SOURCE: Goodrich, Norma L. “Bachelors in Fiction, Through John Steinbeck and Jean Giono.” Kentucky Romance Quarterly 14 (1967): 367-78.

In the following essay, Goodrich explores the role of bachelors in fiction in Giono's and others' work, concentrating on a comparison between Les Grands Chemins and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

When Pierre-Henri Simon noted in Témoins de l'homme (Paris, 1951, p. 190) that we are now witnessing in fiction a century without women characters, he stated a fact undoubtedly true for a great many modern novels created by authors generally considered outstanding. However, the novel based upon a love story involving a desirable heroine follows only one novelistic tradition. As early as the sixteenth century authors had demonstrated that fiction can rise to great heights, indeed, when the problem of love is reduced to a minimum, with women as coveted objects incidentally introduced, relegated to shadowy presence in the periphery...