In the following excerpt, Bell describes Austria's situation at the time Boyle wrote "The White Horses of Vienna" and shows how the story, "per haps more cogently and certainly more humanly than news reports of the day, outlines the forces at work in Europe in the decade preceding World War II."

While most reviewers complimented the topical nature of "The White Horses of Vienna," some did not understand the events in Europe that provided the backdrop for the story. For example, Sylvia Pass of the Christian Century finds the story obscure, but she mistakenly sets the story in Switzerland instead of Austria and—because she does not realize that the story grows from the particular situation brewing in Austria—naturally grumbles that the central piece of satire, the doctor's marionette show, fails to communicate. Howard Baker, writing for Southern Review, dismisses this central episode as...