Shikasta
Shikasta

Author: Doris Lessing

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 9780006547198

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From Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, this is the first instalment in the visionary novel cycle 'Canopus in Argos: Archives'. The story of the final days of our planet is told through the reports of Johor, an emissary sent from Canopus. Earth, now named Shikasta (the Stricken) by the kindly, paternalistic Canopeans who colonised it many centuries ago, is under the influence of the evil empire of Puttiora. War, famine, disease and environmental disasters ravage the planet. To Johor, mankind is a 'totally crazed species', racing towards annihilation: his orders to save humanity set him what seems to be an impossible task. Blending myth, fable and allegory, Doris Lessing's astonishing visionary creation both reflects and redefines the history of our own world from its earliest beginnings to an inevitable, tragic self-destruction.

The Sirian Experiments
The Sirian Experiments

Author: Doris Lessing

Publisher: HarperPerennial

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9780006547211

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'The Sirian Experiments' is the third volume in Doris Lessing's celebrated space fiction series, 'Canopus in Argos: Archives'. In this interlinked quintet of novels, she creates a new, extraordinary cosmos where the fate of the Earth is influenced by the rivalries and interactions of three powerful galactic empires, Canopus, Sirius and their enemy, Puttiora. Blending myth, fable and allegory, Doris Lessing's astonishing visionary creation both reflects and redefines the history of our own world from its earliest beginnings to an inevitable, tragic self-destruction. 'The Sirian Experiments' chronicles the origins of our planet, as the three galactic empires fight for control of the human race. The novel charts the gradual moral awakening of its narrator, Ambien II, a 'dry, dutiful, efficient' female Sirian administrator. Witnessing the wanton colonization of land and people, Ambien begins to question her involvement in such insidious experimentati- on, her faith in the possibility of human progress itself growing weaker every day.

The Grass is Singing
The Grass is Singing

Author: Doris Lessing

Publisher: Heinemann

Published: 1973

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780435901318

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This murder story features a Rhodesian farmer's wife and her houseboy.

The Grandmothers
The Grandmothers

Author: Doris Lessing

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-10-13

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0061847666

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Shocking, intimate, often uncomfortably honest, these stories reaffirm Doris Lessing’s unequalled ability to capture the truth of the human condition In the title novel, two friends fall in love with each other's teenage sons, and these passions last for years, until the women end them, vowing a respectable old age. In Victoria and the Staveneys, a young woman gives birth to a child of mixed race and struggles with feelings of estrangement as her daughter gets drawn into a world of white privilege. The Reason for It traces the birth, faltering, and decline of an ancient culture, with enlightening modern resonances. A Love Child features a World War II soldier who believes he has fathered a love child during a fleeting wartime romance and cannot be convinced otherwise.

The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five
The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five

Author: Doris Lessing

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 17

ISBN-13: 0006547206

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'The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five' is the second volume in Doris Lessing's celebrated space fiction series, 'Canopus in Argos: Archives'. In this interlinked quintet of novels, she creates a new extraordinary cosmos where the fate of the Earth is influenced by the rivalries and interactions of three powerful galactic empires, Canopus, Sirius and their enemy, Puttiora. Blending myth, fable and allegory, Doris Lessing's astonishing visionary creation both reflects and redefines the history of our own world from its earliest beginnings to an inevitable, tragic self-destruction. 'The Marriages' is set in the indeterminate lands of the Zones, strange realms which encircle the Earth. Zone Three, a peaceful, contented, matriarchal paradise, is ruled by the gentle Queen Al . Ith.; the neighbouring Zone Four is a land given to war and chaos, controlled by the brutal warrior-king, Ben-Ata. Their marriage, a melding of the extreme male and female principles, threatens to destabilise the entire galactic empire. Many other Doris Lessing books are available in Flamingo, including the other four titles in the 'Canopus' series. 'Doris Lessing's preoccupation with the balance and dominance and need between the sexes has here extraordinary scope. A visionary fable full of strong, romantic ideas.' GAY FIRTH, 'The Times' 'Doris Lessing has chosen the language of fairy tales in order to keep the memory of ordinary earthlings' sexual love, its antagonisms, its moments of bliss. Her touch is glancing, amused, feline throughout.' MARINA WARNER, 'Sunday Times' ''The Marriages' is a feminist allegory of the relations between the sexes, full of the constant charm of the unexpected and the discoveries of an imagination surrendering itself to the momentum of its own narrative and visual invention.' ROBERT TOWERS, 'New York Times'

A Home for the Highland Cattle and the Antheap
A Home for the Highland Cattle and the Antheap

Author: Doris Lessing

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 2003-08-20

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 9781551113630

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Doris Lessing's two short novels A Home for the Highland Cattle, a wry portrait of African settler society, and The Antheap, set in the gold fields of the former Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), were originally published in Five (1953), a collection of Lessing's shorter fictional works. This Broadview edition includes both novels, as well as a critical introduction and a rich selection of primary source material, such as excerpts from interviews with Doris Lessing, short fiction by contemporary African women writers, reviews, and historical documents focussing on race and socio-economic conditions in the former Southern Rhodesia.