From Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, this is the second instalment in the visionary novel cycle 'Canopus in Argos: Archives'. This is the story of the kindly Queen of Zone Three, who rules a land free of all harshness, and her forced marriage with the soldier-king of Zone Four, which is hierarchic, disciplined, inflexible, dutiful. This apparently difficult marriage, unwanted by both, requires a compromise between impulse and reason, between instinct and logic. Ben Ata learns to accept and then to love the ruler of Zone Three and her alien ways; and she learns to love and to need him. But when the Queen is commanded by the Providers to return to her own realm, she must obey, shattering though it is to leave her husband and child. Ben Ata, in turn, is ordered to marry the savage beauty who rules Zone Five, a land that both unites and reverses the other two Zones. In 'The Marriages ...' Doris Lessing uses science-fiction brilliantly to investigate the conflict between men and women. Once again, invented planets allow her to deploy her unillusioned knowledge of the real world of the reader.
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Book Description
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
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'. Her most recent novel is 'Alfred and Emily'.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format: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
By Solara
Format: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 3 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Its hard to be original and brilliant at the same time but this book...
I picked up this book, mainly, because I was on our families bookshelf and I wanted to read some science fiction. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Froughieh Michalchik
5.0 out of 5 stars
ONE OF BEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN.
I want to tell you all that if ever a book was more appropriate to read NOW ITS THIS BOOK.
LESSINGS talent for writing books that can be read and understood on so many levels... Read more
LESSINGS talent for writing books that can be read and understood on so many levels... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Sumner Marie Therese
