Doris Lessing

Lessing, Doris (Lessing, Doris) (p. 1919), British novelist. Doris Mae Taylor was born October 22, 1919 in Kermanshah (Persia, now Iran). In 1925 the family moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), who was then a British colony. The years spent in the African wilderness, later proved to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration of the writers. In 1949, Lessing left Africa and moved to London, leaving his brother, first husband, whom she divorced, and two children from that marriage, her second husband, Gottfried Lessing, with whom marriage is also dissolved. Doris moved to London with her son from his second marriage, to start a new life of writer.

In 1950 came the first novel by Lessing "The grass is singing" (It owes its name TS Eliot's poem The Waste Land "). As a kind of chronicle of the life of Rhodesian society during apartheid, the novel was greeted with 'to cheer'.

Soon, work began on the Intended Lessing series 'Children of Violence', consisting of five novels: "Martha Quest" (1952), "A suitable marriage" (1954), "swell after a storm" (1958), "landlocked" (1966), "The city of four gates" (1969). An example of creativity 'present Lessing', which many today are inclined to call a masterpiece, became the novel "The Golden Diary" (1962). Although the novel is often called a classic of feminist literature, Lessing herself insists that this is only one of his party that in fact his main theme - the rights of individuals in society, and not the role of women in it.

Instructions for the descent into hell "(1971) and" Summer before sunset "(1973) - novels, immerse the reader into the depths of insanity and mental health issues. The cycle "Canopus in Argos: Archives" is a series of visionary, allegorical novels of the future, . in which the characters - the archetypes of men and women - interact in outer space, . consisting of six zones, . otherwise called 'levels of existence': "Shikasta" (1979), . "Marriages between Zones Three, . four, . Five "(1980), . "Experiments on Sirius" (1981), . From "Creation of a committee of representatives for the world's eight" (1982), . explanation of the latter in 1988, composer Philip Glass has written opera,
. The final novel series "Documents relating to the sentimental agents in the Empire Volien" (1983).

The novel "The Good Terrorist" (1985) tells about a group of revolutionaries in London. "The Fifth Child" (1988) - the story of the boy-monster, located at the most primitive level of development. In 1996, after eight years, his novel "Love Again". In 1999 - futurological novel "Mara and Dan". The novel "Ben, abandoned", the continuation of "The Fifth Child", was published in 2000.

Two novel by Doris Lessing published under the pseudonym Jane Somers: The Diary of good neighbor "(1983) and" If old age could: "(1984).

Lessing has won a high reputation and their stories. Major collections: "It was a country of the old leader" (1951), "The habit of love" (1958), "A man and two women" (1963), "African History" (1964), "The Temptation of Jack Orkney" (1972). In 1978 came out that the stories, including all of its 'little prose', but the stories, which takes place in Africa. Another book, "The Present", was released in 1992.

Lessing - the author of four pieces, put in the English theater: "Mr. Dollindzher" (1958), each - his own Desert (1958), "The Truth About Billy Newton" (1961) and "Playing with Tiger" (1962). In 1997, the result of a new collaboration with composer F. Glass was the opera "The Marriages between Zones Three, four, five," which premiered in Germany.

Current Affairs Lessing includes the book "First of all cats" (1967, revised edition of "First of all cats and Rufus", 1991), as well as two volumes of memoirs "Going Home" (1957) and "In Search of the English" (1960).

In June 1995, Lessing was awarded a doctorate from Harvard University. That same year, visited South Africa in December 1999, Doris Lessing, came in last in the departed millennium list of people awarded the Order of the Knights of Honor, awarded to people who have 'special services to the nation'.

In January 2000, at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the official opening of Doris Lessing's portrait of the artist Leonard McComb.