Gallant, Mavis

(Canadian, 1922– )

Born in Montreal, Gallant was educated in Canada and the United States before returning to her native city and finding work as a journalist. In 1950 she left Canada for Europe, eventually settling in Paris, where she still lives. Although she has written full-length novels, she is best known for her short stories, which from the 1950s have appeared regularly in the New Yorker and other magazines. They are marked by fine moral discrimination and ironic sympathy; their blend of comedy with an awareness of the tragedies of life has led critics to liken them to the plays and stories of Anton Chekhov. The Selected Stories of Mavis Gallant (1997) is a 900-page representation of her best work. The volume includes sequences about the Carette family in Montreal, as well as the author's own favourites, the semi-autobiographical stories about Linnet Muir.

Edith Wharton, Alice Munro. See CANADA  NC