The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English - Softcover

Atwood, Margaret; Weaver, Robert ( Selected By )

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195405978 ISBN 13: 9780195405972

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1988

Synopsis

Margaret Atwood--one of Canada's leading writers--and Robert Weaver--the dean of Canadian anthologists--have pooled their talents to produce this authoritative, as well as historically and regionally representative anthology of Canadian short stories.
Arranged chronologically from the 19th century to the present, this volume of forty stories offers the finest examples of Canadian writing, including a story by Margaret Atwood herself ("The Sin Eater"), as well as stories by Morley Callaghan ("Last Spring They Came Over"), Mavis Gallant ("The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street"), Margaret Laurence ("The Loons"), Alice Munro ("The Peace of Utrecht"), Mordecai Richler ("The Summer My Grandmother Was Supposed to Die"), Jane Rule ("Slogans"), Guy Vanderhaeghe ("Dancing Bear"), and many others. Drawing together some of the greatest stories in the English language, this anthology also features biographical notes and an index of authors.

About this title

About the Author:

About the Editors:
Margaret Atwood is the author of many books, most recently The Handmaid's Tale. She has also published two short story collections, Dancing Girls and Bluebeard's Egg.
Robert Weaver has edited ten anthologies and was executive producer of the literary radio program, Anthology, for over thirty years.

From Publishers Weekly:

Many of the 41 short stories in this engrossing, thoughtfully compiled anthology portray mortality, isolation, wistfulness, desperation and stagnation. Written during the 19th and 20th centuries, they are the work of celebrated authorsMordecai Richler, Alice Munro, Stephen Leacockand others less renowned. In "Last Spring They Came Over," Morley Callaghan depicts two unremarkable English brothers who endure misfortune in Toronto while maintaining pathetically buoyant facades. "The Lamp at Noon" by Sinclair Ross describes a windstorm during which a wife frantically beseeches her husband to stop his futile efforts at farming; his obstinate refusal indirectly causes their baby's death. What Atwood terms "the artificiality of art" is intriguingly demonstrated by George Bowering in "A Short Story," a tale of murder told in sections with titles such as "setting," "point of view" and "symbolism." The verisimilitude, depth and power of these selections tend to corroborate co-editor Weaver's contention that "Today the position of the short story in Canadian writing is unassailable."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0195405978
• ISBN 13: 9780195405972
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 456