Amazon.com description: Product Description: Beginning with the sketch, from which the English-Canadian short story originated in the nineteenth century, this survey traces the development and outlines the flowering of what is perhaps our strongest and most distinctive literary genre, one that has won international recognition and praise in the short stories of Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro, and Margaret Atwood, which are considered here in separate chapters. Michelle Gadpaille also explores the beginnings of a tradition of realism in the stories of early writers, including Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and Duncan Campbell Scott, and examines its consolidation in the work of Morley Callaghan, Hugh Garner, and others. Michelle Gadpaille provides an interesting and perceptive commentary that all lovers of short fiction will enjoy.