A Battle on Stilts
A Battle on Stilts is a short story by Frank R. Stockton about two rival groups of stilt walkers who engage in a battle to determine which group will have the right to use the town's main street for their performances. The story explores themes of competition, pride, and the importance of tradition.
By Frank R. Stockton · First published 1895 · Genre: Historical Fiction, Adventure, Humor · 570 words
First lines
In the year 1748 the great Marshal Saxe, who was travelling through the Low Countries, came to the town of Namur in Belgium. There the citizens did everything in their power to make his stay pleasant and to do him honor, and among other things they got up a battle on stilts. These inhabitants of Namur were well used to stilts, for their town, which has a river on each side of it, lay very low, and was subject to overflows, when the people were obliged to use stilts in order to walk about the streets. In this way they became very expert in the use of these slim, wooden legs, and to make their stilts amusing as well as useful they used to have stilt-battles on all holidays and great occasions.
What this Textopian page supports
A Battle on Stilts is listed on Textopian as a short story by Frank R. Stockton, dated 1895 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Frank R. Stockton
- Date: 1895 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Adventure, Humor, Cultural, Drama
- Length: 570 words
- Structure: 1 section, 9 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for A Battle on Stilts by Frank R. Stockton
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Discussion starters
- What should a reader notice first when entering A Battle on Stilts?
- How does this short story by Frank R. Stockton fit its genre, period, or classroom use?
- Where does Historical Fiction first become important in the reading?
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Genres
- Historical Fiction — Set in 1748 with historical figures and events.
- Adventure — Describes exciting and unusual events like stilt battles.
- Humor — Contains amusing elements such as the concept of battles on stilts.
- Cultural — Depicts local customs and traditions of Namur.
Tags
fantasy · adventure · humor · satire · allegory · conflict · imagination · whimsy · narrative · suspense · characters · dialogue