Modern Essays and Stories / A book to awaken appreciation of modern prose, and to develop ability and originality in writing

by Unknown

1. Show that the suggestions of the supernatural rise with cumulative power.
2. How does the author make the setting contribute to the effect of the story?
3. What is the character of the hero?
4. Why did the author make the hero a solitary character?
5. Why is the author so slow in introducing the wolf?
6. What is the hero's attitude toward the supernatural?
7. How does the hero's attitude toward the supernatural affect the reader?
8. Point out the various means by which the author makes the story seem true.
9. What is the character of the wolf?
10. Why does the author hold the story of the legend until the last?
11. Did Hyde believe the wolf was a “spirit-wolf”?
12. Divide the story into a series of important incidents.
13. Show how style contributes to effect.

SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION

1. The Haunted House	11. The Dancing Squirrels
2. Mysterious Footprints	12. Footsteps at Night
3. A Strange Echo	13. The Lost Cemetery
4. Warned in Time	14. The Woman in Black
5. A Haunting Dream	15. The Dead Patriot
6. My Great-Grandfather	16. The Cat That Came Back
7. The Old Grave	17. The Church Bell
8. The Ruined Church	18. The Old Battlefield
9. Tap! Tap! Tap!	19. The Indians' Camp
10. Prophetic Birds	20. The Hessian's Grave

DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING

If you are to imitate Running Wolf successfully you must first think of a story of the supernatural, a simple, easily-understood story that will have a foundation of fact, and that will appear to be reasonable in its use of the supernatural. Then, without introducing your story immediately, show how a person who knows nothing of it takes part in a series of events that lead him to understand the story.

Make the setting of your story one that will contribute strongly to the central effect. Do not give any definite explanation of the events that you narrate. Give your reader such an abundance of suggestion that he will be led to infer a supernatural explanation.

Hold until the last the basic story on which you found your entire narration.

FOOTNOTES:

[27] A reference to Genesis 10:9, where Nimrod is called “a mighty hunter before the Lord.”

THE BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY