He tells how the old cat had difficulty in
breathing at a vast altitude, while the kittens, born on the upward
journey, and never used to a dense atmosphere, suffered little
inconvenience from the rarefaction. He relates in detail the accident which
led to the detachment from the balloon of the basket containing the cat and
kittens, and we find it impossible not to be interested in their fate. He
had the skill of a wizard in presenting in remarkably brief compass
suggestion after suggestion to invest his tales with the proper atmosphere
and to hypnotize the reader into an unresisting acceptance of the march of
events. Even a hostile critic calls him "a conjuror who does not need to
have the lights turned down."
In one respect his tales are alike, for they are all romantic (p. 88) and
deal with the unusual, the terrible, or the supernatural. Some of these
materials suggest Charles Brockden Brown (p. 89), but Poe, working with the
genius of a master artist, easily surpassed him.
HIS DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN SHORT STORY.--Poe has an almost world-wide
reputation for the part which he played in developing the modern short
story. The ancient Greeks had short stories, and Irving had written
delightful ones while Poe was still a child; but Poe gave this type of
literature its modern form.
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