The makers of the short story have rarely been good novelists.
It is less the business of the novelist to tell us what happened than to show how it happened.
The difference between farce and humour in literature is, I suppose, that farce strums louder and louder on one string, while humour varies its note, changes its key, grows and spreads and deepens until it may indeed reach tragic depths.
Criticism changes with the fashion of the time. A story is always a story.
Queen Victoria - a mixture of national landlady and actress.
The novel...creates a bemusing effect. The short story, on the other hand wakes the reader up. Not only that, it answers the primitive craving for art, the wit, paradox and beauty of shape, the longing to see a dramatic pattern and significance in our experience.