Brewster, Dorothy. Doris Lessing. New York: Twayne, 1965. The first book-length study of the fiction. Provides a good general overview of Lessing’s work up to the fourth novel in the Children of Violence series, Landlocked. Includes a brief biography and a discussion of the early novels, including The Golden Notebook, a chapter on the short fiction, which analyzes stories published up to 1964, and a concluding chapter on attitudes and influences. Select bibliography, index, and chronology.

Butcher, Margaret. “‘Two Forks of a Road’: Divergence and Convergence in the Short Stories of Doris Lessing.” Modern Fiction Studies 26 (1980): 55-61. Asserts that “Homage to Isaac Babel” provides a rebuttal that Lessing’s later stories move away from her earlier larger concerns with moral and political issues and retreat into a feminine world of social satire. In her appreciation of Babel’s detachment and control, Lessing has at last learned that mannerism and a directness in writing are neither mutually exclusive nor antithetical.

Fishburn, Katherine. The Unexpected Universe of Doris Lessing: A Study in Narrative Technique. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985. This study considers Lessing’s science fiction from Briefing for a Descent into Hell through the Canopus in Argos series. It argues that the science fiction has the purpose of transforming reality and involving the reader in ideas and the intricacies of the texts rather than in characterization. Fishburn also published Doris Lessing: Life, Work, and Criticism (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: York Press, 1987), which provides a brief overview of Lessing’s life and works, including literary biography, critical response, and an annotated bibliography.

Galen, Muge. Between East and West: Sufism in the Novels of Doris Lessing. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997. This text applies the ideas of Sufism and its influence on Lessing and her novels. An introduction to Sufism and to Doris Lessing is included to help the reader understand the basic ideas of Sufism. Emphasis is placed on her space-fiction utopias as an alternative to the current Western lifestyles.

Greene, Gayle. Doris Lessing: The Poetics of Change. University of Michigan Press, 1997. Greene centers this study on how Lessing’s novels are concerned with change. Several different critical approaches to Lessing’s works, including Marxist, feminist, and Jungian, are included in the study.

Halisky, Linda H. “Redeeming the Irrational: The Inexplicable Heroines of ‘A Sorrowful Woman’ and ‘To Room Nineteen.’” Studies in Short Fiction 27 (Winter, 1990): 45-54. Discusses the inexplicable behavior of the protagonist of Lessing’s story by comparing it to Gail Godwin’s “A Sorrowful Woman.” Argues that the heroine of “To Room Nineteen” is inexplicable only if one is locked into a belief that reason is the only integrating, sense-making force. Discusses the redemptive force of mythic truth in the story.

Harris, Jocelyn. “Doris Lessing’s Beautiful Impossible Blueprints.” In The British and Irish Novel Since 1960, edited by James Acheson. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. A discussion of Lessing’s discarding of political and social blueprints such as Marxism and sentimental idealism about the brotherhood of man and her moving in her later fiction to mystical solutions and interventions.

Klein, Carole. Doris Lessing: A Biography. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2000. An unauthorized biography that nonetheless draws on extensive interviews with Lessing’s friends and colleagues. Klein draws many connections between events in Lessing’s life and episodes in her novels.

Lessing, Doris. A Small Personal Voice. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974. This collection of interviews and essays by Lessing gives the reader an insight into the novelist’s constantly expanding consciousness and agenda.

Perrakis, Phyllis Sternberg. Spiritual Exploration in the Works of Doris Lessing. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. An interesting collection of essays that look at spiritual themes in Lessing’s work, touching on both the realistic and the science-fiction novels.

Pickering, Jean. Understanding Doris Lessing. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1990. A brief, clear overview of Lessing’s work. Begins with a chapter providing a biographical and analytical look at Lessing’s career, then continues with a short but sharp analysis of her fiction through The Fifth Child (1988). Includes an index and an annotated bibliography of books and articles about Lessing.

Pierpont, Claudia Roth. Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Evocative, interpretive essays on the life paths and works of twelve women, including Lessing, connecting the circumstances of their lives with the shapes, styles, subjects, and situations of their art.

Robinson, Sally. Engendering the Subject: Gender and Self-Representation in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991. A chapter of this book is devoted to Lessing and her works. Primary focus is placed on the Children of Violence series: Martha Quest, The Four-Gated City, Landlocked, A Proper Marriage, and A Ripple from the Storm. Robinson focuses on Lessing’s desire to present a humanist view in her characters and themes and how the female main characters tend to create contradictions when trying to reach their goals.

Taylor, Jenny, ed. Notebooks/Memoirs/Archives: Reading and Rereading Doris Lessing. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982. A collection of essays by British women, mostly from a political standpoint defined in the introduction, which looks at Lessing and Sufism, mysticism, and comparison with Simone de Beauvoir. Supplemented by a select bibliography of Lessing criticism and a complete index.

Thorpe, Michael. Doris Lessing. Essex, England: Longman, 1973. A good general introduction that is very thorough, including a select bibliography, with an emphasis on the short fiction. Although only thirty-five pages in length, this volume includes a biography, discussion of Lessing’s life and attitudes, and a sociopolitical analysis.

Tyler, Lisa. “Our Mothers’ Gardens: Doris Lessing’s ‘Among the Roses.’” Studies in Short Fiction 31 (Spring, 1994): 163-173. Examines the mother-daughter relationship in Lessing’s short story “Among the Roses”; argues that the breach between mother and daughter suggests a division between two worlds—one of female community and another of heterosexuality.

Whittaker, Ruth. Doris Lessing. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. A short but excellent overview of the fiction through The Good Terrorist. Ideal for a first reader of Lessing or to clarify points for those familiar with her work. Includes background and influences, the colonial legacy, in-depth analysis, an index, and a select bibliography that lists all Lessing’s work and the major books, articles, and interviews published to 1988. Also includes reference to the Doris Lessing Newsletter, published by the Brooklyn College Press.

Yelin, Louise. From the Margins of Empire: Christina Stead, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998. The section on Lessing focuses on the process of her “Englishing” after leaving Rhodesia.