The Temptation of Jack Orkney: Collected Stories, Vol. 2 (Flamingo Modern Classics) - Softcover

Doris Lessing

3.6

111 ratings by Goodreads

9780006548072: The Temptation of Jack Orkney: Collected Stories, Vol. 2 (Flamingo Modern Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006548075 ISBN 13: 9780006548072

Publisher: Flamingo, 2002

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From Doris Lessing, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, one of her finest collections of short stories. Doris Lessing is unrivalled in her ability to capture the truth from the complexities of relationships and the stories in this wonderful collection have lost none of their original power. Two marriages, both middle class, liberal and 'rather literary', share a shocking flaw, a secret 'cancer'. A young, beautiful woman from a working class family is courted by a very eligible, very upmarket man. An ageing actress falls in love for the first time but can only express her feelings through her stage performances because her happily married lover is unobtainable. A dedicated, lifelong rationalist is tempted, after the death of his father, by the comforts of religious belief. In this magnificent collection of stories, which spans four decades, Doris Lessing's unique gift for observation, her wit, her compassion and remarkable ability to illuminate the complexities of human life are all remarkably displayed.

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About the Author:

Doris Lessing is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. Her first novel, 'The Grass is Singing', was published in 1950. Among her other celebrated novels are 'The Golden Notebook', 'The Fifth Child' and 'Memoirs of a Survivor'. She has also published two volumes of her autobiography, 'Under my Skin' and 'Walking in the Shade'. Doris Lessing died on 17 November 2013 at the age of 94.

Review:

`What do you say about Doris Lessing? She has shaped the attitudes of a whole generation of women; she has defined and punctured masculine pretensions and has torn strips off liberal double-think. This collection is, it goes without saying, a classic.' Mary Hope, Spectator `Intense and tender, valuable and drily humorous stories with streaks of gold. Dazzling.' The Times `Doris Lessing is the great novelist of the unspoken thing, of the part a husband and wife cannot tell each other, of the little things that people are reluctant to talk about. She seems to know everything and to forgive it, or, in the overview, to see nothing to forgive. Her work is suffused with a calm charity that reassures, heals and encourages.' Diane Johnson, New York Times

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