Doris Lessing Summary

Doris Lessing (1919 -) (Born Doris May Taylor; has also written under the pseudonym Jane Somers) Persian-born English novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, poet, nonfiction writer, autob... Read more

Biography EssayDoris Lessing burst upon the British literary scene in 1950 with her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and she has remained at the top ever since. In the past four decades, her work ... Read more

Doris Lessing, whose long career as a novelist, short story writer, and essayist began in the mid-twentieth century, is considered among the most important writers of the modern postwar era. Since her... Read more

Doris Lessing's literary career spans more than four decades; consequently her texts, both fiction and nonfiction, are valuable at the most basic level as historical records that tackle the central po... Read more

In the following review, Newson explores the parallels between African Laughter and Lessing's experiences in Africa. African Laughter is an alchemy of memoir, travelogue, revisionist history, a... Read more

In the following review, Powers refutes several widespread critical opinions of Walking in the Shade. It would be interesting to know how many of those who purchase Doris Lessing's turgid novel... Read more

In the following review, Clark faults Lessing's characterization and prose style in Mara and Dann. When Doris Lessing subtitles a book An adventure, you know that the stories that follow will n... Read more

In the following interview, Lessing discusses her observations on feminism, the 1960s, fame, and spiritual fads, as well as her thoughts on privacy, death, and the end of the twentieth century. Fifty ... Read more

In the following review, France highlights the fable-like characteristics of the plot of Ben, in the World. Twelve years ago, Doris Lessing published a cautionary tale about a kind, liberal couple wit... Read more

In the following essay, Rowland contrasts Lessing's early political and artistic conceptions of “representation” with the thematic implications of Canopus in Argos. Doris Lessing&... Read more

In the following essay, Sceats examines the representation of eating and food in Lessing's writing, particularly in terms of their role in interpersonal or social relationships. […] ther... Read more

In the following excerpt, Davis admires the Realist tendencies of Ben, in the World, particularly in the descriptions of the material world. Shed Ten Years in Ten Weeks. Garv Null's Ultimate An... Read more

In the following review, Merritt assesses The Sweetest Dream within the context of Lessing's later career. By prefacing this vast novel [The Sweetest Dream] with an authorial disclaimer, Doris ... Read more

In the following review, Brandon focuses on the theatrical setting, style, and implications of the central theme of Love, Again. When [Love, Again] starts, this is still just a concept; by the end, th... Read more

In the following review, Newson describes the plot and narrative elements of Love, Again. Doris Lessing's most recent novel, Love, Again, explores familial relationships, romantic love, loss, l... Read more

In the following review, Hobbs evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Love, Again. Doris Lessing, the noted British fiction writer best known for The Golden Notebook, has turned her attention to th... Read more

In the following review, Sampson highlights the passion of Lessing's memories in Walking in the Shade. Of all the free spirits of London in the late 1950s, Doris Lessing appeared the most free.... Read more

In the following essay, Nordius regards T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land as an important subtext in “To Room Nineteen.” In her illuminating discussion of Doris Lessing's debt t... Read more

In the following essay, Pickering explores the related themes of the stories in African Stories and her novel The Grass Is Singing. The Grass Is Singing was written before Lessing left Rhodesia and pu... Read more

In the following essay, Tyler examines the troubled mother-daughter relationship in “Among the Roses.” Doris Lessing has long demonstrated in her work a love-hate relationship with women... Read more

In the following essay, Gohrbandt compares the use of fable elements in the African stories of Lessing and Bessie Head. 1 the Problem of Comparability The art of narrative in Africa is fed from so man... Read more

Critical Essay by Robert S. Ryf [Briefing For a Descent Into Hell] seems to me to be an important synthesis of central aspects of The Golden Notebook and The Four-Gated City and in some ways to consti... Read more

Critical Essay by Rene Kuhn Bryant Complex character creation, spell-binding plot-spinning, delicate character interplay, bright dialogue—none of these has been regarded as Mrs. Lessing'... Read more

Critical Essay by Diane Johnson It is not Mrs. Lessing's fault that, among the many secrets she knows, her knowledge of women's anger and aggression, even more than of their sexuality, t... Read more

Critical Essay by Gore Vidal Although Doris Lessing has more in common with George Eliot than she has with any contemporary serious-novelist, she is not always above solemnity, as opposed to mere seri... Read more

Critical Essay by Penelope Lively There has always been an element of didacticism, of using the novel as a vehicle for instruction, in [Doris Lessing's] work; and those who admire the elegance ... Read more

Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement The nineteen pieces which go to make up A Man and Two Women are the work of an original and scrupulous artist. Mrs. Lessing's writing is all her ... Read more

Critical Essay by Edward Hickman Brown Spanning [Doris Lessing's] entire career, [African Stories] includes every story she has written about Africa, from her earliest collection to the most re... Read more

Critical Essay by Mary Ann Singleton [Doris Lessing] believes (with many others) that our civilization is slipping ever-faster toward the precipice. Almost from the beginning, her work has explored wh... Read more

Critical Essay by Carol P. Christ Doris Lessing's immense and unwieldy five-volume series, The Children of Violence, chart a spiritual journey from a woman's perspective. Though Lessing&... Read more

Moorehead is an English journalist and nonfiction writer. In the following review, she praises Under My Skin for its vivid and evocative depiction of Rhodesia and for the insights the book offers into... Read more

Pritchard is an American educator and critic. In the following review, he remarks on the theme and style of Under My Skin and summarizes Lessing's development throughout her literary career. A ... Read more

Tiger is a Canadian critic and educator. In the following essay, she focuses on Lessing's short stories "To Room Nineteen" and "A Room" in her discussion of the auth... Read more

Appiah is an English-born American critic and educator who has written extensively on philosophy, literature, and African culture. In the following largely positive review of African Laughter, he disc... Read more

In the following essay, Tyler examines Lessing's short story "Among the Roses" from a feminist perspective, elucidating its mother-daughter theme in relation to the ancient Greek ... Read more

An English novelist and historian, Davidson is a prominent scholar in the field of African history. In the following review, he remarks favorably on Under My Skin. Does anyone remember Southern Rhodes... Read more

Childhood Doris May Tayler was born in Persia which is now Iran on October 22, 1919. Her parents were both British. Her father was a clerk at the Imperial Bank of Persia while her mother worked as ... Read more