"Sketch," _Outlook_, 70: 1000-1001,
"Stockton and his Work," _Atlantic Monthly_, 87:136-138.
CRITICISMS
The writings of Frank R. Stockton are excellent representatives of the
man himself. How closely allied writer and writings are is very well
stated by Hamilton W. Mabie in the _Book-Buyer_ for June, 1902, "His
talk had much of the quality of his writing; it was full of quaint
conceits, whimsicalities, impossible suggestions offered with perfect
gravity. He was always perfectly natural; he never attempted to live
up to his part; in talk, at least, he never forced the note. His
attitude toward himself was slightly tinged with humor, and he knew
how to foil easily and pleasantly too great a pressure of praise."
His tales are extravagantly impossible but extremely realistic in
effect, filled with humorous situations and singular plots, and
peopled with eccentric characters that afford amusement on every page.
His most successful writing is done when he explains contrivances upon
which his story depends. He is an original and inventive expert
juggler who moves with careless ease to the most effective ends. His
characters are little more than pieces of mechanism that act when he
pulls the string. They have little emotion and even in their
love-making they show their emotion mostly for the sake of the
reader's amusement. His negro characters are exceptions to his general
treatment and are true to life.
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