SOURCE: Lanters, José. Review of The Collected Stories, by William Trevor. World Literature Today 67, no. 3 (summer 1993): 610-11.

In the following positive review of Collected Stories, Lanters maintains that Trevor probes both the common and exceptional elements of humanity in his stories.

There are certain unmistakable qualities that identify a short story as a William Trevor story. The characters in it are almost without exception unattractive, either because they are insensitive and cruel or because they are weak and spineless; children are not and never were innocent; marriages are unhappy or indifferent; desires remain unfulfilled; dreams turn into nightmares; and love, in the rare instances where it is allowed to blossom for a while, does not last. In the eighty-five stories in the present collection [The Collected Stories], Trevor explores the weaknesses and failures of his characters as they proceed to make life a little less bearable for themselves...