In a liberating form of autobiographical fiction, Lessing discounted the prevailing idea of the 1950s that an intelligent, political woman must be unwomanly, un homme manqué. Wondering about the choices made by herself and her contemporaries, she tunes in to the powerful voice of Lessing. Living with Lessing in London, he felt hard done by, complaining bitterly that she was a “Stakhanovite” with “a furious and almost cosmic creative energy”. Her quest in Free Woman to do things differently is too sincere to be self-indulgent. Free Woman by Lara Feigel is published by Bloomsbury, (RRP £20).

Source: The Guardian March 03, 2018 09:00 UTC