SOURCE: "The Stories," in Sinclair Ross: A Reader's Guide, Thunder Creek Publishing, 1981, pp. 3-27.

In the following excerpt, Mitchell surveys the major themes of Ross's short fiction.

The short stories of Sinclair Ross are worth examining first because of what they tell us about his craft and moral purpose. As a group, the 16 stories published indicate his development as a prose writer, and provide some key insights to the world of psychological violence he depicts in his longer fictions. On the whole, the stories are simpler and more precise—although Ross himself is inclined to see them as "apprentice" works of fiction.

When his first story, "No Other Way," was published in the English magazine Nash's in 1934, Ross wrote, "I am now starting to work on short stories, hoping gradually to build up a better technique without the cramping grind that writing a novel after hours demands." At...