The Cleft

Lessing, Doris

ISBN 10: 0007233434 / ISBN 13: 9780007233434

Published by Fourth Estate, London, 2007

About this Item

Light shelf wear to unclipped DJ, slight foxing to edges of reading block. ; Third printing of UK first edition, 2007. Black cloth boards with gilt lettering to spine. Nice tight copy, no names or marks inside, appears unread. DJ illustration by Richard Bravery. Heavy book and priced accordingly. ; 272 pages; An old Roman senator, contemplative at his late stage of life, embarks on what will likely be his last endeavour: the retelling of the story of human creation. He recounts the history of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic, coastal wilderness, confined within the valley of an overshadowing mountain. The Clefts have no need nor knowledge of men childbirth is controlled, like the tides that lap around their feet, through the cycles of the moon, and their children are always female. But with the unheralded birth of a strange, new child a boy the harmony of their community is suddenly thrown into jeopardy. 145 X 26 X 221 millimeters.

Seller Inventory # 36744

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Cleft
• Publisher: Fourth Estate, London
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0007233434
• ISBN 13: 9780007233434
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition; Third Printing.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

In the last years of his life, a contemplative Roman senator embarks on one last epic to retell the history of human creation and reveal the little-known story of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic coastal wilderness. The Clefts have neither need nor knowledge of men; childbirth is controlled through the cycles of the moon, and they bear only female children. But with the unheralded birth of a strange new child—a boy—the harmony of their community is suddenly thrown into jeopardy.In this fascinating and beguiling novel, Lessing confronts the themes that inspired much of her early how men and women manage to live side by side in the world and how the troublesome particulars of gender affect every aspect of our existence.

About the Author

Doris Lessing is one of the most important writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Her first novel, 'The Grass is Singing' was published in 1950, and since then her international reputation has flourished. Among her other celebrated novels are 'The Golden Notebook', 'The Summer Before the Dark', and 'Memoirs of a Survivor'. Her most recent works include 'Love, Again' and two volumes of her autobiography, 'Under my Skin', and 'Walking in the Shade'.