Excerpt from XX Stories The object of this volume is to show a certain number of popular-modern authors at their best as writers of short stories. Time was when it was said, and generally believed, that the novelists of this country could not write short stories. Most certainly they exercised no inclination to try; or if a few of them did so on occasion, they found their work lying unprofitably on their hands. The three-volume novel was the only kind of fiction that the British reading public cared to welcome. But Mr Rudyard Kipling changed all that. The instant success of his anglo-indian stories created a demand for short stories, which has kept on growing to such an extent that we now find authors of the highest reputation turning out volumes of short stories in place of the three volume novel which formerly represented their average year's work. The direct tendency of this changed state of affairs is towards the gradual dis appearance of the three-volume novel altogether. Since the introduction of the short story, the read ing public have rightly come to regard padding as an article of doubtful value. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.