Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Penelope Lively

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 and freedom of her short stories—in which this element is absent—may feel that it spoils much of the Children of Violence sequence, especially the later, London-based, books: too much earnest argument, the sound of too many axes being ground, a ponderous solemnity. Perhaps this is not fair comment; Mrs Lessing is a political novelist, a novelist of ideas. Ideas are serious matters, so is politics. But there are ways of writing seriously, and fictional ways of exploring ideas, that avoid overstatement, that retain the strengths of the novel form—extend them, even—without making the reader feel lectured at. And the difficulty with The Sirian Experiments is that, interesting as it in many respects is, it again leaves one feeling that fiction has been used...
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