Literary fiction in the modern era has been dominated by two forms: the novel and the short story. The two have many elements in common and both are hard to define. The short story, though, can be usefully contrasted with the ancient forms of the fable and the tale. In a fable, the characters may be talking animals, inanimate objects, or people and supernatural beings (think of Aesop's fables). In all cases, the characters will be lightly sketched but not greatly developed. This is actually crucial to the fable, which requires a certain bareness and simplicity for its message to lodge easily in the memory.

   A tale (from the Old English talu, “speech”) is summary in a similar kind of way...