The Golden Notebook: (Paladin Books)

Beautiful, striking reissue of this classic Lessing novel. Widely regarded as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century Anna Wulf is a young novelist with writer's block. Divorced, with a young child, and disillusioned by unsatisfactory relationships, she feels her life is falling apart. In fear of madness, she records her experiences in four coloured notebooks. The black notebook addresses her problems as a writer; the red her political life; the yellow her relationships and emotions; and the blue becomes a diary of everyday events. But it is the fifth notebook -- the Golden Notebook -- which is the key to her recovery and renaissance. Bold and illuminating, fusing sex, politics, madness and motherhood, The Golden Notebook is at once a wry and perceptive portrait of the intellectual and moral climate of the 1950s -- a society on the brink of feminism -- and a powerful and revealing account of a woman searching for her own personal and political identity.

About the Author :
doris lessing is widely recognized as one of the greatest writers of the second half of the twentieth century.

Review :
'At the beginning of the Sixties, this vast, frank, complicated novel helped to sustain our reputation for courageous, ambitious, experimental writing. Soon a worldwide bestseller, it is still her finest work. The Golden Notebook captured the heady mix of the early Sixties, when not just novels but political certainties were dissolving. The rising feminist movement seized it as a Bible.' Malcolm Bradbury, 'The Essential Library', Mail on Sunday 'Her greatest work... Shows the power of the female imagination at full throttle. It doesn't bear a simple political message but it does rip off the masks that women were accustomed to wear, and it shows up the dangers and difficulties that women encounter if they try to live a free life in a man's world... A landmark novel, a book that both changed and explained a generation... One of the finest writers of the century.' Natasha Walter, Independent 'Doris Lessing is a pioneer of feminist self-consciousness in its raw state... The truths contained in The Golden Notebook are indeed harsh. It can also be said that these particular truths have not been examined in so rigorous and exemplary a fashion since the first appearance of this extraordinary book. A seminal work.' Anita Brookner, LRB 'The Golden Notebook is the diary of a writer in shock, a young woman determined to forge a life as a 'free woman', as an 'intellectual'. Doris Lessing is a writer of considerable power, someone who can close her eyes and 'give' a situation by the sheer force of her emotional energy.' Joan Didion, New York Times