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Doris Lessing

The Golden Notebook

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1962

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Further Reading & Resources

Further Reading: Other Works by Doris Lessing

The Grass Is Singing (1950)

Lessing’s first published novel, this is almost certainly the model for Anna Wulf’s Frontiers of War.

Children of Violence (1952-1969)

A series of five semi-autobiographical novels: Martha Quest (1952); A Proper Marriage (1954); A Ripple from the Storm (1958); Landlocked (1965); The Four-Gated City (1969). These books explore some of the same themes about which The Golden Notebook is concerned. They are also even more autobiographical in nature than The Golden Notebook. Ultimately, they stretch beyond realistic fiction into what Lessing termed her “inner space fiction.”

Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979-1983)

This is another sequence of five novels that depict future societies at various points in their development: Shikasta (1979); The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1980); The Sirian Experiments (1980); The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1982); The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire (1983). These novels are all more overtly “inner space fiction” or science fiction, though they are all resonant with ideas about mental health, the fragmentation of society, and the end of history and empire. 

Further Resources

The Doris Lessing Society

The Doris Lessing Society publishes a journal and hosts panels and conferences related to Lessing. An archive of their journals is available, along with links to other resources related to Lessing.

Related Titles

By Doris Lessing

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A Woman on a Roof

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A Woman on a Roof

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Briefing for a Descent Into Hell

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Briefing for a Descent Into Hell

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Martha Quest

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Martha Quest

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No Witchcraft for Sale

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No Witchcraft for Sale

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Prisons We Choose to Live Inside

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Prisons We Choose to Live Inside

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The Fifth Child

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The Fifth Child

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The Grass is Singing

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The Grass is Singing

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Through the Tunnel

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Through the Tunnel

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To Room Nineteen

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To Room Nineteen

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