- Hardcover: 160 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st Edition edition (18 May 1992)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002239353
- ISBN-13: 978-0002239356
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 13.6 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,563,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Eighteen stories depicting the people and places of London, full of the observation and compassion characteristic of Lessing.
From the Back Cover
'During that first year in England, I had a vision of London I cannot recall now…it was a nightmare city that I lived in for a year. Then, one evening, walking across the park, the light welded buildings, trees and scarlet buses into something familiar and beautiful, and I knew myself to be at home.'
Doris Lessing wrote those words in 1957, and since then she has continued to observe both London and its inhabitants with the shrewd, sensitive eye of an artist. Representing over three decades of fine writing, 'London Observed: Stories and Sketches' contains eighteen perfect pen-portraits of Londoners and their city.
"Lessing maintains the nice tension between compassion and rather brutal detachment that is a characteristic of her best work."
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
"Lessing's vision of London is a brilliant diorama of comedy, tragedy and squalor, lifted by moments of true delight."
COSMOPOLITAN
"This collection is full of fine things."
THE TIMES
"These are intriguing, potent, witty and sometimes macabre tales."
TIME OUT
"She exercises the faculty of observation with an acuity and percipience shared by few other living writers."
HARPERS & QUEEN
"Explicit tenderness is a hallmark of many of these tales. Here's art holding up a mirror to life, to London, and declaring a vision untarnished, clear and steady."
NEW STATESMAN & SOCIETY
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book Vibrant With London and Lessings Acute Eye for The Human Condition.,
By K.N. Hatton "KN Hatton" (Nottingham) - See all my reviews
This review is from: London Observed: Stories and Sketches (Paperback)
This book is in turn charming, acutely observed and brimful of humanity. A fifteen year old faces a crisis and waits for the woman who befriended her when she arrived to help but ends up alone but with a new sense of independence and maturity. A husband and wife sit amongst groups of people in the outside tea rooms of Hampstead Heath feeding the birds while facing a new direction in their life. A mother and daughter meet unexpectedly in Regent's park, both with the same idea in mind and are surprisingly reconciled. A Taxi Driver slowly eases his way through uprooted trees and overturned cars in the hurricane stricken London of 1987. 'I don't drive in London' he had told his fair.
Lessing brings London fully alive in all its richness and diversity, with a sharp but compassionate eye for human relationships and foibles and a sensibility that is by turns comic and tragic. We are taken from Casualty Department of a London hospital to a restaurant in theatre land where two old women - once the best agents in all London - mercilessly tease and flirt with a young publisher's agent. Each transition, as we read through the stories carries something wonderful, and opens our eyes to the distinct nature of London - a city that, if I wasn't already completely in love with I would immediately wish to stay in.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Quick sketches from life,
By
This review is from: London Observed: Stories and Sketches (Paperback)
I read this as part of a book group and I think, of my group, I was the one who enjoyed it the most. I was quite happy to read about the currents and undercurrents of movement and emotion in a park outdoor cafe, watching the sparrows. I was happy to read about two tipsy elderly friends enjoying lunch with their younger literary agent, or a fight over whose car reversed on a narrow Hampstead back street.These are the musings of someone who is a little detached, who is watching people reflect on their lives. Even Julie, giving birth in a squalid hut with a dog, leaving the newborn in a telephone kiosk, is reflective. She is making a hard decision which she explains that to herself at the end - she does not tell anyone else. In 'The Real Thing', a divorced couple bring their new partners to stay for the weekend away in the country at the cottage they still both share - and things fall apart. Who is really married to who? "`I've missed out,' she said. `That's what I've learned from you. I've missed out on the best relationship of them all. I don't have a best friend - the ex-husband, the ex-wife.' Her laugh was a squeal of misery." The drama there is in real time. But mostly, these stories look back, picking out the detail in retrospect. They are detailed dissections of life, taken from observation, rather than page turning suspense.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Brilliant Portrait of London life,
By Kate Hopkins (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: London Observed: Stories and Sketches (Paperback)
A wonderful little collection of stories and autobiographical sketches dealing with London and Londoners. As someone who's lived in London for ten years I recognized a lot of the places described - and Lessing really brings them to life. As always in Lessing's best writing, there were some wonderfully vivid characters, from a vicious old lady in a Casualty ward to Julie, the teenage mother who has been given a home by a prostitute during her pregnancy, and Sarah the stoical divorcee - and lots more. I share Lessing's love of cats and was glad to see that cats also featured quite a bit! The tone in the final stories can get slightly bleak, so don't read the entire book at once - have other things to read at the same time - but this is definitely a wonderful and subtle volume and to be enjoyed!
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