H. G. Wells in Love: Postscript to an Experiment in Autobiography (review)
Gindin's discussion of Coppard and Bates also makes essential points. Though both are theorists of the short story, extolling unity, compression, selection, as well as Turgenev, neither Coppard nor Bates is truly in the modernist tradition, both regarding as inappropriate the making of the particular into the representative. Nevertheless, both Coppard and Bates deserve better by way of critical treatment than they have heretofore received, and Gindin makes every attempt to do them justice. Peden's treatment of Pritchett is restricted to three collections of stories published in or before 1945. About them Peden makes the point that the better pieces are typical of Pritchctt's best, being revelations of character, relatively simple in narrative, but complex in implications. As important, however, as the things that are said in this volume are the things not said. Flora makes the same point at the conclusion of his Introduction. This volume is an introduction to closer scrutiny of the short story in England 1880-1945; and it is an intriguing introduction.