It is rare that any English Canadian child will complete his or her formal education without encountering a short story by Sinclair Ross. The Lamp at Noon, a 1968 collection of Ross’s stories written between 1935 and 1952, contains some of the most frequently anthologized tales in Canada. The initial impression of these stories is drought and dust, similar to that for Ross’s major work, As For Me and My House. Yet these stories, like Ross’s novel, powerfully illuminate the condition of human isolation and fractured communication.

The most significant entries in the collection – “The Lamp at Noon”, “The Painted Door”, “A Field of Wheat”, “Cornet at Night”

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Published 15 June 2005

Citation: Lesk, Andrew. "The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories". The Literary Encyclopedia. 15 June 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9268, accessed 9 February 2010.]