Shikasta Re: Colonised Planet 5 - Softcover

Lessing, Doris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006547192 ISBN 13: 9780006547198

Publisher: Flamingo, 1994

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Doris Lessing was one of the most important writers of the second half of the 20th-century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook and The Good Terrorist. In 2001, Lessing was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in British literature. In 2008, The Times ranked her fifth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". She died in 2013.

From the Back Cover

'Shikasta' is the first 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.

In 'Shikasta' the story of the final days of our planet is told through the reports of Johor, an emissary sent from Canopus. Twentieth-century Earth, named 'Shikasta, the stricken' by the kindly, paternalistic Canopeans who colonised it many centuries ago, is under the influence of the evil empire, 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.

"Magnificent…an astounding book that sets out to chronicle the whole world of humanity, spirit, earth, stars, soul, virtue, evil, pre-Eden forever."
MYRNA BLUMBERG, 'The Times'

"Profound, relevant and daring"
RACHEL BILLINGTON, 'Financial Times'

"'Shikasta' is a piercing diagnosis of the unease spreading through our civilisation. A powerful fable."
W.L. WEBB, 'Guardian'

"'Shikasta' is at once a brief history of the world, a tract against human destructiveness, an ode to the natural beauties of this earth and a hymn to the music of the spheres."
TIME

Edition details

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0006547192
• ISBN 13: 9780006547198
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448