Page:The Best continental short stories of and the yearbook of the continental short story 1924-25.pdf/16

x that of Signorina Pettini, one of which has been translated for this volume. It was first published in a small edition inasmuch as Signorina Pettini was practically unknown in the Italian literary world. Her success was immediate and as startling as many sudden events in Italy. Her sense of dramatic values and her keen appreciation of the construction of the short story shows her to be perhaps the most successful new writer of short stories in Europe.

trust that my readers will bear in mind the enormous difficulties incident to the compilation of this volume and hence in considering the literary value of certain stories translated for instance from the Lettish or from Finnish that it has been necessary to translate the stories first in German or Swedish and then into English. The question of choice of short stories is likewise extremely difficult. There is an abundance of material in the case of certain nations which renders the selection of one story always open to question.Other countries afford so little choice that it is none too easy to find even one story worthy of the title “best.” I have been guided therefore in my selection not only by the usual standards of unity, construction, style, interest, and completeness of plot, but likewise by a consideration of the customs and intellectual development of each nation.

“The Yearbook of the Continental Short Story,” which represents the bibliography of this volume, is necessarily incomplete, since it includes only those works which either one of my assistants or I have read. I should be greatly indebted if the various publishers and editors of magazines whose names are not included in the “Yearbook” would forward to me in care of the Credit Lyonnais, 19 Boulevard des Italiens, Paris, copies of their magazines, books, or catalogues in order that they may be inserted in future volumes.

R. E.