the thing; but Dermod could not help thinking it a mighty hard case that his reverence, whose words had the power to banish the fairies at such a rate, should have no sort of relish to his supper, and that the fine salmon he had in the net should have got away from him in such a manner.

T. CROFTON CROKER: Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, ed. W. B. Yeats.

EXERCISES

1. Write a story, of about three thousand words, in which the hero is one of the following characters. Choose the title of your story with care, draw the setting clearly, characterize your chief personage vividly, and keep the narrative lively, interesting, and well-sustained.

1. An inventor.

2. An artist.

3. A traveller.

4. A cowboy.

5. A sailor.

6. A policeman.

7. A merchant.

8. A lighthouse keeper. 9. A stowaway.

10. A soldier.

2. Write a story of about one thousand words about one event that occurred in some especially interesting place. Make the "local color" vivid.

REVIEW OF NARRATION

setting,

1. Explain each of the following terms: characters, action, dialogue, plot, suspense, climax, probability.

2. Explain how each of the following kinds of narrative are constructed:

Anecdote, biography, autobiography, history, news item, news story, travel sketch, short story, romance, novel.

3. What details does the successful narrator avoid?

4. How is character revealed in narrative?

5. What is the paragraph development in narrative? Is there always a topic sentence?

6. What are the characteristics of the diction of a lively narrative, of a slow narrative?

7. What are the most difficult parts of narrative writing? Answer from your own experience.

CHAPTER XX

DESCRIPTION

Review of Description. We have already noted the fact that the successful writer of descriptions is a person who has trained his five senses, sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, who has learned to enjoy vividly the various changing beauties of the physical world, and who knows that in order to make other people appreciate these things he must use language that is concrete, specific, and pictorial. There are some further steps to be taken, however, if a writer hopes to give his audience a thoroughly clear and definite knowledge of his subject.

Choice and Arrangement of Details: Unity, Coherence, Emphasis. No description can be clear and forceful if it is merely a catalogue of information. Choose the few objects that are conspicuous, the details that are significant, and omit minor topics. Learn to study the world closely, observing what details are important by reason of their special beauty or their size and volume or their associations. In the descriptions that follow, the author has given two clear pictures by two different methods. The first description is brief, giving only three details of

the man's appearance, yet we gain a vivid idea of the man. Unity is secured, as well as emphasis, by this selection of a few dominant traits.

Smirke was a man perfectly faultless at a tea-table, wore a curl on his fair forehead, and tied his neck-cloth with a melancholy grace. THACKERAY: Pendennis.

The second description, more complete, emphasizes those things which will enforce the idea of feebleness: the slow movement, the trembling of the stick, of the voice, of the hand. A dozen other details might be given but they would destroy the unity of effect, by turning attention away from the central impression of feebleness in the old gentleman.

We set forth to meet the dear old father, who presently came, walking very slowly, along the line by which we expected him. His stick trembled, as it fell on the pavement; so did his voice, as he called out Clive's name; so did his hand as he stretched it to me. His body was bent and feeble. Twenty years had not weakened him so much as the last score of months. THACKERAY: The Newcomes.

Suggestive and Detailed Description.

The suggestive description is written in order to flash a few important facts before the reader, while the detailed description seeks to give the reader a discriminating and careful analysis. The suggestive description is far harder to write than the other kind, and requires great skill.

Study the following description. Omit all the adjectives and what is the effect?

Description of Dean Milman

He has a long, large, rather regular face, with thick hair, and very black, bushy eyebrows, under which his eyes flash like living coals.

J. L. MOTLEY: Life and Letters.

In the next description, what use is made of comparison? Of figures of speech? How much of the effect depends upon the use of well-chosen adjectives? How much upon the details chosen?

Description of Macaulay

On Monday I dined with the Mackintoshes. Macaulay, Dean Milman, and Mr. and Mrs. Farrar composed the party. Of course you would like a photograph of Macaulay, as faithfully as I can give it. He impressed me on the whole agreeably. To me, personally, he spoke courteously, respectfully, showed by allusion to the subject in various ways that he was quite aware of my book and its subject, although I doubt whether he had read it. . . . His general appearance is singularly commonplace. I cannot describe him better than by saying he has exactly that kind of face and figure which by no possibility would be selected, out of even a very small number of persons, as those of a remarkable personage. He is of the middle height, neither above nor below it. The outline of his face in profile is rather good. The nose, very slightly aquiline, is well cut, and the expression of the mouth and chin agreeable. His hair is thin and silvery, and he looks a good deal older than many men of his years. The face, to resume my description, seen in front, is blank and as it were badly lighted. There is nothing luminous in the eye, nothing impressive in the brow. The forehead is spacious, but it is scooped entirely away in the region where benevolence ought to be, while beyond rise reverence, firmness and self-esteem,