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Cuentos europeos
Matrimonios en apariencia bien avenidos pero rotos en su intimidad, parejas que buscan leyes insólitas de convivencia para superar el tedio, mujeres mayores que solo saben amar en la distancia y jóvenes que descubren el sexo entre las ruinas de las casas de Londres, bombardeadas durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial...
En estos cuentos está la esencia de Lessing, una mujer capaz de describir una relación en un solo párrafo. En este volumen se recogen todos los cuentos con temática europea (hay otro volumen dedicado a los cuentos africanos) que la autora escribió desde su llegada a Inglaterra en 1949 hasta el final del siglo XX: cincuenta años de escritura dedicados a analizar con rigor y piedad lo que nos define como seres humanos.
En estos cuentos está la esencia de Lessing, una mujer capaz de describir una relación en un solo párrafo. En este volumen se recogen todos los cuentos con temática europea (hay otro volumen dedicado a los cuentos africanos) que la autora escribió desde su llegada a Inglaterra en 1949 hasta el final del siglo XX: cincuenta años de escritura dedicados a analizar con rigor y piedad lo que nos define como seres humanos.
- GenresShort Stories
925 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2008
10 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Doris Lessing
478 books3,205 followersDoris Lessing was born into a colonial family. 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 Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.
In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and later had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.
During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.
In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.
In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.
She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).
In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and later had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.
During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.
In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.
In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.
She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 12, 2016
Lo que más me encantó fueron los personajes: hombres y mujeres de mediana edad, o entrando en años; una anciana y su gato. Especímenes difíciles de etiquetar :)
July 14, 2021
Perfectos. Fin.
April 9, 2025
Amplísima colección de relatos de Doris Lessing. Los he ido leyendo con calma, deleitándome, a lo largo de varios años.
Algunos son simplemente maravillosos. En cualquier caso, incluso en aquellos que son un poquitín menos redondos, la autora es capaz de desgranar con gran precisión las relaciones humanas, principalmente de pareja y familiares pero no solo, en un lugar y una época muy concretos: la Europa -en especial, Inglaterra- del tercer tercio del siglo XX.
Una lectura imperdible para los amantes del relato.
Algunos son simplemente maravillosos. En cualquier caso, incluso en aquellos que son un poquitín menos redondos, la autora es capaz de desgranar con gran precisión las relaciones humanas, principalmente de pareja y familiares pero no solo, en un lugar y una época muy concretos: la Europa -en especial, Inglaterra- del tercer tercio del siglo XX.
Una lectura imperdible para los amantes del relato.
April 1, 2022
"Yo solo poseo una de las menos importantes cualidades necesarias para escribir: la curiosidad".
La naturalidad y la grandeza de los relatos de Lessing es difícil de conseguir, su estilo me recuerda mucho a los relatos de Alice Munro, y lo que tienen estas escritoras en común es que cuentan aquello cotidiano, aquello que en muchas ocasiones pasa desapercibido y que visto bajo el reflejo de la pluma de este tipo de escritoras resulta completamente fascinante.
La naturalidad y la grandeza de los relatos de Lessing es difícil de conseguir, su estilo me recuerda mucho a los relatos de Alice Munro, y lo que tienen estas escritoras en común es que cuentan aquello cotidiano, aquello que en muchas ocasiones pasa desapercibido y que visto bajo el reflejo de la pluma de este tipo de escritoras resulta completamente fascinante.
July 25, 2021
37 cuentos en más de 900 páginas, todos entretenidos y de temas diversos: amor incondicional, infidelidad, incesto, matrimonios y compromisos rotos, las adversidades de la guerra, pobreza y riqueza, viajes, muerte, locuras y sufrimiento. La prosa en general me pareció ágil y sencilla, pero en algunos cuentos era descriptiva y hasta poética. Una buena lectura, que deja una sonrisa.
October 25, 2021
Extraordinarios.
March 13, 2022
"No podía creerse que toda una vida, como la suya, de intachable servicio tuviera el mismo valor que la de aquellos que acababan de salir de la ignorancia".
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews