CHAPTER IV. THE ENTERTAINING GROUP
Tale of Probable Adventure
Tales of Daring and Danger, by G. A. Henty; F. H. Spearman's Held for Orders; Tales of Railroad Life (McClure), Nerve of Foley and other Railroad Stories (Harpers); Cy Warman's The Last Spike and Other Railroad Stories and The Express Messenger (Scribners); Stewart Edward White's Blazed Trail Stories and Stories of the Wild Life (Doubleday). Many of R. L. Stevenson's tales.
The Society Story
This is the type of the larger number of love tales in current periodicals. When well done under certain restrictions of length and development a narrative of this kind rises to the class of the artistic short-story.
Pastoral Romance—Aucassin and Nicolette, translated by Andrew Lang (Chiswick Series); Greek Romances of Heliodorus, Longus, and Achilles Tatius (Bohn); Cervantes' Galatea is a typical example. It is published in English translation in Bohn's Libraries. Montemayor's Diana is summarized rather fully in Dunlop II, pp. 365-376. For Sidney's pastoral see E. A. Baker's edition of the Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. Lodge's Rosalind (C. N. L.). For historical criticism of the type, see E. K. Chambers' English Pastorals (Warwick Library), W. W. Greg's Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama, 1906, and J. B. Fletcher's The Pastoral (Types of English Literature, Houghton Mifflin & Co.).
The Humorous Story
As in the case of the society story, the best collections of humorous stories are the cheaper current magazines.
Fableaux—A. de Montaiglon et G. Raynaud, Receuil général et complet des fabliaux des XIIIe et XIVe siecles, Paris, 1872-88, 6 vols. See Dunlop, History of Fiction, vol. II, p. 23 et seqq.