Doris Lessing is a seasoned and prolific author, still writing in her eighties, whose works have been in print for some fifty years. Along with many volumes of short stories and nonfiction, she has written two five-volume series of science fiction (Canopus in Argos: Archives and Children of Violence) and some classic titles, such as The Grass Is Singing (1950) and The Golden Notebook (1962). Though Love, Again is perhaps her deepest and most intimate exploration of love, the theme has surfaced in many of her previous works. In these books Lessing explores the basic conflict between the human need for love and security, and the equally compelling need to maintain personal integrity and independence. She explores the tension between these forces with great sensitivity and depth, also touching on the social strictures that keep women from acting on their deepest desires.

In Lessing's first, acclaimed novel The...