Doris Lessing's The Grass is Singing: A Critical Study  (English, Hardcover, Tapan K Ghosh, Others)

The Grass is Singing, Doris Lessing’s debut novel published in 1950, is regarded as a landmark of twentieth century literature in English. The book was overwhelmingly well received both by critics and the general reading public and it went through seven reprints within five months. A masterpiece of social realism, the novel is set in colonized Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and concerned with the issue of colour bar and its disastrous effect on the marginal whites and the native Africans. The present volume, divided into three sections, examines this novel from critical perspectives. It begins with a brief overview of Doris Lessing’s life and works and a general introduction to The Grass is Singing. The second section offers exhaustive commentary on the text and also examines the major characters in the novel besides analyzing some important thematic and structural issues. The third section includes four articles of critical interest. In sum, the present volume is a useful addition to the existing corpus of Lessing criticism in general and to the evaluation of her outstanding first novel in particular.