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In this first study of Doris Lessing's science fiction, Fishburn devotes a chapter to each of Lessing's seven novels. Her major argument is that Lessing uses these novels to change our perception of reality by describing worlds that are simultaneously similar to and different from our own. Of particular importance is the fact that each narrator, by functioning as an intermediary or guide-leader, helps skeptical readers to experience the alien worlds of Lessing's imagination. As she traces the development of these seven narrators, Fishburn shows how they eventually fulfill the role of the idealized author Lessing described in "The Small Personal Voice." In examining how these texts challenge us to change, Fishburn discusses the influence of Marxist and Sufi thought on Lessing and also points out the striking similarity betwen Lessing's philosophy of wholeness and the discoveries of modern physics. ... Read more

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Through detailed analysis of her most important novels, the author shows how Lessing's literary career has evolved, concentrating on recent developments in feminist and psychoanalytic criticism. ... Read more

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"This book attempts to counter a canonical line of thinking that presents Authur Schopenhauer as an inveterate misogynist and, hence, of limited relevance to the wide, encompassing melange that is women's studies... As this study makes clear, some very prominent women writers of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries felt and acknowledged the influence of the 'will' and reflect that influence in their works....Penelope LeFew-Blake has written a book that traces similar vestiges and echoes of Schopenhauer's influence through the lives and works of four prominent women authors--George Eliot, Olive Schreiner, Virginia Woolf, and Doris Lessing....The world view that informs their novels--a vison focused on the dilemmas and tragedies of real life in a real world dominated by suffering, struggle and disappointment--is, at its root, Schopenhauerian." From the preface by Franklin E. Court ... Read more

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In this study of identity in Doris Lessing's space fiction, David Waterman devotes a chapter to each of the five novels in the Canopus in Argos: Archives series, as well as Briefing for a Descent into Hell, Memoirs of a Survivor and finally The Reason for It. This is an important addition to understanding the works of this prolific author.His major argument is that Lessing's space fiction identifies the universal problem - society's division into competitive and predatory groups - and places it outside the bounds of time and space, encouraging a social critique which takes into account our inherited blindness, our "degenerative disease" which must be addressed before genuine progress can be made. "Lessing's examination of the relationship between individual identity and group identity produces a productive tension that accounts for so much of interest in her work over many years. Nowhere is that tension more obvious or more interesting than in the "space fiction" that David Waterman so ably explores. Waterman writes convincingly of Lessing's desire "to cut through the performance, the received ideas, the habits and customs of our daily lives." Drawing on a wide range of sources, he provides an interdisciplinary reading of the "space fiction" and maps Lessing's brave exploration of the hierarchical landscapes that so often imprison us. Waterman offers a timely reading of Lessing for contemporary readers living in the landscape of globalization. - Professor Margaret Moan Rowe, Purdue University ... Read more