Inspirational Quotes by Doris Lessing (British Novelist, Poet)

Doris May Lessing (1919–2013) was a prolific British author of novels and more than 50 short stories whose themes ranged from social justice to feminism and science fiction. She won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Lessing was born in Kermanshah, now in Iran, to a British father who was a clerk with the Imperial Bank of Persia and an overbearing mother. In 1925, her family moved to Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, to run a maize farm; the undertaking was not a financial success. Doris dropped out of school at the age of 13 but read many books that her family ordered from England. She left home at age 15 and worked as a nurse’s assistant, where her employer gave her writings on politics and sociology to read.

When Lessing moved back from Africa to London, she published her first novel, The Grass is Singing (1949.) This story of a white farmer’s wife, her affair with an African servant, and the violent conclusion to their relationship became an immediate best-seller. They set an example in its portrayal of an interracial relationship.

Lessing’s masterpiece novel, and perhaps her most controversial work, was The Golden Notebook (1962.) This multi-layered story about the different facets of a woman’s personality and her passions was the most complex and longest work Lessing ever produced. The book became a landmark and made Lessing an icon of the fast-growing feminist movement.

By the late ’70s, Lessing abandoned social themes for science fiction with her Canopus in Argus (1979–83) series, which featured a bleak vision of the future with tyranny and natural catastrophes. Some of Lessing’s supporters welcomed her audacious achievement, but others were disappointed that she had abandoned her role as a realistic observer of the self and society.

Lessing also wrote the semi-autobiographical Children of Violence (1952–69) series, and Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971,) a frightening and surreal exploration of mental illness. Her later novels include The Good Terrorist (1985,) a satire on romantic politics, and The Fifth Child (1988,) about the devastation inflicted upon a family by an aggressive and anti-social child.

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