The Grandmothers - Softcover

Lessing, Doris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007169779 ISBN 13: 9780007169771

Publisher: Flamingo, 2003

Synopsis

The grande dame of English literature returns with a stunning collection of four short, intensely observed novels.

With the four short novels in this collection, Doris Lessing once again proves that she is unequalled in her ability to capture the truth of the human condition.

The title story, ‘The Grandmothers’, is an astonishing tour de force, a shockingly intimate portrait of an unconventional extended family and the lengths to which they will go to find happiness and love. Written with a cinematic eye, so that one almost feels one is watching the scenes from the sidelines, the story is a ruthless dissection of the veneer of middle-class morality and convention which manages to be at once universal and desperately, heartbreakingly personal.

‘Victoria and the Staveneys’ takes us through twenty years of the life of a young underprivileged black girl in London. A chance meeting introduces her to the world of the Staveneys – a liberal white middle-class family – and, seduced, she falls pregnant by one of the sons. As her young daughter grows up, Victoria feels her parental control diminishing as the attractions of the Staveney’s world exert themselves. An honest and often uncomfortable look at race relations in London over the past few decades, Lessing reaffirms her brilliance at demonstrating the effect of society on the individual.

About this title

About the Author

Doris Lessing is widely recognized as one of the greatest writers of the second half of the twentieth century.

Edition details

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0007169779
• ISBN 13: 9780007169771
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320