The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five (Canopus in Argos: Archives) [Hardcover]

Doris Lessing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1980

The second in Doris Lessing's visionary novel cycle "Canopus in Argos: Archives". It is a mix of fable, futuristic fantasy and pseudo-documentary accounts of 20th-century history.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

'Doris Lessing's preoccupation with the balance of dominance and need between the sexes has here extraordinary scope. A visionary fable full of strong, romantic ideas. - Gay Firth, The Times

'Doris Lessing has chosen the language of fairy tales in order to keep the memory of ordinary earthlings' sexual love, its antagonisms, its moments of bliss. Her touch is glancing, amused, feline throughout.' - Marina Warner, Sunday Times

'The Marriages is a feminist allegory of the relations between the sexes, full of the constant charm of the unexpected and the discoveries of an imagination surrendering itself to the momentum of its own narrative and visual invention.' - Robert Towers, New York Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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 Summer Before the Dark" and "Memoirs of a Survivor". She has also published two volumes of her autobiography, "Under my Skin" and "Walking in the Shade". Her most recent novel is "The Cleft". --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 245 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (March 12, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394509145
• ISBN-13: 978-0394509143
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Science fiction for those who really don't like SciFi, October 12, 2003

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five (Canopus in Argos: Archives) (Hardcover)

I first read this book many years ago, and had a happy memory of it. I was very pleased that a fresh reading lived up to that memory.

On its surface, it examines the roles of men and women, represented by two estranged, neighboring Zones. The first is pastoral, prosperous, and ineffective. The second is harsh, militaristic, and also ineffective. The two are not really reunited, but they break their polarization and isolation. Peaceful exchange between them is restored, and both are healthier for it.

Saying anything more would be saying too much. I was interested, though, that the nations seemed to imitate the mating of their ambassadors. One nation was archetypically male, the other female. The ambassadors, like germ cells, are living things that pass from one nation to the other, and are united. I never though about it before, but fertilization is destructive both sperm and ovum, even if somthing new comes from the fusion. The protagonists, the envoys of the two Zones, similarly suffer for the greater future. Other metaphors emerge from the story, too, and some may have strong personal meaning for you.

I really can't do justice to the elegance and peaceful pace of Lessing's writing. That, you'll have experience for yourself. Although this book is second in a series of five, they can be read in any order. Each book's story is unrelated to the others, but the set as a whole is far more than the concatenation of its parts. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and eventually enjoy coming back to it again.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant transformational map!, October 24, 1999

By 

Solara (Hawaii, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (Canopus in Argos: Archives) (Paperback)

I read this brilliant and much beloved book of Doris Lessing every year. And I learn something more from it each time I read it. There is one page near the end of the book which is rippled with my tears of past readings. Each time I read it, I think that I won't cry this time. And yet when I arrive at the bumply page, my tears unleash yet again.

This is a profoundly moving story, yes, a brilliant and touching love story. Yet, it is much more than that. It is a map of transformation, one of the deepest, truest ones which I have found.

I am the author of six metaphysical books myself, and this beloved book of Doris Lessings, along with the rest of her inspirational "Canopus in Argus" series, has played a profound part in my own personal growth and transformation. For this, I am extremely grateful. Thank you Doris Lessing for writing so exquisitely about what is usually only known deep within our core beings!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Marriage between Zones..., July 16, 2004

By 

Allan Macfarlane (Calgary Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (Canopus in Argos: Archives) (Paperback)

This novel, the second in the Canopus in Argos series is a look at some of the zones alluded to in Shikasta, the first volume in the series. The Marriage is well written and interesting, between fairy tale and philosophy, and builds somewhat on conditions in the first novel. At a bit of a tangent however. It hints at the upwards reincarnation of souls where the levels of enlightenment live side by side although divided by barriers difficult to cross. Each level has problems of perception and thought that stall the rising of a soul towards its ultimate being. Zone five draws a parallel to Shikasta and hence to earth. The Marriage is required reading if you are going through the series, but is not as thought provoking or as original as Shikasta. Fortunately, the third novel brings you back to the original settings and gets you really thinking again.