Children of Violence (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Doris Lessing
- First Published: 1952
- Type of Work: Social chronicle
- Time of Work: The late 1930’s to 1968, with an appendix dated as late as 1997
- Setting: An African farm; Zambesia, an African city; and Bloomsbury, England
- Principal Characters: Martha Quest, Mrs. Quest, Mr. Quest, Joss Cohen, Solly Cohen, Douglas Knowell, Jasmine Cohen, Mr. Maynard, Anton Hesse, Thomas Stern, Mark Coldridge, Lynda Coldridge, Jack, Phoebe Coldridge, Jimmy Woods, Francis Coldridge, Paul Coldridge
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Bildungsroman, Apocalyptic and catastrophe fiction, Utopian fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, Maturation or coming of age, 1960’s, 1970’s, Family or family life, Self-discovery, Africa or Africans, Communism or communists, Politics, Colonialism, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Gender roles, Marriage, 1940’s, World War II, 1930’s, 1980’s, Mental illness, Women’s issues, London, Ethics, 1990’s, Consciousness, Jews and Gentiles, Utopias
- Locales: London, England, Scotland, Zambesia, Africa
The Novels
Over seventeen years, from 1952 to 1969, Doris Lessing wrote a series of five novels under the title “Children of Violence.” In them, she chronicles the life of Martha Quest: an adolescent who scorns her parents’ Victorian principles, through a young woman’s two failed marriages and a flirtation with Communism, to an independent woman who tries to live actively rather than passively. Lessing, in her essay “A Small Personal Voice,” states that the overriding question addressed in each of the five novels is: “What is due to the collective and what to the...
[The entire page is 4775 words long]
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