A review from The Globe and Mail 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.Nancy Baele, "The maturing of Alice Munro: When seen together in a collection, Munro's life work shows the development of her increasingly complex view of the mysteries of life". The Globe and Mail, November 3, 1996. Selected Stories also received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, 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 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.
