Doris May Lessing, The Golden Notebook

Val Scullion (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1962

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Metafiction
Novel

Resources

The Golden Notebook is probably Doris Lessing’s most famous novel. Published in 1962, it was acclaimed for its use of an involuted structure which interrogates the novel form. The novel was also prescient in its exploration of therapeutic journeys into madness. Other dominant themes are the shaping pressure of language within social groups, and the acknowledgement of areas of female sexuality which were previously largely taboo. The Golden Notebook also convincingly presents the ideological climate of London during the 1950s, a decade in which the British Communist Party strongly influenced Socialism and Left Wing politics before the party’s inexorable decline, fuelled by recrimination and revelations after the …

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2923 words

Citation: Scullion, Val. "The Golden Notebook". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 October 2003 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=722, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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