252
PARTISAN REVIEW
but it places all three writers on the same level of consideration. It may
arrange them hierarchically on this level-with Kafka first and Morgan
last-but even this will
be
misleading, since the most important differ–
ences between the three are precisely matters of level. As it is, Simenon or
Marquand could go through the hopper of Mlle. Magny's method without
necessarily revealing their shoddiness. They might even issue from it
improved. For while Mlle. Magny's method can seldom reduce the im–
portance of the work of literature to which it is applied, it can often
exaggerate that importance; as it does when it inflates and dignifies
Sartre's rather weak short stories out of all proportion by extracting the
philosophical intentions they embody and disregarding their less tangible
aspects. The very process of criticism here amounts to a purification and
transcendence. Suddenly, with their unconvincing or banal plots and
characterizations left behind, the ghosts of Sartre's short stories shine
forth with a brilliance their living flesh never owned.
Yet it is the merit of her book and that which makes it worth dis–
cussion that, within the limitations of her method, Mlle. Magny's sharp
and sensitive intelligence produces a maximum result. In addressing
herself directly to the literary object, she sees subtly and profoundly,
even if in the end she fails to place the whole object correctly. She
detects the arbitrariness with which Morgan saddles metaphysics on his
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