A Ripple from the Storm: Book Three of the "Children of Violence" Series - Softcover

Doris-may-lessing

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452256321 ISBN 13: 9780452256323

Publisher: New American Library, 1970

Synopsis

Martha Quest, the embodied heroine of the Children of Violence series, has been acclaimed as one of the greatest fictional creations in the English language. In a Ripple from the Storm, Doris Lessing charts Martha Quest's personal and political adventures in race-torn British Africa, following Martha through World War II, a grotesque second marriage, and an excursion into Communism. This wise and starling novel perceptively reveals the paradoxes, passions, and ironies rooted in the life of twentieth-century Anglo-Africa.

A Ripple from the Storm is the third novel in Doris Lessing's classic Children of Violence sequence of novels, each a masterpiece in its own right, and, taken together, an incisive and all-encompassing vision of our world in the twentieth century.

About this title

Review

"Absorbing reading...Lessing conveys [with great clarity] the emotions, aspirations and constant self-questing of Martha Quest, her most powerful character.""-- Sunday Times (London)""I read the Children of Violence novels and began to understand how a person could write about the problems of the world in a compelling and beautiful way, and it seemed to me that was the most important thing I could ever do."-- Barbara Kingsolver"There can't, I suppose, be anyone left who reads modern fiction at all and isn't aware of the importance of Doris Lessing's work...Lessing knows just what she is doing and a real, densely imagined, completely credible world emerges."-- John Wain, "Observer""Doris Lessing, of all the postwar English novelists, is the foremost creative descendant of that great tradition' which includes George Eliot and D. H. Lawrence."-- "New York Times Book Review""She is a mature ad valuable artist, adventurous in the mysteries of daily life, thoughtful, passionate, true."-- Stanley Kauffmann

From the Back Cover

"The personal life of a comrade would be arranged so that it interferes as little as possible with work," he said. Martha had not imagined that the "personal talk" with Anton would arise like an item on an agenda; she now felt frivolous because she had been looking forward to something different..."

The 'Children of Violence' series, a quintet of novels tracing the life of Martha Quest from her childhood in Africa to a post-nuclear Britain of AD 2000, first established Doris Lessing as a major radical writer. In this third volume, Martha, now free of her stultifying marriage to Douglas, is able to pursue the independent life she has wanted for so long. Her deepening involvement with South African revolutionary politics draws her into a world of fierce commitments and passionate idealism. A time of great change, Martha's young womanhood brings not only immense happiness when she embarks on an affair with a fellow party member, but also great sorrow – for the pain of abandoning Caroline, her baby daughter, left at home with Douglas, never diminishes...

"Through Martha, Doris Lessing's best-known and most powerful character, we are drawn into the lives of a group of middle-class white South Africans who are idealistically in love with the Soviet Union, convinced that they can bring about the revolution which will end the racist system, eliminate poverty and give women true equality. Against this background, the interplay of personal relationships and the passions, jealousies and weaknesses which defy party discipline make absorbing reading. Lessing conveys the emotions, aspirations and constant self-questioning of Martha Quest with astonishing clarity."
SUNDAY TIMES

"Doors Leasing has an original and moving talent of exceptionally high quality."
OBSERVER

Edition details

• Publisher: New American Library
• Publication date: 1970
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0452256321
• ISBN 13: 9780452256323
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272