Under My Skin
The first volume of Doris Lessing's autobiography, following her life from childhood to 1949.
Work Information
Memory, politics, and growth overlap quietly in autobiographical form.
It follows Lessing from childhood in Persia and Southern Rhodesia to the point where she becomes a writer, with unusual frankness. Family history and political consciousness are shown growing almost side by side.
Book Information
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Published
- 1994-10-20
- Pages
- 448 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.9 x 4.3 x 24 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780002555456
- ISBN-10
- 000255545X
- Price
- 1929 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Biographies & Memoirs
This first part of Doris Lessing's autobiography covers her African childhood and youth, her involvement in communist politics, and her departure for England and a new life. It is a self-portrait of a woman who lived through "an extraordinary time, the end of the British Empire in Africa". Being lifted high up onto her father's horse, watching ostriches high-stepping over the empty distances of the Cape, travelling in ox carts to the new African farm with trunks full of Liberty material and English silver - so begins Doris Lessing's childhood. Born in 1919, into the aftermath of World War I, Doris Lessing was the daughter of middle-class English parents lured by the false promises of the Empire Exhibition to seek their fortune in African farming. For her parents, life in dry, dusty Africa never fulfilled its expectations, but for Doris Lessing, her early life in Southern Rhodesia, with its contradictions and complexities, proved to be fundamental to her evolution as a writer. Readers are taken through her childhood and early youth on the farm, first marriage, the rapturous births of her children, the abandonment of her family to gain independence and a political life, and her second marriage to Gottfried Lessing, an authoritarian, rigorous communist. The book ends as she loses hope of ever changing Africa, and prepares to leave for England with the manuscript of her first novel, "The Grass is Springing" - the key to a new life.
Doris Lessing was one of the most important writers of the second half of the 20th-century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. Her novels include The Grass is Singing , The Golden Notebook and The Good Terrorist . In 2001, Lessing was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in British literature. In 2008, The Times ranked her fifth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". She died in 2013.
Reviews
-
１９３０年代の時代精神
難しい英語ではないのですが、読み応えのある作品でたっぷり時間をかけて読みました。それなりの基礎知識は必要とされます。ところで、どうして私は強い女性の自叙伝に引かれるのでしょうか？今回も"the end of commitment"で初めてその名を知ったdoris lessingですけど、どういう風の吹き回しか、自叙伝まで読む羽目になってしまいました。というのあまりにも私をひきつけるキーワードが満載の著者の人生に初めて気がついたからです。私をひきつけたキーワードは、いつもながら、第一次大戦が個人の運命に与えたインパクト、イギリスの植民地での生誕と成長、決して消え去ることのない英国という階級社会の呪縛とそれへの郷愁、今はもうなきローデシア（ジンバブエ）という不思議な存在、ヨーロッパを追われたユダヤ人たち、共産主義が１９３０年代に持った魅力、そして読書への情熱といったところでしょうか。それ以外にも女性の読者にはもっと大事なキーワード（フェミニズム、母親と娘の関係,男性遍歴）があるのでしょうが、私には本質的な部分で縁のない世界のようです。この作品は著者の自叙伝の第一部で、１９１９年生まれの著者が１９４９年にイギリスのロンドンにたどり着くところで終わっています。ところどころ繰り返される若き日の著者の悲痛なまでの決意は、一面、時代の空気（zeitgeist)の反映でしかないのでしょうか、それこそが著者のその後のロンドンでの人生を切り開いたという事実は重いものがあります。
-
Wonderful, deeply reflective
Beautifully, honestly and intelligently written, full of insights. Apart from Doris Lessing's personal life, and particular her free childhood in Africa, the book is also a realistic history of the 20th century in terms of consciousness, English values, the effect of the World Wars, left-wing sensibility and communism, colonialism - all seen through the prism of Lessing's private and public life. Incidentally, there were a few pages at the end that were deeply shocking...
-
Under My Skin by Doris Lessing
After Lessing won her Nobel, I began reading her work, as well as whatever interviews and videos were available. I loved the straightforward way she told her stories, I liked the intelligence she put into them, and I appreciated the scope and breadth of her oeuvre. When I learned that she had a two-volume autobiography published I pick it up immediately. It is as frank and enjoyable as you would ever hope it to be. It was fascinating for me to read the story of a proper young girl who would later grow up to be a world-renowned author and Nobel laureate. Lessing always tells her story with honesty and candor, sparing no details and taking no victims. I haven't started on her second volume yet, but after the first one I feel like I know her quite well, and have infinite respect for her as an artist. She writes with a non-nonsense intellectualism that stands out in world literature. Read her.
-
Tragisch
Die Verbindung von persönlichem Erleben und Zeitgeschichte ist sicher unschlagbar. Ich kenne niemanden, der eine dichtere Atmosphäre herzustellen vermag und trotzdem die eigene Erfahrung mit innerem Abstand reflektiert.
-
Loved it
Such a well writen book, Dorris lessing is an amazing writer and the story of her life is awesone. Worth every penny!
-
I love it
Ich mag Doris Lessing schon lange. Daher konnte ich ihrer Autobiografie nicht wiederstehen - und siehe da - sie ist genauso spannend, wie ihre Romane!