Jean-Charles Harvey, who exploited his articles and stories to mainly political, nonliterary ends, has assumed a special historical significance among francophone and, increasingly, among anglophone Canadians because of his anticipation of three important themes in Quebecois life during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s: economic independence, moral and spiritual liberation, and separatist debate. A prophet of the still-emerging modern Quebec, he recognized the inseparability of socioeconomic and political ethics and realized that idealistic fiction and practical journalism could serve both didactic and provocative ends. His literary reputation rests largely on three novels, but it was informed by his sometimes stormy tenures with a succession of newspapers, echoing Quebec's own restlessness which culminated in the outburst of the 1960s Quiet Revolution of Premier Jean Lesage. That Harvey's reputation could not rest entirely comfortably in René Lévesque's separatist Quebec (1976-1985) suggests something of his ideological shortsightedness and his...