SOURCE: "Jean Stafford and the Ironic Vision," in SAQ: South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. LXI, No. 4, Autumn, 1962, pp. 484-91.

In the following essay, which focuses on three of Stafford's novels and many of her short stories, Vickery examines how Stafford's integration of psychological, humanistic, and Christian concepts contributes to her ironic vision of the world.

Among contemporary writers Jean Stafford has merited considerable critical attention and received surprisingly little. . . . Reviewers have pointed out her affinities with Proust, James, Austen, and Dostoevski and solemnly agreed that she is not their equal. But since not many novelists are, it is perhaps fairer and certainly more instructive to think of her in relation to such authors as Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers, both of whom have commanded far greater attention than Miss Stafford, if only by virtue of their connection with the currently fashionable South. All three are fascinated by the image...