CHAPTER III. INGENIOUS-ASTONISHING GROUP
Tale of Mere Wonder
Meredith's Shaving of Shagpat (Bozhill edition); Stevenson's New Arabian Nights, and More New Arabian Nights (Scribners); H. W. Weber's Tales of the East, 3 vols. (Edinburgh, 1812); Dandin's Hindoo Tales (London, 1873); S. Julien's Nouvelles Chinoises (Paris, 1860). History of the Forty Vezirs, Turkish tales translated by Epiphanius Wilson: Turkish Literature, pp. 361-460 (W. G. C.). Egyptian Tales, translated by W. F. Petrie: Egyptian Literature, pp. 135-177 (W. G. C.). Moorish Tales, translated by Rene Basset, Chauncey Starkweather, and others: Moorish Literature (W. G. C.). Tales of the Genii, translated from the Persian by Sir Charles Morell (Bohn); Arabian, Nights' Entertainments, edited by Stanley Lane-Pool, in 6 vols. (A. B.), or in 4 vols. (Bohn); The Golden Ass, by Apuleius (Bohn).
Imaginary Voyage With a Satiric or Instructive Purpose
Lucian 's Trips to the Moon (C. N. L. No. 71); More's Utopia (T. C.); Bacon's New Atlantis (Bohn); Barclay's Argenis, English translation by Sir R. Le Grys, 1629; Swift's Gulliver's Travels (T. C.). For Swift's obligations to previous writers, see article by Borkowsky in "Anglia," vol. 15. F. C. Sibbern (1785-1872), a Scandinavian writer, wrote "Contents of a MS. of the year 2,135." The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, by Rudolphe Eric Raspe (P. W. C.); Robinson Crusoe, in Defoe's Works, vol. 7 (Bohn).
For summaries of the imaginary voyages of Lucian, Holberg, Cyrano de Bergerac, Berkeley, and others, see Dunlop History of Prose Fiction, vol. II, pp. 518-538, 588-591, 619-622 (Bohn, revised edition, 1896).
Tale of Scientific Discovery and of Mechanical Invention
H. G. Wells's stories and novels are good examples of the pseudo-scientific tale. His imaginary voyages are not without gentle satire on the learned theories of the day (Scribners, Harpers, Century). "With the Night Mail; a Story of 2000 A. D.," by Rudyard Kipling (Doubleday, 1909); The Mystery, by Stewart Edward White and Samuel Hopkins Adams. Most of the short stories of this type mentioned in the discussion can be found in the collections of short stories (see below).
The Detective Story and Other Tales of Mere Plot
Among the earliest detective stories and stories of crime belong Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntley and Arthur Mervyn (Works, Philadelphia, 1877); Edgar Allan Poe's famous detective stories have been mentioned in the text. Emile Gaboriau (1835-1873) popularized the story of crime in France. M. Lecoq is a direct forerunner of Sherlock Holmes. His Works are published (in English translation) in 6 vols. A. Conan Doyle's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of the Four, A Study in Scarlet, The Hound of the Baskervilles, etc., are worth reading. Anna Katherine Green surely does not lack popularity whatever else she may lack. Her earlier stories are better than her later, with the exception of The Filigree Ball, which is perhaps her best. Meredith Nicholson's House of a Thousand Candles has a good mysterious plot. The works of Rodriguez Ottolengui (Putnam). For other stories of pure plot see writers mentioned in bibliography to Chapter VI.