Scheherazade

Forster recalls Scheherazade, from 'The Arabian Nights'. She was married to a king who killed each wife after one night. She had many gifts as a storyteller.

But none of these saved her. Only suspense did. Each night, as dawn came, she stopped in the middle of a sentence, leaving the king eager to hear what happened next. So he let her live another day, and she survived a thousand and one nights.

We are all like that king: we want to know what happens next. That is why the backbone of every novel must be a story.

Forster defines a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time order: dinner coming after breakfast, Tuesday after Monday.

Qua story (that is, as a story), it can have only one merit: making the audience want to know what happens next. And only one fault: making them not want to know.

Suspense is the one weapon that works even on tyrants.