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A Proper Marriage (Children of Violence #2)
An unconventional woman trapped in a conventional marriage, Martha Quest struggles to maintain her dignity and her sanity through the misunderstandings, frustrations, infidelities, and degrading violence of a failing marriage. Finally, she must make the heartbreaking choice of whether to sacrifice her child as she turns her back on marriage and security.
A Proper Marriage
...morePaperback, 448 pages
Published
October 21st 2001
by HarperCollins Publishers
(first published June 1954)
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Inizio a dire che è una lettura stra-consigliatissima!
La Lessing ha voluto raccontarci una fiaba con tanto di Regina bellissima, Re guerriero e paesi lontani e difficili da raggiungere.
Ma come tutte le favole, anche Un pacifico matrimonio è un'allegoria, ha una morale da raccontarci.
Ed è la storia della paura e della difficoltà di capire ed accettare chi è diverso da noi, della fatica e della solitudine che spesso sono il prezzo da pagare per varcare dei confini, per scoprire cosa c'è fuori dal...more
La Lessing ha voluto raccontarci una fiaba con tanto di Regina bellissima, Re guerriero e paesi lontani e difficili da raggiungere.
Ma come tutte le favole, anche Un pacifico matrimonio è un'allegoria, ha una morale da raccontarci.
Ed è la storia della paura e della difficoltà di capire ed accettare chi è diverso da noi, della fatica e della solitudine che spesso sono il prezzo da pagare per varcare dei confini, per scoprire cosa c'è fuori dal...more
As if there had been no break between chapters, the second of Lessing’s ‘Children of Violence’ series finds Martha newly married and back from a honeymoon invaded by her husband Douglas’ pack of friends from the club.
She adjusts to marriage through the ignorance of her natural inclination. She adjusts through the help of the imposing Stella and a new friend, who she later joins in pregnancy and in the delivery ward.
Martha’s conflict over her pregnancy and motherhood, from conception to birth and...more
She adjusts to marriage through the ignorance of her natural inclination. She adjusts through the help of the imposing Stella and a new friend, who she later joins in pregnancy and in the delivery ward.
Martha’s conflict over her pregnancy and motherhood, from conception to birth and...more
In this second of the five volume series Lessing continues her intimate, kitchen sink portrayal of the life of White Africa Martha Quest.
In the first novel we saw Martha leap into marriage as a way of escaping what she viewed as the emotional prison of her parent's home, only to find that her life after marriage is just as constrained as her previous existence.
Becoming pregnant and having a daughter does nothing to secure Martha's place in the world, she still feels she exists only at the behest...more
In the first novel we saw Martha leap into marriage as a way of escaping what she viewed as the emotional prison of her parent's home, only to find that her life after marriage is just as constrained as her previous existence.
Becoming pregnant and having a daughter does nothing to secure Martha's place in the world, she still feels she exists only at the behest...more
I would say that I didn't like this volume quite as much as Martha Quest, but it was nonetheless very good and I really liked it. Perhaps my issue was that we see Martha moving further into complacency and much of the resistance to her circumstances and surroundings, which defines much of the character, is internalized.
A good chunk of the book deals with Martha's unexpected pregnancy, leading to a lengthy and torturous childbirth scene, and her near-constant ambivalence and misgivings toward he...more
A good chunk of the book deals with Martha's unexpected pregnancy, leading to a lengthy and torturous childbirth scene, and her near-constant ambivalence and misgivings toward he...more
Quando all’inizio del libro la conosciamo, Martha Quest ha 19 anni, è sposata da cinque giorni con Douglas e già detesta suo marito e tutto quello che comporta la vita matrimoniale in termini di doveri: i ricevimenti, le pratiche anticoncezionali, la partecipazione ai comitati di beneficenza.
Perché si è sposata? Martha non ce lo dice, probabilmente non lo sa nemmeno lei e D. Lessing non ritiene interessante raccontare le circostanze che hanno portato a questa unione [invece io avrei voluto sape...more
Perché si è sposata? Martha non ce lo dice, probabilmente non lo sa nemmeno lei e D. Lessing non ritiene interessante raccontare le circostanze che hanno portato a questa unione [invece io avrei voluto sape...more
This is a good story - book 2 of a series. Interesting observations about life in South Africa.
This to me was very much a feminist book. A book about a woman with visions and passions who hasn't yet discovered her own voice or strength. It seems like things are just happening to her while her inner thoughts rebel quietly. It could be a frustrating read if it wasn't so realistic. Martha is not a hero, she is woman living in a turbulent time when people are mostly lost and the future is uncertain to say the least.
Martha's often contradictory feelings and thoughts were very familiar to me fr...more
Martha's often contradictory feelings and thoughts were very familiar to me fr...more
Love Doris Lessing. Can't wait to read the next one.
Ainda superior ao primeiro livro da série "Children of Violence", esta obra é fantástica. Contando desde o início da vida de casada da protagonista até seu engajamento político e separação, Lessing, como poucos autores, tem a capacidade de lidar com os mais diversos assuntos de uma maneira fluída e, ao mesmo tempo, sincera e profunda. Obviamente o ponto mais chamativo são as questões sobre a sociedade patriarcal, o casamento, a posição da mulher apenas como uma geradora de filhos, as liberdades...more
Doris Lessing tells about Martha Quest's life in the town near her birthplace. She works in an office, she goes to dances and reluctantly she is drawn into the life of the colonialists in the town. She considers herself to be a socialist, but she does nothing about it just as she wants to be independent and get an education but does nothing about it.
After a few affairs she finds herself married to Douglas - parly because she thinks he is just as liberal as she sees herself.
After a few affairs she finds herself married to Douglas - parly because she thinks he is just as liberal as she sees herself.
Martha trying to break away from being carried along by the tide in pre-war colonial Africa. The childbirth sequence was well described. Not clear why she was drawn to a left-wing group, & were there really that many air force men in sub-saharan Africa? Good picture of the white colonists thinking their society would go on for ever.
I loved this book. The descriptive passages were fantastic. I enjoyed the scene where Martha walks through her pantry enjoying the products around her.
This was totally believable. How a woman could drift into a disastrous marriage to a whimp. So very well told. A great picture of a group of people.
So annoyed at Martha throughout the whole book, but it is still most definitely one of my favourite books!
Just as I was reading this novel, Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
This is the sequel of the story of Martha Quest in the Children of Violence series. Martha, now married, becomes the mother of Caroline and starts asking herself questions about whether or not she has made the right choices. She does not understand the society she is living in, where the kaffirs are not well-considered, where people are so influenced by propaganda, just as WWII is breaking out.
Was she rig...more
This is the sequel of the story of Martha Quest in the Children of Violence series. Martha, now married, becomes the mother of Caroline and starts asking herself questions about whether or not she has made the right choices. She does not understand the society she is living in, where the kaffirs are not well-considered, where people are so influenced by propaganda, just as WWII is breaking out.
Was she rig...more
Dec 07, 2010
Kirsty Darbyshire
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
library-book
I managed to pick up book 2 in a series of 5. Never mind. I don't know if I missed anything essential from the first book - characters did seem to appear without much in the way of background or introduction but that might just have been the way it was written. I wasn't hopelessly at sea.
I liked the book but felt it was too much of one episode in a series and didn't stand very clearly by itself. It also seemed a bit disjointed at times.
Not really sure whether to go on and read book 3, or to go b
...more
I guess I'm still naive enough to be surprised that Lessing's characters had such "modern" problems lo those 60 years ago.
A slow, thoughtful book.
A slow, thoughtful book.
Martha's quasi-revulsion for her husband, her conflicted take on suburban domestic life, the taboo complexity of her relationship to motherhood and her infant daughter, her sexual ambivalence, all of this is amazing, especially given the time in which this novel was written. A times, I felt the story drag, but that may say more about my limited attention span as a poet and contemporary reader than anything else.
Som ett reningsbad för tankeflödet. Det känns som om jag har kammat igenom en massa trassel i huvet - inget lätt jobb, men värt besväret.
Okay, Lessing, what are you up to this time?
Pace is what strikes me most here: her scenes move most on insinuation, suggestion, apprehension, and almost-guesses. Summary actions cross great jumps; decisive moments turn on the glance, the gesture, the fleeting-thought-almost-understood-which-leaves-the-unsettling-impression-leading-to-great-changes.
Pace is what strikes me most here: her scenes move most on insinuation, suggestion, apprehension, and almost-guesses. Summary actions cross great jumps; decisive moments turn on the glance, the gesture, the fleeting-thought-almost-understood-which-leaves-the-unsettling-impression-leading-to-great-changes.
Jun 25, 2007
Ann M
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction-literary-and-mainstream
I wish Lessing's work was more well known in the U.S.
True story: I was reading this on my lunch break at a temp job for an ad agency in NYC some years ago. One of the executives walked by, a man, and asked, "Is that a marriage manual? Are you getting married?" He was trying to be friendly, so I tried not to sledgehammer him too badly. I just said, "No, it's a novel by a famous author." Duh.
True story: I was reading this on my lunch break at a temp job for an ad agency in NYC some years ago. One of the executives walked by, a man, and asked, "Is that a marriage manual? Are you getting married?" He was trying to be friendly, so I tried not to sledgehammer him too badly. I just said, "No, it's a novel by a famous author." Duh.
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Thoroughly enjoyed this second book in The Children of Violence series. Interesting in depth thoughtful female perspective on marriage and motherhood. Look forward to reading the last two books in this series.
I finally finished this book! It was ok. I did not totally dislike it; there were parts that held my interest. It's simply another "the struggles of women" story.
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I think everyone should read Doris Lessing. Again she talks about the problems of living in colonial Africa and all the problems that this involved.
I just wasn't in the mood for pre-feminist British sensibilities about sexuality.
May 15, 2013
Vilja
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Michele
added it
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Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Oliv...more
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“For she was of that generation who, having found nothing in religion, had formed themselves through literature.”
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