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A Man and Two Women: Stories
Cover by Robert Foster,
Paperback
First published December 1, 1963
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335 people want to read
About the author
Doris Lessing
472 books3,172 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).
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
September 3, 2021
3,5*
#WITMonth
Este livro agrega contos maioritariamente medianos, mas vale a pena tê-lo pelos três a que dei 5 estrelas: “Uma Mulher Fora de Série”, “Uma Mulher num Telhado” e o icónico “Quarto 19”. Tendo como cenário Inglaterra e África, Doris Lessing mostra que é bastante versátil nos temas e na natureza dos conflitos que explora, que tanto podem ser internos como externos, nomeadamente no seio da família ou entre amigos e colegas. A nível de confronto entre sexos, “Uma Mulher Fora de Série” e “Uma Mulher num Telhado” são exemplares, pois há uma sensação de ameaça e de invasão do espaço privado da mulher que me causaram ansiedade e repulsa.
- Não, minha querida, não me importo nada com as palavras que disseres. Possuir-te-ei, agora, e é tudo o que me interessa.
Bárbara encolheu os ombros. Mas o desprezo, o cansaço que este gesto significava não tinha o menor efeito em Graham, porque agora ele estava a sentir novamente um tal ódio por ela que desejá-la era como ter necessidade matar qualquer coisa ou pessoa.
“O Quarto 19”, por sua vez, debruça-se sobre uma mulher numa crise existencial que decide alugar um quarto num hotel, onde fica três vezes por semana, das 10 às 17h, longe da família e dos afazeres domésticos, perdida nos seus pensamentos.
O que fazia Susan naquele quarto? Nada, absolutamente nada. Ia da cadeira de vime para a janela, punha-se a sorrir; extasiada com o seu anonimato. Já não era Susan Rawlings, mãe de quatro filhos, mulher de Matthew. (...) Era a Sra. Jones, e estava sozinha, e não tinha passado nem futuro. (...) Sentia o vazio a correr-lhe deliciosamente nas veias, com o movimento do sangue.
Há ainda contos de grande qualidade, como “A História de Dois Cães”, “Homenagem a Isaac Babel”, “Uma Carta da Terra” e “Um homem e Duas Mulheres”, no entanto, ficam uns furinhos abaixo das mais marcantes.
#WITMonth
Este livro agrega contos maioritariamente medianos, mas vale a pena tê-lo pelos três a que dei 5 estrelas: “Uma Mulher Fora de Série”, “Uma Mulher num Telhado” e o icónico “Quarto 19”. Tendo como cenário Inglaterra e África, Doris Lessing mostra que é bastante versátil nos temas e na natureza dos conflitos que explora, que tanto podem ser internos como externos, nomeadamente no seio da família ou entre amigos e colegas. A nível de confronto entre sexos, “Uma Mulher Fora de Série” e “Uma Mulher num Telhado” são exemplares, pois há uma sensação de ameaça e de invasão do espaço privado da mulher que me causaram ansiedade e repulsa.
- Não, minha querida, não me importo nada com as palavras que disseres. Possuir-te-ei, agora, e é tudo o que me interessa.
Bárbara encolheu os ombros. Mas o desprezo, o cansaço que este gesto significava não tinha o menor efeito em Graham, porque agora ele estava a sentir novamente um tal ódio por ela que desejá-la era como ter necessidade matar qualquer coisa ou pessoa.
“O Quarto 19”, por sua vez, debruça-se sobre uma mulher numa crise existencial que decide alugar um quarto num hotel, onde fica três vezes por semana, das 10 às 17h, longe da família e dos afazeres domésticos, perdida nos seus pensamentos.
O que fazia Susan naquele quarto? Nada, absolutamente nada. Ia da cadeira de vime para a janela, punha-se a sorrir; extasiada com o seu anonimato. Já não era Susan Rawlings, mãe de quatro filhos, mulher de Matthew. (...) Era a Sra. Jones, e estava sozinha, e não tinha passado nem futuro. (...) Sentia o vazio a correr-lhe deliciosamente nas veias, com o movimento do sangue.
Há ainda contos de grande qualidade, como “A História de Dois Cães”, “Homenagem a Isaac Babel”, “Uma Carta da Terra” e “Um homem e Duas Mulheres”, no entanto, ficam uns furinhos abaixo das mais marcantes.
October 25, 2023
Uma contista a descobrir. Gostei da experiência e conto ler mais da autora.
Gosto do modo algo "sem filtro" como fala da relações amorosas e íntimas.
Gosto do modo algo "sem filtro" como fala da relações amorosas e íntimas.
January 22, 2024
Nineteen short stories. They all revolve around women and sex, class and life in the 1960s.The first story is one that makes you wince and is horrible in its casualness. The Story of Two Dogs is a sad one and evokes thoughts about following your nature and being confined. Each Other a story of incest was disturbing and Lessing is skilled in writing stories which shock the reader.
All the stories are thought provoking with the final one To Room Nineteen a story about a woman called Susan who has lived a lie and chooses suicide to escape her boredom.
All the stories are thought provoking with the final one To Room Nineteen a story about a woman called Susan who has lived a lie and chooses suicide to escape her boredom.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 29, 2024
Doris Lessing’s stories will not offer you any comfort. Instead they will provide something much better: the truth, served in blood. Lessing is at her best when she challenges, provokes, and demands that you sit with perspectives and experiences that taste bitter and make you uncomfortable. She mostly writes about women: the stifling loneliness of married women, the quiet violence of social expectations for women, the dissonance between what women want and what they are allowed to have, women unravelling under the weight of lives that look perfect from the outside, but are suffocating them within, women whose vulnerability reveals their raw pulsating humanity. Lessing does not romanticise. Her women are not ideal; they are rendered whole, and they are defiant.
What fascinates me about Lessing is that she did not merely write; she dissected. She exposed the possibilities within contradictions, the beauty of harshness, the elegance of devastation, the symphony of sorrow, the vulnerability of rage. The power of Lessing’s storytelling is not comfort, but something far richer, far darker: it is understanding.
In her words:
“It would be easy to say that I picked up a knife, slit open my side, took my heart out, and threw it away; but unfortunately it wasn’t as easy as that.”
“They stood together, cheeks touching, scents of skin and hair mixing with the smells of warmed grass and leaves. She thought: What is going to happen now will blow Dorothy and Jack and that baby sky-high; it’s the end of my marriage; I’m going to blow everything to bits. There was almost uncontrollable pleasure in it.”
“No one to blame, no one to offer or to take it… and nothing wrong, either, except that Matthew was never really struck, as he wanted to be, by joy; and that Susan was more and more often threatened by emptiness. There was no need to use the dramatic words, unfaithful, forgive, and the rest: intelligence forbade them. Intelligence barred, too, quarrelling, sulking, anger, silences of withdrawal, accusations, and tears. Above all, intelligence forbids tears. A high price has to be paid for the happy marriage with the four healthy children in the large white gardened house.”
What fascinates me about Lessing is that she did not merely write; she dissected. She exposed the possibilities within contradictions, the beauty of harshness, the elegance of devastation, the symphony of sorrow, the vulnerability of rage. The power of Lessing’s storytelling is not comfort, but something far richer, far darker: it is understanding.
In her words:
“It would be easy to say that I picked up a knife, slit open my side, took my heart out, and threw it away; but unfortunately it wasn’t as easy as that.”
“They stood together, cheeks touching, scents of skin and hair mixing with the smells of warmed grass and leaves. She thought: What is going to happen now will blow Dorothy and Jack and that baby sky-high; it’s the end of my marriage; I’m going to blow everything to bits. There was almost uncontrollable pleasure in it.”
“No one to blame, no one to offer or to take it… and nothing wrong, either, except that Matthew was never really struck, as he wanted to be, by joy; and that Susan was more and more often threatened by emptiness. There was no need to use the dramatic words, unfaithful, forgive, and the rest: intelligence forbade them. Intelligence barred, too, quarrelling, sulking, anger, silences of withdrawal, accusations, and tears. Above all, intelligence forbids tears. A high price has to be paid for the happy marriage with the four healthy children in the large white gardened house.”
September 4, 2025
Genial!! somos una cosa muy compleja.
April 23, 2024
I expected to read a novel titled “A Man and Two Women.” I found the title to be provocative and indicative of a great story that was ripe for intrigue. The book turned out to be a collection of short stories, unlinked; separate stories did not link to create a Mother of all stories. I later discovered that the actual title was changed over the years to include a subtitle “And Other Stories.” The reason why I am getting stuck in the weeds—why an author chooses a particular title, or one title over another—is because the titles of these stories are so poorly named. “Each Other,” “Dialogue,” and “Notes for a Case Study” are droll and more lifeless than the stories themselves. The lead short story, “A Man and Two Women,” begins around page 96. This story is really about two marriages, four desperate people who do not engage in a sexual or an emotional ménage a trois. In terms of linkage, desperation is the pervasive theme for all of the stories. Every character presents in the beginning as being relatively content, but beneath the surface boils an angry cauldron of discontent, simmering despair, and in some instances, writhing lunacy. In every story, there is always an obvious foreshadowing that occurs by the third paragraph. Then the gloom and doom mounts like waves in a coming storm, until in the end, the Tsunami drowns everyone, leaving only a thumbprint on the battered beach. The thumbprint is the author’s mark—Doris Lessing’s inimitable brand in the telling of stories where nothing is ever what it appears to be, and her characters are decidedly British, rarely acknowledging what ails them until they perish like pawns in a Hal Pinter game of chess. There is a bit of a nasty edge to how she paints women as shallow and vain creatures looking to score a come up in life by capturing the right man. Men fare no better—they are always on the make, unapologetically scoring conquests solely to engrave notches on their bedposts. Doris Lessing is a brilliant writer who casts a pall on light, joy, happiness—the up side of human life. Her storytelling technique, crafting excellent sentences, narrative description, and keen ear for dialogue is superb. If only she saw a bit of human goodness, every now and then, instead of being mired in the dark swamp of hypocrisy.
May 8, 2012
has two of my favourite stories (in the top 50). The first story, the brutal 'One off the Short List' and the last, the amazing 'To Room Nineteen'.
2012: another cover gone missing, and this one is so inappropriate it has to go up.. I'll do it...
2012: another cover gone missing, and this one is so inappropriate it has to go up.. I'll do it...
February 24, 2020
moja ulubiona noblistka feministyczna (obok Morrison), którą czytam wszędzie i zawsze, ale te opowiadania niestety bardzo nierówne,
chociaż patrząc na czas powstania- wyprzedzają swoją epokę milowymi krokami,
(Lessing już w latach 60 XX wieku opisywała zjawiska takie jak: cat calling, wolf-whistlings)
chociaż patrząc na czas powstania- wyprzedzają swoją epokę milowymi krokami,
(Lessing już w latach 60 XX wieku opisywała zjawiska takie jak: cat calling, wolf-whistlings)
April 13, 2019
Kniha je napisana fascinujucim jazykom, v tomto pripade je forma viac nez obsah, no niektore poviedky mali oba atributy. Najviac ma dostala posledna, ako sa hovori, najlepsie na zaver - Pokoj c.19, no vyborne boli i mnohe ine, davkovala som si vzdy iba jednu denne.
November 10, 2018
Few writers have the perspicacity of Doris Lessing when it comes to matters of class and sex. Her observations about social climbing ("Notes for a Case History"), date rape ("One off the Short List"), and diplomacy ("Outside the Ministry") often jolt one into a new awareness of the world around us. Sometimes, it's just a sketch about dreams ("A Room"), sometimes a fairly long tale that ends in depression ("To Room Nineteen") but in "A Man and Two Women," Lessing is always grappling with big ideas and not just gnarly situations.
September 13, 2011
many interesting tales of complicated love. (all kinds)
May 13, 2020
Tušil som, že to nebude márne. Na moje príjemné prekvapenie som sa však ponoril do skvelých textov. Doris Lessing sa díva na svet s vľúdnou tvárou. Píše tak, že sa dokáže dotknúť sŕdc aj tých najväčších cynikov. A pritom nerobí nič iné len rozpráva príbehy.
Uvedená zbierka zahŕňajúca 19 poviedok zastihla autorku vo výbornej forme. Jednotlivé texty možno rozdeliť podľa geografického kľúča na britské a juhoafrické. Kým v Británii (hlavne v Londýne) sleduje predovšetkým vzťahové, rodové a rodinné témy, Južnej Afrike venuje spomienkové prózy na svoje dospievanie.
O Doris Lessing sa zvyčajne diskutuje ako o feministke. Tento zaužívaný postoj je však podľa mňa nielen mylný, ale aj necitlivý. Nemám veľkú chuť polemizovať o feminizme, a tak len napíšem, že v tejto zbierke nakladá mužom a ženám rovnakou mierou. Skrátka, Doris Lessing bola žena, a tak pozorovala ženskými očami a hodnotila ženským umom. Možno o čosi odvážnejšie ako sa po druhej svetovej vojne od ženy očakávalo.
Jej poviedky - sám som z toho prekvapený - k tomu najlepšiemu, čo som kedy čítal.
Uvedená zbierka zahŕňajúca 19 poviedok zastihla autorku vo výbornej forme. Jednotlivé texty možno rozdeliť podľa geografického kľúča na britské a juhoafrické. Kým v Británii (hlavne v Londýne) sleduje predovšetkým vzťahové, rodové a rodinné témy, Južnej Afrike venuje spomienkové prózy na svoje dospievanie.
O Doris Lessing sa zvyčajne diskutuje ako o feministke. Tento zaužívaný postoj je však podľa mňa nielen mylný, ale aj necitlivý. Nemám veľkú chuť polemizovať o feminizme, a tak len napíšem, že v tejto zbierke nakladá mužom a ženám rovnakou mierou. Skrátka, Doris Lessing bola žena, a tak pozorovala ženskými očami a hodnotila ženským umom. Možno o čosi odvážnejšie ako sa po druhej svetovej vojne od ženy očakávalo.
Jej poviedky - sám som z toho prekvapený - k tomu najlepšiemu, čo som kedy čítal.
May 9, 2024
Most of the stories in here are exceptionally good and poignant. Lessing likes to challenge your biases and preconceptions and she does it in such a satisfying, straight-forward and sophisticated way. The stories in this anthology don't shy away from socially unacceptable topics or hide any of the awfulness. Society's expectations of women is one of the main themes Lessing explores, and I thought that this was where her writing hits hardest and most effectively. As the book went on I found some of the later stories were not quite as enjoyable or compelling as the earlier ones and I think the anthology would have been stronger with some light trimming. However, there were a few really exceptional stories in this collection that will stay with me for a long time to come. I also particularly enjoyed the short foray into the life of dung beetles too.
October 15, 2022
Hun skriver godt. Ingen tvivl om det. Og hun har også meget på hjerte, især om kvinders rolle og selvstændighed. Det er spændende læsning men også nogengange virkelig svært og uvedkommende fordi hun skriver i et overklasse/kolonial setting der er så miljø og tidsspecifik. Enkelte af noveller var stærke for mig pga de stærke personskildringer.
January 7, 2019
Good to read.
June 9, 2020
Loved being introduced to Doris Lessing when two of Timothy's college friends came to visit us in Zaire. Love her writing!
June 30, 2024
This made me sad. I hope to never hate men as much as doris lessing did.
May 31, 2014
Overall, the tone of the book is depressing. The stories are about unhappy people (women usually the focus). But depressing material can also be insightful. The stand-out in that regard was the last story, To Room Nineteen. Really heavy, but poignant and thought-provoking.
The first few stories on the other hand were a miss for me (One Off the Short List, The Story of Two Dogs, and A Woman on a Roof, particularly). They're not pleasant stories that are meant to be enjoyed, though, so I think that means that they were actually successful. The characters in them are distasteful.
But if you persevere, you'll get to How I Finally Lost My Heart, which I enjoyed. It's conversational and interesting.
Mixed bag.
The first few stories on the other hand were a miss for me (One Off the Short List, The Story of Two Dogs, and A Woman on a Roof, particularly). They're not pleasant stories that are meant to be enjoyed, though, so I think that means that they were actually successful. The characters in them are distasteful.
But if you persevere, you'll get to How I Finally Lost My Heart, which I enjoyed. It's conversational and interesting.
Mixed bag.
July 15, 2014
This collection of short stories gets four stars largely because of how much I liked the first and last of them. They are all on the more readable of Lessing's output, but I found myself not caring about most of the stories. But the first and the last packed emotional wallops that make me now want to keep the ratty old mass market edition that I was all set to give away.
November 24, 2020
A short story charting the entanglements of two couples and their lives and feelings for each other. It gives insight into those moments when affairs are started, how easy it is, and how much can be destroyed as a result of it. The men are a bit despicable in this though, they seem to act like its almost their right to be unfaithful.
December 14, 2015
Varios cuentos de una etapa joven o de mediana edad de Doris. Me gustaron algunos simples (Dos perros) y algunos complejos. Un par pecan de ambiciosos (y de alegóricos).
Eso sí, no hay mucha alegría y en general el desamor domina la escena.
Eso sí, no hay mucha alegría y en general el desamor domina la escena.
February 4, 2010
Holy cow can this woman write! Probably why she just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. These are short stories - good for parents of young children.
Read
April 20, 2011July 16, 2014
What an amazing, versatile, worldly-wise author is Doris Lessing. I loved this selection of short stories, so many were poignant and evoked universal human feelings and experiences.
November 7, 2019
Oh my heart hurts.
July 6, 2008
Não gostei quase nada do livro. Trata-se de um conjunto de contos que não me atrairam nada.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews