The Four Gated City (Harperperennial)

In The Four-Gated City, Nobel winner Doris Lessing ends her massive Children of Violence series with a whopper. Martha Hesse (nee Quest) is newly arrived in London from her disappointing life in Africa. She meanders around, trying to find herself through the city, friends, and lovers, and quickly settles down in Marc Coldridge's large house. The house itself is almost a character, as it is slowly filled with people from the same social class but with widely divergent personalities. Martha, ever the sensible one, works and keeps house, but the gradual influence of the Coldridge family morphs her throughout the course of the book into a fully self-aware person, with a disenchanted but oddly hopeful view of England's new, post-WWII society. The four-gated city of the title could be London, as it was a world into itself, trying to come to grips with recuperation. However, I think the title is also an allusion to the Coldridge house on Radlett Street, as 95% of the book happens within those four walls that challenges, enlightens, and stymies our Martha. In my opinion, this is Lessing's best novel. It starts off as a conventional story, but the deeper you get the more becomes a statement on the dangerous times facing Europe. Lessing's strengths are in her ability to weave themes and portents throughout the story, but this comes at the expense of some frequently faulty characterization. It is stunning in its psychoanalysis- Lessing writes in a very distinct, almost-too-complex manner Martha's gradual foray into insanity where she faces something in herself which is not the soul, but a subconscious wavelength that makes her privy to all the poisoned thinking around her. It is this thinking that is the impetus for the novel's last part, where the story turns on a futuristic cant (but subtle enough that it shouldn't turn away anyone who doesn't like the genre), and the fabled England is annihilated by a Catastrophe created by centuries of hatred, fear, and negative thinking wrought by history. From this era is borne the eponymous Children of Violence, subtly bringing the series (and perhaps Lessing's view of history) full-circle. Again, this is a masterful ending to a series that was heretofore distinguished but not particularly urgent. The great majority of it is entertaining, and really sharpens the way you think and view the world. Even its slower moments have a common sophistication rare in fiction but frequent in Lessing's works. Plus it could easily be read on its own, as it really is heads and shoulders above the rest of the series. Highest recommendation.

This was the first book by Doris Lessing that I ever read, nearly thirty years ago. At the time I read it, one part of it in particular had a profound effect upon my life, namely her description of Martha's encounter with the Self-hater. For Martha, meeting her internal Self-hater was like plugging into 10,000 volts of hatred. After the encounter she says she understands how it is possible for a man to rape and murder a young girl, and how the holocaust was possible. She speculates that perhaps Hitler had been taken over by the Self-hater. This was so pertinent to me because I was then going through a very similar experience. (I describe this in my book, "Captain California Battles the Beelzebubian Beasts of the Bible). Reading Ms. Lessing's book gave me a much-needed new perspective on what I was experiencing, and increased my confidence that I would get through it all right. Since then I have read most of Ms. Lessing's other books, and have reread several of them at least twice. I believe that the common motif of all of them is her conviction that human evil is primarily caused by a lack of human self-awareness, and is therefore something that can be overcome. Her books represent a determined effort to make people more aware of themselves. Ms. Lessing's genius as a writer is such that I can hardly imagine anyone reading her books without being profoundly changed, without becoming significantly more mature.

I don't know why Doris Lessing is classified as a feminist. Apparently, she didn't understand that herself. I view her as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century and the best from the 2nd half. At the end of this book I attained a deep sense of liberation.

For me, incredibly deep view of life in England approx 1945-mid 60's and the future. One of the books I would take to a desert island - I have read and reread it. I so appreciate her insights on politics, both left and right, families, relationships, schizophrenia and the mental health professions, growing up, peace movement, writers, and more. I've read it over 6 times, I would guess, and I keep finding fascinating insights. It is the 5th of a series, but stands on its own, tho reading the others is worthwhile and does add to your understanding of the main character. I recommend reading them spaced out, not one after the other, as she is a bit longwinded.

I recently finished reading The Four-Gated City for the second time. It took a long time and was difficult to get through the novel this time. I found myself reluctant to throw myself into the experience, and this must reflect changes that have occurred in me since I read it the first time. The Four-Gated City is no facile 1960s novel that seems dated or naïve in retrospect. Although the world has managed to avoid the Apocalypse Lessing describes in the novel's appendix, as individuals, we do not manage to avoid falling into patterns that once seemed repulsive to us. Every middle-aged person is his or her own private Apocalypse. As Martha Quest discovers, it is often more appealing simply to watch television than to delve into the depths, especially since we all remember where the depths led when we tried to explore them when we were younger. As a passionate reader in my 20s, this novel offered a warning for what would happen if I did not remain committed (who knows to what?) above all costs. It was an invitation to nihilism: the act of commitment was always more important than the content or the cause. Like Martha, I fought against what I saw as reactionary elements in the environment as if fighting for my life. Any tool or tactic was fair. I was comforted when Doris Lessing seemed to understand the nature of these battles and what was at stake.As a reader now in my 40s, forces that seemed environmental have come home, as they do for Martha, to the place they belong-inner, not outer; part of the self, not part of the environment. In Lessing's view, crisis is growth, and mental illness is a symptom of our collective appalling lack of imagination. In the end, "we" is both individual and collective, just as Jung said it was.In The Four-Gated City, left politics does not save us, psychoanalysis does not save us, fortune-telling does not save us. Lessing only tells us, Zen-like, that the time is now and the place is here. However, it seems that that cannot possibly be true. Unlike ! the post-Apocalypse children, we have no capacity to know that things sometimes should be one way and sometimes another way. I do not know if I will read The Four-Gated City again; somehow, I do not think that I will. But the book will always stand somewhat sternly on my bookshelf to remind me what is possible and to urge me towards what is necessary.