London Observed: Stories and Sketches

Lessing, Doris

ISBN 10: 0002239353 ISBN 13: 9780002239356

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1992

Synopsis

Eighteen stories depicting the people and places of London, full of the observation and compassion characteristic of Lessing.

About this title

From the Back Cover

'During that first year in England, I had a vision of London I cannot recall now...it was a nightmare city that I lived in for a year. Then, one evening, walking across the park, the light welded buildings, trees and scarlet buses into something familiar and beautiful, and I knew myself to be at home.'

Doris Lessing wrote those words in 1957, and since then she has continued to observe both London and its inhabitants with the shrewd, sensitive eye of an artist. Representing over three decades of fine writing, 'London Observed: Stories and Sketches' contains eighteen perfect pen-portraits of Londoners and their city.

"Lessing maintains the nice tension between compassion and rather brutal detachment that is a characteristic of her best work."
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

"Lessing's vision of London is a brilliant diorama of comedy, tragedy and squalor, lifted by moments of true delight."
COSMOPOLITAN

"This collection is full of fine things."
THE TIMES

"These are intriguing, potent, witty and sometimes macabre tales."
TIME OUT

"She exercises the faculty of observation with an acuity and percipience shared by few other living writers."
HARPERS & QUEEN

"Explicit tenderness is a hallmark of many of these tales. Here's art holding up a mirror to life, to London, and declaring a vision untarnished, clear and steady."
NEW STATESMAN & SOCIETY

About the Author

Doris Lessing is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. Her first novel, The Grass is Singing, was published in 1950. Among her other celebrated novels are The Golden Notebook, The Summer Before the Dark and Memoirs of a Survivor. She has also published two volumes of her autobiography, Under my Skin and Walking in the Shade. Her most recent novel is The Cleft.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0002239353
• ISBN 13: 9780002239356
• Binding: Audio Cassette
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160