SOURCE: "1910-16. Renewal," in The Structural Patterns of Pirandello's Work, Odense University Press, 1972, pp. 90-121.

In the following excerpt, Moestrup highlights some of the most significant stories written by Pirandello between 1910 and 1916, a period that the critic perceives as the middle phase of Pirandello's career as a short fiction writer.

Short Stories 1910-1916

The short stories of this period will be divided into [separate] groups: first the seven which, by reason of their quality, are superior to the rest; then four that are of almost as high a quality; then the short stories which, though of less aesthetic value, contain important clues as to attitudes and ideas. . . .

Because he has lost his faith, Tommaso Unzio [in "He Sings the Epistle" (1911)] has left the seminary where he was studying. He thus deprives himself of an annuity, which had been given him by an uncle, conditional on his making a...