Word: plot
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1900-1909
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...taking a certain attitude. The ordinary novel is objectionable, as Poe says, because it cannot be read at one sitting, but the combination of brevity and unity in the short story is its greatest charm. Every work of fiction depends for its success on its characters, its plot, or its action and circumstances. In character delineation alone there are many differences between the novel and the short story. While in the latter a character must catch the eye at once, in a novel a commonplace character can be tolerated for a time, because of the greater opportunity for its final...
Again, a story may depend on its plot for sustaining the reader's attention. Indeed if the plot can be made sufficiently attractive, the characters may be kept entirely in the background, as in the case in many of Poe's pseudo-scientific tales...
...much the same; all infused with the same personality of the author, somewhat moody and sombre, with a tendency towards moralizing. Yet in all his writing is an undercurrent of hopefulness, of love for the good and beautiful, and of faith in its ultimate triumph. There is very little plot in Hawthorne' s stories,--they are essentially studies of characters and emotions...
...moral ideals of the world, the law of which is love. If "Vanity Fair" was Thackeray's most powerful book, "Henry Esmond" was of all his works the best and noblest. Its charm does not lie in its rich and beautiful style, nor in the strength of its plot, nor in the accuracy of its historical description, but rather in the deep and tender sympathy and comprehension of human nature that Thackeray has so marvelously expressed. In "Henry Esmond," in "Pendennis" and "The Newcomes" Thackeray showed that power which has placed him high among English writers--the power of creating...
...plot deals with the adventures of Leif Ericsson in his voyage to North America in the year 1000. The first act is laid Norway in that year. Biarna returns from his trip to the westward and his vivid description of the strange, new region he has seen causes Leif to set sail on a similar voyage of discovery. History is followed exactly and the costumes, designed by the Norwegian artist Born, are true to the life of that period in Norway...