SOURCE: "The Religious Novel," in The New Republic, Vol. 126, No. 14, April 7, 1952, pp. 18-9.

An esteemed American critic, essayist, and social historian, Howe was a member of the "New York Intellectuals"—a group of liberal, socialist writers that included, among others, Philip Rahv and Lionel Trilling—and is perhaps best remembered for World of Our Fathers (1976), his history of Jewish-American culture and immigration to New York City. In the following excerpt from a review in which he also discusses Mauriac's work of nonfiction entitled The Stumbling Block, he examines the two short works collected as The Weakling and The Enemy. Howe describes Le Sagouin—here translated as The Weakling—as "one of the few successful works of religious fiction written in our time. "

[The Weakling and the Enemy] actually contains two long stories, The Enemy, published in France 17 years ago, and The Weakling, which came out last year. Though...