''Selected Stories'' (later republished as ''A Wilderness Station: Selected Stories, 1968–1994'') is a volume of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

by Canadian writer

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro ( ; ; 10 July 1931 – 13 May 2024) was a Canadian short story writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Her work tends to move forward and backward in time, with integrated short story cycles. Munro's ...

, published by

McClelland and Stewart McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. History It was founded ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. The book collects stories from Munro's seven previous short story collections. Upon its release, reviewers generally praised the book's writing style, detail and emotions.

Background

The book collects stories from seven of Munro's eight previously published books as of the time of its original publication; her only book not represented in ''Selected Stories'' was her novel ''

Lives of Girls and Women ''Lives of Girls and Women'' is a novel by Nobel Prize–winning Canadian author Alice Munro, published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson in 1971. Although described and marketed as a novel, in form it resembles a collection of interlinked short stories, wit ...

''.

Stories

* "Walker Brothers Cowboy" * "Dance of the Happy Shades" * "Postcard" * "Images" * "Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You" * "The Ottawa Valley" * "Material" * "Royal Beatings" * "Wild Swans" * "The Beggar Maid" * "Simon's Luck" * "Chaddeleys and Flemings I: The Connection" * "Chaddeleys and Flemings II: The Stone in the Field" * "Dulse" * "The Turkey Season" * "Labor Day Dinner" * "The Moons of Jupiter" * "The Progress of Love" * "Lichen" * "Miles City, Montana" * "White Dump" * "Fits" * "Friend of My Youth" * "Meneseteung" * "Differently" * "Carried Away" * "The Albanian Virgin" * "A Wilderness Station" * "Vandals"

Reception

A review from ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' praised the book as an excellent introduction to Munro's work, as its chronological arrangement offers the ability to observe the evolution of her writing style and thematic focus over the course of her career. ''Selected Stories'' also received a starred review from ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', which described the book as a "literature-lover's feast" and the stories as "trenchant, finely modulated and truly brilliant meditations on peoples' complexities and the emotions they contend with--sometimes ruefully, sometimes in pain, but most often with stoic dignity". ''Kirkus'' also stated that the stories were "compact and resonant". James Wood from ''

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Boo ...

'' also praised the comic detail of the stories, describing some as "delicate". He also complimented the portrayal of communities as realistic and the characters' "self-calibrations and self-protectiveness of small towns against themselves". However, Wood was more critical to the prose, which was "not lavish: it is intelligently starved; not sticky with metaphor, or crowded with detail" but occasionally disappointing.

References

1996 short story collections Short story collections by Alice Munro McClelland & Stewart books {{1990s-story-collection-stub