From Our Editors
The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories is
Sinclair Ross' continuation of the human facets he
explored in As For Me and My House. Set in the Prairies
during the Depression, this collection of short stories examines
the tragic results of a woman's infidelity, a boy's attempts to
quiet a wild horse and a girl's dreams of the circus. This is
humanity at its rawest, made bare by the strife of their
surroundings and the bleakness of their futures, and told in
compassionate narrative that leads to a complete understanding.
From the Publisher
Sinclair Ross' 1941 novel As For Me and My House is a
masterpiece of Canadian literature, a stunning evocation of the
Prairies and their inhabitants during the Depression of the
Thirties. With The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories, an
original New Canadian Library collection, Ross reveals further
dimensions of his fictional universe.
A woman's impulsive infidelity leads to tragedy. A sudden hailstorm
destroys hope. A boy learns to conquer a beautiful wild horse. A
little girl dreams about a circus. Against the isolated, haunting
landscapes of summer droughts and winter blizzards, the men and
women of Ross' stories grapple with fate against almost impossible
odds. Marked by a legacy of pride that will not suffer defeat,
Ross' unyielding characters are cut off from their loved ones by
obstinacy and defiance. Their tragedy is not that they suffer, but
that they suffer alone.
The sensitivity, compassion, and subtlety with which Ross portrays
human aspirations and failings remain to this day unequalled in
Canadian fiction.
From the Jacket
"Ross' style is always beautifully matched to his material - spare,
lean, honest, no gimmicks, and yet in its very simplicity setting
up continuing echoes in the mind."
-Margaret Laurence
About the Author
Sinclair Ross was born on a homestead near
Shelbrooke in northern Saskatchewan in 1908. He dropped out of
school after grade eleven to work in a bank. After working in many
small-town banks in Saskatchewan, he transferred to a bank in
Winnipeg in 1933. In 1941 he published his first novel, As For
Me and My House, with its evocation of prairie life during the
Depression. The prairie is the major setting for his two
collections of short fiction, The Lamp at Noon and Other
Stories and The Race and Other Stories.
From 1942 until 1946 Ross served with the Canadian army in London,
England. In 1946 he returned briefly to Winnipeg before settling in
Montreal, where he continued in banking until his retirement in
1968.
Ross' later novels, The Well, Whir of Gold, and
Sawbones Memorial, continue his exploration of prairie
life and its power to challenge as well as sustain its
inhabitants.
Upon his retirement Ross lived in Greece and then in Spain. He
returned to Montreal in 1980, and two years later moved to
Vancouver.
Sinclair Ross died in Vancouver in 1996.
Format: Mass Market Paperbound
Published: November 1, 1988
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Language: English
The following ISBNs are associated with this title:
ISBN - 10: 0771099967
ISBN - 13: 9780771099960
