The Sirian Experiments: The Report by Ambien II, of the Five: Canopus in Argos: Archives 3

LESSING, Doris

ISBN 10: 0394512316 / ISBN 13: 9780394512310

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1981

About this Item

First American edition. Volume three only. Large octavo. 291pp. Black cloth. A fine copy in very good dust jacket; jacket has two one-inch tears on front panel, with faint sticker mark, rear panel has two small tears, else crisp and bright. Third in a series of novels, "Canopus in Argos: Archives." Doris Lessing (born in 1919), British novelist, playwright and poet, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.

Seller Inventory # 517166

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Sirian Experiments: The Report by Ambien II, of the Five: Canopus in Argos: Archives 3
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
• Publication Date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0394512316
• ISBN 13: 9780394512310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

The third volume of Lessing's visionary series is the first-person account of Ambien II, a female ruler of the Sirian empire who slowly realizes how sophisticated the Canopus empire is and attempts to effect a similar society

From the Back Cover

Shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize, 'The Sirian Experiments' is the third 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.

'The Sirian Experiments' chronicles the origins of our planet, as the three galactic empires fight for control of the human race. The novel charts the gradual moral awakening of its narrator, Ambien II, a 'dry, dutiful, efficient' female Sirian administrator. Witnessing the wanton colonisation of land and people, Ambien begins to question her involvement in such insidious experimentation, her faith in the possibility of human progress itself growing weaker every day.

"The story Ambien tells is a panorama of the possibilities of civilisation and barbarism, ranging from a matriarchal version of Atlantis to the Aztec cult of human sacrifice. Doris Lessing's interests are strictly terrestrial and the figures from outer space are there to serve as tellers of an earthly tale, providing a new, sometimes startling, perspective on earthly affairs and a largeness of vision beyond the horizon of the conventional novel."
ROBERT ALTER, 'New York Times'

"One of our greatest contemporary writers...Doris Lessing had invented a new cosmology to look at the world in a new way: she is attempting to tackle nothing less than all human life on Earth."
FINANCIAL TIMES