He inveigles the reader into believing
the most extravagant incidents by having a reliable witness narrate
them.
Stockton never stoops to the burlesque, cynic, or vulgar phases of
life to secure amusement. He is grotesque and droll in his manner, and
above all always restrained. His literary life is full of sprites and
gnomes that frolic before young children and once before mature
people. _The Griffin and the Minor Canon_ is a beautiful fairy story
lifted from childhood's thought and diction into a mature realm. His
humor is plain and simple, cool and keenly calculating. A friendly
critic has said of one of his stories, "With a gentle, ceaseless
murmur of amusement, and a flickering twinkle of smiles, the story
moves steadily on in the calm triumph of its assured and unassailable
absurdity, to its logical and indisputable impossibility." This
observation is very largely true of all his stories.
GENERAL REFERENCES
_Frank R. Stockton_, A.T.Q. Couch.
"Stockton's Method of Working," _Current Literature_, 32:495.
"Criticism," _Atheneum_, 1:532.
"Estimate," _Harper's Weekly_, 46:555.
COLLATERAL READINGS
_The Beeman of Orn, and Other Fanciful Tales_, Frank R. Stockton.
_The Lady or the Tiger_, Frank R. Stockton.
_Rudder Grange_, Frank R. Stockton.
_A Tale of Negative Gravity_, Frank R. Stockton.
_The Remarkable Wreck of the Thomas Hyde_, Frank R.
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