Short Fiction

Robert E. Howard’s Short Fiction is a fiction, shorts first published in 1925-36. Robert E. Howard uses the form to consider human motives, relationships, conflict, and the consequences of choice, keeping the emphasis on how ideas become choices, conflicts, and consequences. Rather than depending on topical novelty, the book builds its interest through the interaction of character, situation, and idea. Robert E. Howard relies on a character-centered narrative style that rewards attention to voice, structure, and perspective, allowing mood and structure to carry as much meaning as subject matter. At roughly 333,137 words with a fairly easy reading profile, it offers a reading commitment that is easy to judge before beginning while still leaving room for close attention. Readers still return to it because of its capacity to make unfamiliar lives and difficult choices emotionally legible. Readers drawn to fiction, shorts and human motives will find a work that combines a distinct period voice with questions that remain recognizable today.