SOURCE: "The Short Stories," in François Mauriac, Twayne Publishers, 1970, pp. 121-28.

An American educator and critic, Smith was the author of Short History of French Literature (1924), the editor of Short Stories by French Romanticists (1929), and coedited French Short Stories of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century (1932). In the following essay, he analyzes Mauriac's two short story collections, Trois Recits and Plongées.

I Trois Récits (1929)

Since Mauriac's most successful novels are brief or at least of medium length, it might be expected that he would find the genre of novella or récit appropriate to his type of composition. He has produced, however, only two volumes of short stories,Trois Récits (Three Tales) andPlongées None of the first volume appear likely to add appreciably to his reputation in fiction. The first two tales in the earlier collection, "Coups de couteau" and "Un...