SOURCE: "Katherine Mansfield and A. E. Coppard," in The Modern Short Story: A Critical Survey, T. Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1941, pp. 122-47.

Bates was one of the masters of the twentieth-century English short story, and was also a respected novelist and contributor of book reviews to the Morning Post and the Spectator. His book The Modern Short Story (1941), is considered a useful introduction to the form. In the following excerpt from that title, Bates addresses conflicting elements of simplicity and sophistication in Coppard's writing style. He argues that Coppard's tendency toward the complexity associated with the writing of Henry James detracts from the earthy, folk-tale quality that makes his fiction interesting and innovative.

As the aftermath of one war resolved itself into the transitional period of preparation for another we were promised

A page of manuscript for The Field of Mustard.