ABSTRACT
Doris Lessing’s name was Doris Wisdom during the brief period of her first marriage, and many of her ardent readers might wish that the name, if not the marriage, had stuck. Within the self-imposed demands of constant shifts in direction, the primary thing about Lessing as a novelist is her ability to write against the grain of fashion and out of total commitment. Lessing’s habit of publishing her prefatory remarks in editions subsequent to their being reviewed also increases the didactic content of the novels where her introductions occur, and does so at an irritating level. The word “totalization” which characterizes Sartre’s philosophical gropings, together with his sense of biography as the ideal exponent of existentialism, goes far in describing some of the anomalies in Lessing’s work. Martha Quest’s name is totally symbolic, and indicates that there is more at stake for Lessing’s women than sexual fulfillment.
