ŷ

Doris Lessing

more photos (4)

Doris Lessing’s Followers (3,070)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo

Doris Lessing


Born
in Kermanshah, Iran
October 22, 1919

Died
November 17, 2013

Website

Genre

Influences


Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.

In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and later had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, rema
...more

Average rating: 3.68 · 205,270 ratings · 17,412 reviews · 533 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Golden Notebook

3.77 avg rating — 24,096 ratings — published 1962 — 222 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Fifth Child

3.63 avg rating — 23,240 ratings — published 1988 — 143 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Grass Is Singing

3.83 avg rating — 14,656 ratings — published 1950 — 143 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Good Terrorist

3.68 avg rating — 4,417 ratings — published 1985 — 82 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Grandmothers

3.49 avg rating — 3,764 ratings — published 2003 — 66 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Memoirs of a Survivor

3.59 avg rating — 3,504 ratings — published 1974 — 86 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Prisons We Choose to Live I...

3.91 avg rating — 2,833 ratings — published 1986 — 44 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Cleft

2.94 avg rating — 3,610 ratings — published 2007 — 48 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Summer Before the Dark

3.60 avg rating — 2,784 ratings — published 1973 — 91 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shi...

3.65 avg rating — 2,748 ratings — published 1979 — 63 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
More books by Doris Lessing…
The Fifth Child Ben, In the World
(2 books)
by
3.60 avg rating — 25,410 ratings

Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shi... The Marriages Between Zones... The Sirian Experiments The Making of the Represent... The Sentimental Agents in t...
(5 books)
by
3.83 avg rating — 6,487 ratings

Martha Quest A Proper Marriage A Ripple from the Storm Landlocked The Four-Gated City
(5 books)
by
3.91 avg rating — 6,054 ratings

Mara and Dann The Story of General Dann a...
(2 books)
by
3.79 avg rating — 2,359 ratings

Under My Skin: Volume One o... Walking in the Shade: Volum...
(2 books)
by
4.06 avg rating — 1,251 ratings

More series by Doris Lessing�

Related News

Hanya Yanagihara’s latest novel is actually three tales of New York.   In To Paradise, the highly acclaimed author of A Little Life and The...
204 likes · 25 comments
Quotes by Doris Lessing  (?)
Quotes are added by the ŷ community and are not verified by ŷ.

“Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.”
Doris Lessing

“What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.”
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

“Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself � educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

Polls

Voting for 2019 Quarterly Reads

 
  5 votes, 17.9%

 
  5 votes, 17.9%

 
  4 votes, 14.3%

 
  4 votes, 14.3%

 
  2 votes, 7.1%

 
  2 votes, 7.1%

 
  1 vote, 3.6%

 
  1 vote, 3.6%

 
  1 vote, 3.6%

 
  1 vote, 3.6%

 
  1 vote, 3.6%

 
  1 vote, 3.6%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Bright Young Things: The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing - February 2010 (Spoilers Likely) 12 176 Feb 17, 2010 01:13PM  
Chicks On Lit: A to Z world wide travel through books. 45 125 Mar 24, 2010 12:00PM  
Every one's Choice: A Tie for April 57 46 Apr 02, 2010 11:55PM  
Book lovers : A-Z Challenge 48 270 Apr 14, 2010 09:59AM  
The Sword and Laser: Books to avoid 37 331 Apr 30, 2010 11:30AM  
The Book Challenge: Kuutar's challenges for 2010 24 86 Aug 31, 2010 09:33AM  
SA Book & Challen...: 2010 A-Z Author Challenge 11 107 Sep 15, 2010 08:48AM  
Knight-Reading: This topic has been closed to new comments. Reading Log Week of 9/27/10 3 12 Oct 03, 2010 08:48PM