The Art of the Story-Teller

Art of the Story-Teller, by Marie
L. Shedlock

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Title: The Art of the Story-Teller
Author: Marie L. Shedlock
Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5957] [Yes, we are more than one

year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 29,
2002]
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This etext was created by Doug Levy, literra scripta manet.

ART OF THE STORY-TELLER, by MARIE L. SHEDLOCK

PREFACE.
Some day we shall have a science of education comparable to the
science of medicine; but even when that day arrives the art of education
will still remain the inspiration and the guide of all wise teachers. The
laws that regulate our physical and mental development will be reduced
to order; but the impulses which lead each new generation to play its
way into possession of all that is best in life will still have to be
interpreted for us by the artists who, with the wisdom of years, have not
lost the direct vision of children.
Some years ago I heard Miss Shedlock tell stories in England. Her fine
sense of literary and dramatic values, her power in sympathetic
interpretation, always restrained within the limits of the art she was
using, and her understanding of educational values, based on a wide
experience of teaching, all marked her as an artist in story-telling. She
was equally at home in interpreting the subtle blending of wit and
wisdom in Daudet, the folk lore philosophy of Grimm, or the deeper

world philosophy and poignant human appeal of Hans Christian
Andersen.
Then she came to America and for two or three years she taught us the
difference between the nightingale that sings in the tree tops and the
artificial bird that goes with a spring. Cities like New York, Boston,
Pittsburgh and Chicago listened and heard, if sometimes indistinctly,
the notes of universal appeal, and children saw the Arabian Nights
come true.
Yielding to the appeals of her friends in America and England, Miss
Shedlock has put together in this little book such observations and
suggestions on story-telling as can be put in words. Those who have the
artist's spirit will find their sense of values quickened by her words, and
they will be led to escape some of the errors into which even the
greatest artists fall. And even those who tell stories with their minds
will find in these papers wise generalizations and suggestions born of
wide experience and extended study which well go far towards making
even an artificial nightingale's song less mechanical. To those who
know, the book is a revelation of the intimate relation between a child's
instincts and the finished art of dramatic presentation. To those who do
not know it will bring echoes of reality. Earl Barnes.

CONTENTS.

PART I. THE ART OF STORY-TELLING.
CHAPTER.
I. THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE STORY. II. THE ESSENTIALS OF
THE STORY. III. THE ARTIFICES OF STORY-TELLING. IV.
ELEMENTS TO AVOID IN SELECTION OF MATERIAL. V.
ELEMENTS TO SEEK IN THE CHOICE OF MATERIAL. VI. HOW
TO OBTAIN AND MAINTAIN THE EFFECT OF THE STORY. VII.

QUESTIONS ASKED BY TEACHERS.

PART II. THE STORIES.
STURLA, THE HISTORIAN. A SAGA. THE LEGEND OF ST.
CHRISTOPHER. ARTHUR IN THE CAVE. HAFIZ, THE
STONE-CUTTER. TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH. THE PROUD
COCK. SNEGOURKA. THE WATER NIXIE. THE BLUE ROSE.
THE TWO FROGS. THE WISE OLD SHEPHERD. THE FOLLY OF
PANIC. THE TRUE SPIRIT OF A FESTIVAL DAY. FILIAL PIETY.
THREE STORIES FROM HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN. THE
SWINEHERD. THE NIGHTINGALE. THE PRINCESS AND THE
PEA.

PART III. LIST OF STORIES. BOOKS
SUGGESTED TO THE STORY-TELLER
AND
BOOKS REFERRED TO IN THE LIST OF STORIES.

INTRODUCTION.
Story-telling is almost the oldest art in the world--the first conscious
form of literary communication. In the East