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.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Doris Lessing
Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.
—Doris Lessing
Topics: Judgment, Self-reliance, Thinking, Confidence
Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.
—Doris Lessing
Topics: Genius
It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important.
—Doris Lessing
Forget the long ago. We are here and we are now, and that is all. We are making a new start.
—Doris Lessing
It is terrible to destroy a person’s picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction.
—Doris Lessing
It is individuals who change societies, give birth to ideas; who standing out against tides of opinion, change them.
—Doris Lessing
Growing up is, after all, only the understanding that one’s unique and incredible experience is what every one shares.
—Doris Lessing
Topics: Experience
What is a hero without love for mankind.
—Doris Lessing
Topics: Heroes/Heroism, Heroes
The worst superstition is to consider our own tolerable.
—Doris Lessing
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