Although the short story has often been called America's unique contribution to the world's literature, relatively few critics have taken the form seriously. May's collection of essays by popular commentators, academic critics, and short story writers attempts to assess the reasons for this neglect and provides significant theoretical directions for a reevaluation of the form. The essays range from discussions by Poe to comments by John Cheever. Frank O'Connor describes the short story as depicting \u201can intense awareness of human loneliness,\u201d and Nadine Gordimer suggests that the story is more suitable than the novel in rendering the fragmentary modern experience. Eudora Welty sees the story as something \u201cwrapped in an atmosphere\u201d of its own; Randall Jarrell speaks of the mythic basis of the genre. Elizabeth Bowen and Alberto Moravia discuss thematic and structural distinctions between the novel and the story. The collection also includes discussions of various types of stories, as satiric and lyric, critical surveys of the development of the modern short story, and the status of the form at the present time. An excellent annotated bibliography is also included, which describes 135 books and articles on the short story, evaluating their contribution to a unified theory of the form.

The first edition of May's Short Story Theories (1976) opened with an essay entitled "The Short Story: An Underrated Art." Almost two decades later, the short story suffers no such slight. Publishers and critics have become increasingly interested in the form, which has enjoyed a renaissance led by such writers as Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff, Ann Beattie, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Mary Robison. An important part of this revival of interest, Short Story Theories has continued to attract a strong and loyal audience among students and teachers. The New Short Story Theories includes a few basic pieces from the earlier volume-Poe's Hawthorne review, Brander Matthew's extension and formalization of Poe's theories, and essays by Randall Jarrell, Elizabeth Bowen, and Nadine Gordimer-but most of the essays are new to the collection. Addressing problems of definition, historical considerations, issues of technique, and cognitive approaches, essays include: "The Tale as Genre in Short Story Fiction," by W. S. Penn "O. Henry and the Theory of the Short Story," by Suzanne C. Ferguson "On Writing," by Raymond Carver "From Tale to Short Story," by Robert F. Marler "A Cognitive Approach to Storyness," by Susan Lohafer May's new collection will continue to highlight the short story, to provoke debate, and to enrich our experience of a demanding and rewarding literary form.

"I Am Your Brother" Short Story Studies is a study of the short story as a genre, written both for academic and general readers. After establishing the origins of the short story in myth, the book examines issues of genre and history, discusses the difference between the short story and the novel, and analyzes the importance of obsession, mystery, and metaphoric motivation in the form. Chapters also are devoted to mythic perception in the short fiction of John Steinbeck and Bernard Malamud, love and separateness in the short stories of Eudora Welty, and the birth of the modern short story by Anton Chekhov. The final two chapters are extended discussions of the short stories of Raymond Carver and Alice Munro.

This series contains 515 essays, revolving around authors of short fiction. Essays are arranged alphabetically by author and provide in-depth overviews of short-story writers. Each essay contains full birth and death data, substantial listings of literary works by genre, and an analysis and survey of the major themes and techniques in the writer's work, using specific titles for examples. Finally, there is a list of other publication by genre, and an annotated bibliography.

Masterplots II: Short Story Series provides penetrating discussions of the content, themes, structure and techniques of 1,490 stories from every inhabited region in the world: North America, Africa, Asia, West Indies, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, and other European countries. Each article begins with birth and death dates, type and time of the plot, locale, principal characters and first-publication information. A synopsis of the story, critical discussion and analysis of the stylistic devices is also included.

This series contains 515 essays, revolving around authors of short fiction. Essays are arranged alphabetically by author and provide in-depth overviews of short-story writers. Each essay contains full birth and death data, substantial listings of literary works by genre, and an analysis and survey of the major themes and techniques in the writer's work, using specific titles for examples. Finally, there is a list of other publication by genre, and an annotated bibliography.

Masterplots II: Short Story Series provides penetrating discussions of the content, themes, structure and techniques of 1,490 stories from every inhabited region in the world: North America, Africa, Asia, West Indies, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, and other European countries. Each article begins with birth and death dates, type and time of the plot, locale, principal characters and first-publication information. A synopsis of the story, critical discussion and analysis of the stylistic devices is also included.

Masterplots II: Short Story Series provides penetrating discussions of the content, themes, structure and techniques of 1,490 stories from every inhabited region in the world: North America, Africa, Asia, West Indies, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, and other European countries. Each article begins with birth and death dates, type and time of the plot, locale, principal characters and first-publication information. A synopsis of the story, critical discussion and analysis of the stylistic devices is also included.