SOURCE: Servodidio, Mirella d'Ambrosio. “Azorín and the Modern Short Story.” The Romanic Review 59, no. 2 (April 1968): 88-92.

In the following essay, Servodidio contends “the modern short story was to prove an ideal vehicle of expression for Azorín.”

A careful appraisal of Azorín's work indicates that the short story genre is singularly suited to his talents. As suggested by Salvador de Madariaga,¹ Azorín suffers from a natural shortness of breath which prevents him from attempting long literary excursions. Although he does write sixteen novels, they are held in check and are reduced in scope and dimension. Yet, despite this deliberate adjustment of proportion to artistic conception, Azorín's novels are weakened by an inability to give an integrated picture of life, or to coordinate the variety of characters, impressions and nuances which they accumulate. They are merely a series of pictures, vivid and disconnected, and at...