As suggested above, in several ways Sarraute follows a tradition that is both classical and French. She depicts universal experiences of humanity through characters that are usually divested of all particularities. If occasionally one is recognizable as a type, it is that the presentation is in the manner of a "portrait" by La Bruyere. Sarraute's terseness in making the reader observe these representatives of a species reminds one of the style of La Rochefoucauld as well as of La Bruyere.

Saurraute's narrative techniques, which depart from all convention and force the reader to fend for himself to identify characters, may bear some resemblance to those of other twentieth-century authors. Claude Mauriac uses a similar technique in Diner en ville; however, Mauriac deems the identification intellectually necessary and assists his reader with the clues of a seating plan. In As I Lay Dying (1930), William Faulkner similarly assists...