The Golden Notebook

The Golden Notebook · published 1962 · ISBN 9780060931407

Doris Lessing — Doris Lessing (1919 – 2013) — United Kingdom (born in Iran), writing in English. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007.

“That epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny.” — The Nobel Committee citation

About Doris Lessing

British writer born in Persia and raised on a farm in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Her work drove hard into questions of women, politics and the psyche; the Swedish Academy hailed her as the "epicist of the female experience."

How it came to be

Published in 1962, the novel caused a sensation for its frank treatment of sex, left-wing politics and women's psychological crises, becoming a founding text of the feminist movement — even though Lessing herself resisted being labelled that way.

What The Golden Notebook is about

The writer Anna Wulf records her life in four differently coloured notebooks — black, red, yellow and blue — for her work, her politics, her loves and her daily existence, before trying to gather everything into a single "golden notebook." A bold examination of the fragmentation of the modern woman.

Analysis & legacy

The Golden Notebook is a daring inquiry into the fragmentation of modern life. The novelist Anna Wulf splits her existence across four notebooks — black, red, yellow and blue — for her work, her politics, her love life and her everyday self, afraid that if she let them touch one another the whole edifice would shatter; only later does she grasp that the division is itself the illness. Explosive in 1962 for speaking plainly about sex, the collapse of left-wing ideals and women's psychological crises, the book became a founding text of the feminist movement — a label Lessing herself refused. More than sixty years on it still feels alive, because we all live in compartments. The Swedish Academy called her the "epicist of the female experience" when it awarded her the 2007 Nobel Prize.

Themes: Fragmented self · Feminism · Politics & disillusion · Freedom · Psychological breakdown

Rating: 2.9/5 from 10 ratings (Open Library).

What critics say

• The technique is brilliant, and in itself places Doris Lessing in the forefront of British women novelists. — John Barkham, Tucson Daily Citizen
• Honoured by the Swedish Academy as the "epicist of the female experience." — Swedish Academy, Nobel 2007

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