-story is to describe how they developed since they first became popular about 150 years ago.Stories that are short have been around as long as humans; oral tales, folk tales, fables and parables are all, in a sense, short stories. Short stories certainly existed before the novel came emerged in the 16–17th centuries and yet, when short stories emerged as a popular literary form in the 18th century, they were still only viewed a shortened form of the novel.For example, Chekov’s tale The Green Scythe, published in 1882, was called a ‘short novel’ and even had chapters, though it’s shorter than 20 pages.The term “short story” was first used by Anthony Trollope (1815–85), a prolific British writer during Victorian era who, ironically, was anything but a short-story writer. (I love Trollope but it’s safe to say he doesn’t discuss anything substantial until he’d wowed us with at least 100 pages of exposition.)Early short story writers, like Hawthorne and Melville, were novelists who wrote shorter stories for practice, or serial magazine publication. Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener is a good example of early short stories; a condensed tale with sophisticated language, a clear plot and developed narrative.Guy de Maupassant (1850–93) a French writer who wrote in the middle of the 1900th century is perhaps the first author to be known for short stories. He was a naturalist writer[2], which is a form of realism that deals with human’s inability to affect their own lives and world. His stories, like The Necklace, tell of desperate actions of individuals bound by forces more powerful than themselves; social structures, institutions, even religion.However, even Maupassant’s short stories (And O’Henry like him) were more like shortened tales than what we’d think of as short stories.It wasn’t until American author Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49), author of Tell-Tale Heart and Cask of Amontillado, that the short story took shape as something unique. Poe is generally considered the grand-father of the short story, he had two main contributions.(I have to include a photo, I love Poe, I’m sorry. He is so unique.)First, his writing was extremely psychological which often displaced plot and allowed short stories to develop from condensed novels to a strong expression of feeling. His psychological struggles (pulled from his own life) included being trapped, confused, betrayed, guilty and isolated. The writing is intentionally claustrophobic, quick-paced, and unclear. His settings were overwhelmingly detailed and described.Poe also left a few things out, for example, it’s hard to distinguish one character from the other, they all seem to be tropes for his themes. That was less important for Poe and became less important for the short story.Second, most importantly, introduced the concept of unity of impression as part of the definition of short stories. He wrote about the concept many times;Unity of effect, a quality not easily appreciated or indeed comprehended by an ordinary mind……is indispensable in the “brief article”: and not so in the common novel.Poe used his language, settings, and characters to reinforce his unity of effect and he was excellent at it. We remember Poe for his gothic fiction, haunting poetry, and horror writing, but he deserves more credit as the major contributor to the short story genre. (Like I said, I love Poe).After Poe, the most influential contributor to short stories was Russian writer Anton Chekhov[3] (1860–1904). Chekhov publish many stories between 1870 and 1890 but his stories weren’t translated to English until 1910, at which point they had tremendous lasting, influence and to this day, feel quite contemporary.Chekhov’s style was highly unique, he reduced the concept of the tale even further; using metaphor, suggestive words and dialogue that hint at, but don’t explicitly tell what’s happening.He was also a realist, covering “slices of life”, looking at middle, even lower class individuals, echoing the themes and focus that was taking over in other art-forms, notably painting.One of Chekhov’s most well-known stories is The Lady with the Toy Dog is a story about an older, unhappily-married man, Gomov, who meets a young woman, initially looks at her as a casual affair but is strangely drawn to her and their relationship develops to the point where they face the reality that no matter how strong their love, they cannot be together, might not ever be together.The modernity of this story comes in the uncertainty with which it concludes; Chekhov doesn’t give enough information for us to know if Gomov is in love, lust, or just lonely. We don’t know what will happen or even, what did happen in Gomov’s conscious. We don’t even know if Gomov knows. The lack of knowledge, of answers, of certainty, even lack of moral structure is the basis of modern fiction and through Chekhov, a fundamental aspect of the modern short story.Another modern author who contributed a key component to the short story as we know it was Irish writer James Joyce (1882–1941), his story Dubliners, published in 1914 but written over the previous 10 years, likely did not have the influence of Chekhov (because he hadn’t been translated to English yet) but was strikingly similar in subject matter.Joyce’s main contribution was the concept of the epiphany, a Christian term originally, in modern context it means ‘an awakening.’ Joyce used epiphanies - or lack there of - to show psychological change in stories that otherwise would have ended in uncertainty.Joyce’s story The Encounter, is about two boys who unknowingly encounter a pedophile and while one boy runs off, leaving his friend, he eventually comes back and unwittingly saves him.He ran as if to bring me aid. And I was penitent; for in my heart I had always despised him a little.In this last, last line of the story we see the narrator finally realize his appreciation for the danger he was in and perhaps, gratitude for his friend.The Modern Short StoryDuring and after WWI, short stories became more common, respected and developed in many different forms and styles. Key writers include Rudyard Kipling, Kathrine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, John Cheever and Faulkner.The most direct descendants of Chekhov’s style were Ernest Hemingway and later Raymond Carver. They both used Chekhov’s style of withholding details and information and pared them down even further to a point where many people have criticized their writing as inhuman and incomplete.Hemingway’s The Hills Like White Elephants is a brilliant example of this minimal writing. A couple sit in a train station and have a very brief discussion about an operation - though we don’t know what, which the wife is considering. They argue, talk about things like the hills in the distance, a metaphor we assume, and then the train comes. That’s it.Raymond Carver (1938–1988), an American writer, began writing late in life and although his writing changed much from his early to his late work (in that it became more optimistic and nuanced) his style was always extremely minimal. He had tremendous influence on today’s short story writers (many new writers write like him without realizing it).The short story developed in another direction by the likes of Angela Carter (1940–92, a British, feminist author who wrote magic realism stories in which she re-imagined fairy tales and other folk tales into stories where the female is empowered, intelligent and often, victorious. Her most famous tale is The Bloody Chamber. Carter’s work is gothic, romantic, uses sophisticated language and has complete plots. It couldn’t be more different from Chekhov or Hemingway.Another example of a short-story author Flannery O'Connor (1924–65) who wrote about the extremely impoverished American South. Her writing was highly metaphorical, religious, and focused on the ugliest aspects of humanity but presented in an honest and unsentimental way. She also leaves out much and is one of the best examples of impression-writing since Poe. The moodes of her stories are. . . well let’s just say I can’t read more than one at once.Contemporary Short StoriesRather than go into the many, many authors writing today, I want to highlight two who couldn’t possibly be more different but both are extremely influential to highlight how broad the short story genre has become.Lydia Davis (1947-) won the Man Booker International Prize in 2013 in for her collection of short stories, all of which are highly original. Some are a line, some a few lines, some a few pages. I wrote more about her writing and why she’s important here How can I write a very short story? Check out her collection Can't and Won't.Alice Munro, (1931-) who I mentioned in the beginning of this answer is another highly distinct short story writer. It is trite to call her stories condensed novels, but that is what they are, short novels. She brings out multiple characters, settings, scenes and even covers spans lifetimes in her stories. her themes are usually localized in the human condition (i.e. not political) love, failure, fear, loneliness etc. My favorite of her stories are Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, Nettles, and Love of a Good Woman.Ok. That was a lot. And I never answered the question.What is a short story?I’ll borrow from another answer of mine:Short stories require three things; unity, condensed thought, and impression.Unity means the story needs to be about one thing; a theme, a character, a situation - unlike a novel which will be multi-faceted.Condensed thought, a manner of form, is required because you don’t have the words so each word has to mean a lot, and each word matters.Impression is just what it sounds, give the feeling of something, an essence. Suggest without saying.The best concise definition I can give for a short story is this (a paraphrase of something Poe [love Poe!] believed):A short story a piece in which every single sentence, word, person, scene, happening matters because each contributes to the whole. If you remove one piece, the whole suffers.And there you have it. Get reading!Further ReadingNew Short Story Theories,Charles E. May Excellent collection of essays about the origination, development, definition and cognitive approaches of the short story. It includes essays by authors like Poe, Carver, and Cortazar as well as several critical reviews. Great collection, first published in 1976.The Short Story: An Introduction: Paul March-Russell Comprehensive survey of the short story from its origins as a folktale to a more specific, distinct genre.Want a fast read about the history of the short story? Pick up The Modern Short Story: Frank Myszor. It’s clean, clear and distills the most important aspects of the short story development.Footnotes[1] Alice Munro - Facts[2] Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism[3] http://www.biography.com/people/anton-chekhov-9245947#synopsis

Version 2It was all Sir Walter Scott’s fault. Major 19th Century novelists grew up reading Scott’s historical novels and wanted to play, too. Many of the great 19th Century novelists gave it a try, but the talents that make a good historical novelist are actually not all that common. There are writers with a knack for it, but most of the great novelists of the period produced only one or two historical novels. (The most extreme case was George Eliot, who laboured for years over her contribution to the genre).In the 19th Century, historical novels were not precisely a genre. It was simply a variety of literature with some unusual requirements. In the 20th Century, fewer serious writers tried their hands at historical fiction, and it came to be seen more as an entertainment than a serious contribution to world literature.Nevertheless, there are a LOT of great historical novels of the 19th and 20th Century. I like the genre when the writer can pull it off.A note on the question of the historical accuracy of historical and biographical novels. Periodically, questions will arise on Quora about historical novels where the querent will dwell on the notion of “historical fiction novels” or raise the question whether a given novel is “based on fact.”The words “fiction novel” taken together are redundant.definition: novel, noun.a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.If the book is a novel, by definition it is fiction. The minute a writer starts telling you what another character thought, if he tells you it is non-fiction, he is either befuddled or prevaricating.A book that purports to be a biographical novel is based on records of fact, without a doubt. But it is a species of historical novel, and that means you are not reading historical fact.Some historical novels are quite scrupulous about keeping as close to the historical record as possible, but even those writers are required, in order to make coherent and well-constructed books, to rearrange things, and often to invent things that we do not know are true.EDIT History#1: The Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian completely slipped my mind when I hastily posted this. I read the series in chronological order from Master and Commander to The Wine-Dark Sea, which had just come out at the time (1993). I read the subsequent volumes as they appeared.I read that group of the first 16 books at the rate of one book a day; by the time I reached the HMS Surprise volume, I was hooked. When I finished The Wine-Dark Sea, I was convinced that I had read several books that possessed literary merit rather beyond what is normally assigned to historical novel entertainment. The erudition and the elegance of language of the books, and their attention to historical detail impressed me. After the first six novels in the series, O’Brian realised he had historically painted himself into a corner and changed his tactics of adherence to strict historical accuracy. See this for a discussion: Aubrey–Maturin series - WikipediaI like all the books, but I have a particular fondness for The Wine-Dark Sea.These books deal with the voyages and adventures during the Napoleonic Wars of Captain Jack Aubry and his friend, Ship’s Surgeon and naturalist Stephen Maturin. This is not like Horatio Hornblower. It is remarkably well-written, devoid of jingoism, and contains a lot of period and cultural references that reveal the depth of O’Brian’s erudition as well as his love for the period.#2: For some reason or other, the existence of George Macdonald Fraser slipped my mind, also. He wrote a number of books that could be considered slightly berserk historical novels. They are funny and enormously entertaining. My absolute favourites are the series of novels and stories about Harry Flashman, which cover a period from around 1839 to 1894.You can find some more remarks on the Flashman books here: Corwyn Berthier's answer to Can you name a fictional character that you disliked at first, but ended up liking later on?#3: Whilst discussing treatments of Shakespeare in fiction, I had a brainwave and recalled that there are some historical novels of the Elizabethan period that genuinely entertain me and are well-written. Duly added.#4: I was rummaging around in my library, and I was reminded of a few more historical novels that I rather liked.#5: I reorganised the comments to put them at the top of the answer. I moved the lists of writers and books to the bottom and regularised the formatting. I made the writers more or less chronological.The ListAlexandre DumasLes Trois MousquetairesVingt ans aprèsLe Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tardVictor HugoNotre Dame de ParisQuatrevingt-treize - About the counter-revolutionary revolt in the Vendée and the Chouannerie.Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two CitiesGeorge Eliot - RomolaAlessandro Manzoni - The BetrothedWilliam Makepeace Thackeray - Henry EsmondTheodor FontaneVor dem Storm (Before the Storm)Gustave FlaubertSalammbô - his great novel about ancient Carthage. Brilliantly written and full of rather sensational elements, it was a bestseller but is now little-read in Anglophone countries.La Tentation de Saint AntoineConrad Ferdinand MeyerJürg JenatschAngela BorgiaDas Amulett (The Amulet)Die Versuchung des Pescara (The Temptation of Pescara)Leo Tolstoy - War and PeaceWalter Pater - Marius the EpicureanAnatole France - Les dieux ont soif (about revolutionary France and the Terror)Dmitri MerezhkovskyThe Romance of Leonardo da VinciThe Death of the Gods. Julian the ApostateThomas MannLotte in WeimarJoseph und seine Brüder (Joseph and his Brothers)Der Erwählte (The Holy Sinner)Virginia Woolf - Orlando (well, PART of the book is historical)Herman Broch - Der Tod des Vergil (The Death of Vergil)Giuseppe di Lampedusa - The Leopard (great novel of Sicily)Eiji YoshikawaMusashiTaikoRobert GravesI, ClaudiusClaudius the GodThe Golden FleeceCount Belisarius (this is, in my opinion, the weakest of his large historical novels, but it has some good touches)King JesusMarguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of HadrianGonzalo Torrente BallesterCrónica del rey pasmado (The King Amaz’d) - My wife recommended this book to me. There is also a very amusing movie that was made of it.Mary RenaultThe King Must DieThe Bull from the Sea (Ancient Greece of Theseus)Patrick O’BrianMaster and CommanderPost CaptainHMS SurpriseThe Mauritius CommandDesolation IslandThe Fortune of WarThe Surgeon's MateThe Ionian MissionTreason's HarbourThe Far Side of the WorldThe Reverse of the MedalThe Letter of MarqueThe Thirteen Gun SaluteThe Nutmeg of ConsolationClarissa OakesThe Wine-Dark SeaThe CommodoreThe Yellow AdmiralThe Hundred DaysBlue at the MizzenAnthony BurgessNothing Like the SunA Dead Man in DeptfordThe Kingdom of the WickedGeorge Macdonald Fraser -FlashmanRoyal FlashFlashman's LadyFlashman and the Mountain of LightFlash for Freedom!Flashman and the RedskinsFlashman at the ChargeFlashman in the Great GameFlashman and the Angel of the LordFlashman and the DragonFlashman on the March"The Road to Charing Cross""Flashman and the Tiger""The Subtleties of Baccarat"Gore VidalLincolnJulian (about Julian the Apostate) - I observe that there are two books on this list about the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate. Vicisti, Galilaee, maybe the case, but Julian seems to have some staying power.Keith Roberts - The Boat of Fate (Roman Britain sliding into the Dark Ages)Roger Zelazny & Gerald Hausman, WildernessArturo Pérez-ReverteEl maestro de esgrima (The Fencing Master) - my wife loved this book.Captain Alatriste series:El capitán AlatristeLimpieza de sangreEl sol de BredaEl oro del reyEl caballero del jubón amarilloCorsarios de LevanteEl puente de los Asesinos

One of my favorite-must-see paintings that I use to gaze at as a SAIC student and years later as a homeless artist (while listening to My Favorite Things by John Coltrane) was the Resurrection by Francisco Buoneri called Cecco del Caravaggio 1619/20 the Italian Baroque painter. The painting depicts the moment of the resurrection as described in Gospel of Matthew 28:2. The Resurrection exaggerates the bold contrast of light and dark ( a technique called chiaroscuro) and the artist use vagrants, prostitutes and the homeless as models for sacred figures. A technique that Caravaggio had introduced in Roman painting. Buoneri was apparently one of Caravaggio's closest followers. Caravaggio often used him as a model. The Resurrection was the only large scale painting that The Art Institute of Chicago had that was an uncanny replica of one of my all time favorite artist Caravaggio. Keep in mind that the Resurrection was painted in 1619 which is a historical year for America. On August 20 1619 a Dutch warship brought the first African slaves, taken from Angola in West Africa they set foot on North America soil at the Jamestown Virginia English colony settled in 1607. They were not considered slaves but indentured servants, in fact, at Jamestown, tobacco was on the verge of a boom. Indentured servants from England were common in the settlements to work side by side with the Africans. In 1664 laws were passed for life long servitude for all black slaves. I bring this up because my ancestors were slaves. My surname is Sibley for a historical reason. So while I sat down and marveled at the genius of Buoneri paintings I thought about how I once read that it cost the lives of a thousand Africans to make the ivory keys for Beethoven's piano.I also admired the work of the Spanish painter,Diego Velazquez 1589–1660 The Art Institute owns one of his paintings titled Kitchen Scene of a “Morisco” (mixed parentage African woman) in a kitchen. The painting is magical. It’s like an HD picture of the past. I read that Velasquez, Davinci, Newton all believed in magic and alchemy which helped create the divinity in their discoveries and creations. Velazquez painting of Juan de Pareja, a Morisco” artist who was a member of his workshop is controversial because some art historians believe it is a self-portrait by Pareja rivaling the masters talent.The Art Institute of Chicago has a great African collection. The incredible African naturalistic Bronze sculpture from the Kingdom of Benin or Edo Empire (1440–1897) a precolonial African state located in the region of Nigeria. The Bronze sculptures are so anatomically refined and aesthetically perfect that their discovery astonished European art historians because they were created 102 years before the great European sculptures like MichaelAngelo 1542, Giambologna, Bartolomo.Picasso used African mask as a motif for Cubism. Some of the other artists you must see : Dali, Grant Wood, Edward Hopper, Pablo Picasso, Van Gogh, Goya, Modigliani, Charles White .In my memoir Being and Harmlessness notes from an underground artist Chapter 3: The Dilemma of Chicago Artist I discuss more of The Chicago Art Institutes collection that left an indelible impression on me and the politics of Chicago art.amazon.com/author/johnsibley