12 h 39 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 39 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What changes when you stop asking what happens next and start asking how a story works?
Studying the Short-Story, edited by J. Berg Esenwein, brings together sixteen short-story classics with introductions, notes, and a laboratory study method. Each tale becomes something to examine as well as enjoy. You look at plot, character, setting, and design, asking how these parts work together to shape the story.
The laboratory method gives that curiosity a structure: observe closely, record what you find, and compare stories. Introductions point out what to watch for before you begin, while notes support your study. Across different tones, settings, and aims, the collection invites you to see short fiction not as a single formula, but as a craft with many possible approaches.
What you’ll discover
- A closer way to read Look beyond what happens and examine the choices that give a story its shape.
- Sixteen models to compare Explore varied stories and notice how different tones, settings, and aims call for different designs.
- A method for discovery Give your observations structure by treating each tale as a specimen for careful study.
- Guidance around each story Use introductions and notes to focus your attention on each story’s plot, characters, and setting.
- The parts working together Study plot, character, setting, and design as connected choices rather than separate pieces.
Who will love it
Students, teachers, and writers who enjoy examining how stories are built will love this book, as will readers who like French, Scottish, and American tales with notes and questions that deepen the pleasure.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Learn the short story by taking it apart
- A short story is more than a short tale
- Poe set the standard of single effect
- Action stories show the mind through deeds
- Mystery stories reward reasoning about the reasoner
- Emotion works best when it is suggested
- Humor springs from surprise and incongruity
- Setting can decide the fate of characters
- Impressionism builds a story to leave one mood
- Character is tested by crisis and by thought
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Studiare il racconto
by J. Berg Esenwein (curatore)
A boy weighs a silver watch against his father's name in one of sixteen stories that show how fiction is built.
Medium level5–10 hours to readItaliano
Learn a language with medium classicsSpagnoloFranceseTedescoItalianoGiapponesePortogheseIngleseHow we measure levels
Excellent
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Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then 0,14 USD a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
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In short
What makes a story short, and what makes it a short story? Those are not the same thing, says J. Berg Esenwein, and Studying the Short-Story is his attempt to show the difference.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Learn the short story by taking it apart
Esenwein builds this volume as a laboratory, with the story in the middle of the page and the working notes in the margin. His earlier book, Writing the Short-Story, explained the form, and this one supplies stories to study.
The notes are the heart of the method. Beside the opening of Mateo Falcone, a note points out that the Corsican customs decide the fate of the characters. Other notes mark the first plot incident, the second, the third, and separate them from contributory incidents that could be changed without harming the plot.
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You looked at
Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- Italiano
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Studying the Short-Story. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/studying-the-short-story.
Studying the short-story. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/studying-the-short-story
Studying the Short-Story. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/studying-the-short-story.
@book{anonymous2026studying,
title = {Studying the Short-Story},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/studying-the-short-story}
}
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What is Studying the Short-Story about?
It is a teaching anthology edited by J. Berg Esenwein in 1912 and revised in 1918. It prints sixteen stories in eight groups, with margin notes, essays on the authors, study questions and reading lists that show how short fiction is built.
What is the difference between a short story and a tale?
Esenwein says a tale is a chain of incidents with no real climax, while a short story is a tree: one incident, one chief character, a crisis and a single impression. A sketch shows character without plot.
Which stories are in Studying the Short-Story?
They include Mateo Falcone, A Lodging for the Night, The Purloined Letter, The Monkey's Paw, The Last Class, Without Benefit of Clergy, The Ransom of Red Chief, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Piece of String, Markheim and On the Stairs, among others.
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