Types of Prose Narratives: A Text-Book for the Story Writer

by Harriott Ely Fansler

LIST OF STORIES

NARRATIVES OF FICTITIOUS EVENTS

Myths
		PAGE
The World's Creation and the Birth of Wainamoinen	From the Kalevala	[14]
Students' Themes—
Origin of the Moon	Emanuel Baja	[16]
The First Cocoanut Tree	Manuel Reyes	[18]
The Lotus	Ida Treat	[21]
Legends
Kenach's Little Woman	William Canton	[28]
Students' Themes—
A Legend of Gapan	Teofilo Corpus	[36]
Manca: a Legend of the Incas	Dorothea Knoblock	[38]
The Place of the Red Grass	Sixto Guico	[42]
Fairy Tales
The Boggart	From the English	[55]
Students' Themes—
Cafre and the Fisherman's Wife	Benito Ebuen	[57]
The Friendship of an Asuang and a Duende	Emanuel Baja	[58]
A Tianac Frightens Juan	Santiago Ochoa	[61]
The Black Cloth of the Calumpang	Eusebio Ramos	[63]
Nursery Tales
Princess Helena the Fair	From the Russian	[69]
Students' Themes—
Juan the Guesser	Bienvenido Gonzalez	[73]
The Shepherd who became King	Vicente Hilario	[78]
Fables
Jupiter and the Countryman	From the Spectator	[90]
The Drop of Water (Persian)	From the Spectator	[91]
The Grandee at the Judgment Seat	Kriloff	[91]
The Lion and the Old Hare	From the Hitopadesa	[92]
The Fox and the Crab	From the Turkish	[93]
The Fool who Sells Wisdom	From the Turkish	[94]
The Archer and the Trumpeter	From the Turkish	[95]
Students' Themes—
The Courtship of Sir Butterfly	Maximo M. Kalaw	[96]
The Hat and the Shoes	José R. Perez	[98]
The Crocodile and the Peahen	Elisa Esguerra	[99]
The Old Man, his Son, and his Grandson	Eutiquiano Garcia	[100]
Parables
The Three Questions	Tolstoy	[104]
Students' Themes—
A Master and his Servant	Eusebio Ramos	[110]
The Parable of the Beggar and the Givers	Dorothea Knoblock	[111]
Allegories
The Artist	Oscar Wilde	[120]
The House of Judgment	Oscar Wilde	[120]
Students' Themes—
The Chain that Binds	Elizabeth Sudborough	[123]
The Love which Surpassed All Other Loves	Florence Gifford	[125]
Tales of Mere Wonder
The Story of the City of Brass	From the Arabian Nights	[132]
Student's Theme—
The Magic Ring, the Bird, and the Basket	Facundo Esquivel	[147]
Imaginary Voyages
Mellonta Tauta	Edgar Allan Poe	[155]
Student's Theme—
Busyong's Trip to Jupiter	Manuel Candido	[173]
Tale of Scientific Discovery and Mechanical Invention
A Curious Vehicle	Alexander Wilson Drake	[200]
Students' Themes—
The Spyglass of the Past	Hazel Orcutt	[218]
Up a Water Spout	Edna Collister	[221]
Detective Story and Tale of Mere Plot
Thou Art the Man	Edgar Allan Poe	[228]
Student's Theme—
The Picture of Lhasa	Hazel Orcutt	[248]
Tales of More-or-Less Probable Adventure
Fight with a Bear	Charles Reade	[257]
Student's Theme—
Secret of the Jade Tlaloc	Dorothea Knoblock	[267]
Society Stories
The Fur Coat	Ludwig Fulda	[277]
Student's Theme—
The Lady in Pink	Wilma I. Ball	[289]
Humorous Stories
The Expatriation of Jonathan Taintor	Charles Battell Loomis	[302]
Students' Themes—
Kileto and the Physician	Lorenzo Licup	[307]
The Lame Man and the Deaf Family	Santiago Rotea	[311]
Occasional Stories
The Lost Child	François Coppée	[315]
Students' Themes—
The Peace of Yesterdays	Katherine Kurz	[334]
A Christmas Legend	Ida F. Treat	[342]
Moral Story
Jeannot and Colin	Voltaire	[348]
Pedagogical Narratives
Gertrude's Method of Instruction	Pestalozzi	[365]
Student's Theme—
Lawin-lawinan (a Filipino game)	Leopoldo Uichanco	[368]
Stories of Present-Day Realism
The Piece of String	Maupassant	[374]
Students' Themes—
A Social Error	Ida Treat	[382]
The Lot of the Poor	Agnes Palmer	[388]
Filipino Fear	Walfrido de Leon	[390]
Psychological Weird Tales
The Signal-Man	Charles Dickens	[403]
Student's Theme—
Like a Thief in the Night	Dorothea Knoblock	[420]
Stories That Emphasize Character and Environment
Muhammad Din	Rudyard Kipling	[432]
Students' Themes—
The Fetters	Katherine Kurz	[436]
When Terry Quit	Dorothea Knoblock	[446]
Nora Titay and Chiquito	Joaquina E. Tirona	[453]
Stories That Emphasize Character and Events
The Necklace	Maupassant	[460]
Student's Theme—
Andong	Justo Avila	[470]

NARRATIVES OF ACTUAL EVENTS

Incidents
A Near Tragedy	Fielding	[482]
An Incident before Sadowa: Birds Divulge Army Secrets	Newspaper	[483]
An Incident Related in a Letter	Robert Louis Stevenson	[484]
Students' Themes—
A Hero Dead	Ida Treat	[485]
My First Day at School	Máximo Kalaw	[487]
The Guinatan Prize	Leopoldo Faustino	[488]
Anecdotes
Coleridge's Retort		[493]
An Inevitable Misfortune		[494]
A Point Needing to be Settled		[494]
Patience		[494]
Preaching and Practice		[495]
Johnson's Dictionary		[495]
The Boy Kipling		[496]
Sir Godfrey Kneller	Spence	[496]
Pope and the Trader	Spence	[497]
The Capitan Municipal and theJokers	José Feliciano	[497]
An Instance of Bamboo Spanish	Pilar Ejercito	[498]
Mr. Taft's Mistake	Amando Clements	[499]
Eye-Witness Accounts
The Portuguese Revolution	Newspaper	[503]
Student's Theme—
A Contrast	Adolfo Scheerer	[509]
Tales of Actual Adventures
The Bear Hunt	Tolstoy	[514]
Students' Themes—
Saladin and I Fight an Alupong	Cecilio Esquivel	[525]
I Get Two Beatings	Facundo Esquivel	[527]
The Fall of Juan	Gregorio Farrales	[528]
A Narrow Escape from a Wild Carabao	José Cariño	[529]
Travellers' Sketches
On the Way to Talavera	George Borrow	[534]
Smyrna—First Glimpses of the East Thackeray		[539]
Student's Theme—
A Trip from Curimao to Laoag	Fernando Maramag	[551]
Journals and Diaries
Extracts from Pepys' Diary		[562]
Students' Themes—
A Diary of Four Days	Facundo Esquivel	[564]
A Journal: Mock Heroic	Victoriano Yamzon	[567]
Autobiography and Memoirs
The Life of David Hume, Esq.	Written by himself	[575]
Student autobiography	Domingo Guanio	[585]
What I Remember of the Coming ofthe Americans	Leopoldo Faustino	[588]
Biographies
Queen Christina	Hawthorne	[595]
Students' Themes—
Juan Luna's Life	Dolores Asuncion	[604]
Life of Elizabeth Glade	Nellie Barrington	[607]
The Biography of a Traitor	Walfrido de Leon	[609]
Annals
The State of England, in Stephen'sReign	Peterborough Chronicle	[616]
Students' Themes—
Annals of Mangaldan	Translated by BernabeAquino	[621]
Annals of Pagsanjan	Dolores Zafra	[622]
Chronicles
Rivalry between Two Towns	Froissart	[630]
Students' Themes—
A Short History of Ilagan	Fernando Maramag	[636]
Some Incidents of the Rebellion of1898: A True Relation	Marcelino Montemayor	[639]

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INTRODUCTION

There are many interesting possibilities for both the reader and the writer in a study of narrative types. It is a truism to say that everybody loves a story. Every race, every nation, every tribe, every family, has its favorite narratives. Every person has his and likes to repeat them. Even the driest old matter-of-fact curmudgeon delights in relating an incident if nothing else. Perhaps he tells you of how he lost and found again his pocket talisman—a buckeye, maybe, or a Portuguese cruzado. He will assure you that he does not really believe that the unfortunate events that followed his loss of it were occasioned by its absence, or the return of good-luck casually connected with its recovery; but still, he adds, he feels much better with the old thing in his pocket. "And that was a queer coincidence, wasn't it?" he insists, starting again over the details of the happening. So with us all: we all know and love stories, our own or another person's.

It is a fine thing to write a story. It is good through one's imagination and skill to entertain one's fellows or through one's accurate observation of life and history to benefit society. The narrator has always been honored. In earliest times he was the seer and prophet, forming the religion of his wandering tribe; later he was the welcomed guest, for whom alone the frowning castle's gate stood always open; and after the dark ages, in the time of the revival-of-the-love-of-written-things, he was the favorite at the court of favoring princes, who lavished upon him preferment and money and humbly offered him the laurel crown, their highest tribute. In our own day his reward surpasses that of kings and presidents. They come to him, and for immortality invoke his name. In earliest times he composed in verse so that his story might be remembered and handed down. In latest times he writes most often in prose—a more difficult medium to handle with distinction, but one more widely understood and more readily appreciated than poetry.