How to Write Fiction. (Bellairs and Co.)—The writer tells us
that he was asked by a lady to give her some hints about writing short stories, that he did what he could, though without much hope of doing any good, but that he achieved the success of making a considerable improvement in his pupil's work. He gives as a model a very effective little story by Guy de Maupassant, and to a certain extent bases his recommendations on that. It may be said that the counsel is too general. A volume was pub- lished a little time ago in which a number of novelists gave recipes, so to speak, for writing the particular kinds in which they had themselves achieved a reputation. An aspirant may profitably approach the subject from both points of view. No book can teach the incapable ; but where there is a natural gift some loss of time and power may be avoided by seasonable instruction.
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