The Fifth Child Pdf

ISBN: 0679721827
Title: The Fifth Child Pdf
Author: Doris Lessing
Published Date: 1989
Page: 133

The married couple in this novel pull off a remarkable achievement: They purchase a three-story house with oodles of bedrooms, and, on a middle-class income, in the '70s, fill it to the brim with happy children and visiting relatives. Their holiday gatherings are sumptuous celebrations of life and togetherness. And then the fifth child arrives. He's just a child--he's not supernatural. But is he really human? This is an elegantly written tale that the New York Times called "a horror story of maternity and the nightmare of social collapse . . . a moral fable of the genre that includes Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and George Orwell's 1984." A smug, conservative couple's fifth child (after four model children) inspires fear and horror. "The implications of this slim, gripping work are ominous," wrote PW. Lessing indicts those in authority who refuse to acknowledge responsibility for the violence inherent in mankind. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Doris Lessing's contemporary gothic horror story—centered on the birth of a baby who seems less than human—probes society's unwillingness to recognize its own brutality.Harriet and David Lovatt, parents of four children, have created an idyll of domestic bliss in defiance of the social trends of late 1960s England. While around them crime and unrest surge, the Lovatts are certain that their old-fashioned contentment can protect them from the world outside—until the birth of their fifth baby. Gruesomely goblin-like in appearance, insatiably hungry, abnormally strong and violent, Ben has nothing innocent or infant-like about him. As he grows older and more terrifying, Harriet finds she cannot love him, David cannot bring himself to touch him, and their four older children are afraid of him. Understanding that he will never be accepted anywhere, Harriet and David are torn between their instincts as parents and their shocked reaction to this fierce and unlovable child whose existence shatters their belief in a benign world.

A dark tale This story borders on horror genre, or maybe fantasy, though in my opinion it's not quite there because the child is just inside of what's believable. You don't have to suspend your belief to let the tale carry you along. A couple aspects are, to me, at least as striking as the child itself. First is the dedication of the mother. She's a little too saintly to be real. We all know the strength of a mother's love, but every human mother is in the end, merely human. This mother would put Mother Theresa of Calcutta in the shade. Also, the heavenly bliss surrounding the family until the fifth child is born is a tad saccharin, but it's portrayal is saved by its setting the stage for what follows. The preternatural bliss of the family at the beginning degenerating into the hellish horror of their world after the arrival of the fifth child is what makes the story so compelling. But it's not just the story itself, which to my experience is unique, but it's well told. It would be difficult to find fault with Lessing's use of the language. My final comment: the story has no resolution worthy of the term, which in most instances would render it intolerable, at least to me. But here it somehow works. The story just sort of turns to dust and smoke and drifts off into the sunset, yet for some reason I found it very satisfying. Yes, I recommend the book to anyone who takes storytelling seriously.Sad the sad story of a child born who is unlike everyone else. His self centered, unrealistic parents. For me the book was more about the irresponsible parents than about the unique child they had. I left immensely dislikeing the parents and feeling very sorry for the child who didn't fit in.She should have stopped at four... This book gave me the creeps. A friend told me it was science fiction - I prefer to think of it as a gothic horror story. A couple already have four seemingly perfect children. Mother gets pregnant again, and has lots of problems with the pregnancy: The baby is very active, large, and she is constantly ill, can't sleep, and is exhausted. Once born, mother cannot bond with the child, a boy they call Ben. He is a vicious nurser, and a very physically precocious child. However, his language skills are poor and he can't relate to anyone. He doesn't play with the other children, and is often aggressive. As he ages, there are lots of problems, some quite disturbing: He is physically unattractive. Eventually, it gets so bad they have to take him out of school. At one point, the family places Ben in an institution. The mother's guilt is heart-breaking. It gets worse from there. Her eventual rescue of Ben is vivid, and the "home" is beyond words. Ben's reappearance leads tragically to the disintegration of the family. What the mother eventually decides really took me by surprise - it's almost shocking. Lessing's writing style is compulsively readable and visual, even when the subject is uncomfortable, like this one.

The Flood pdf

The Fairytale Chicago of Francesca Finnegan pdf

The Sighting pdf

The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride pdf

Walk the Sky pdf

The Prophet pdf

BELIEVE LIKE A CHILD pdf

Tags: 0679721827 pdf,The Fifth Child pdf,Doris Lessing,The Fifth Child,Vintage,0679721827,Horror - General,England,Family,Horror fiction,Rejection (Psychology),FICTION / Family Life / General,FICTION / Horror,FICTION / Literary,FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Horror,GENERAL,General Adult,Horror,Literary,Science fiction,nobel prize winners in literature;horror;supernatural;thriller;thrillers;family;thriller books;mystery thriller suspense;suspense books;horror novels;scary books;psychological thrillers;horror books;psychological thrillers books;novels;fiction;fiction books;suspense thriller books;mysteries and thrillers;realistic fiction books;books fiction;psychological thriller books;horror fiction;suspense;horror stories;mystery and thriller;suspense fiction;gothic;short stories;ghosts;fantasy;mystery,family; 20th century; contemporary fiction; nobel prize winners in literature; literary fiction; fiction; fiction books; thriller; suspense; thrillers; thriller books; mystery thriller suspense; horror fiction; psychological thrillers books; horror books; horror; horror novels; suspense thriller books; mysteries and thrillers; psychological thriller books; suspense fiction; horror stories; mystery and thriller; psychologica thrillers; gothic; short stories; classic; mystery; ghosts; supernatural; england; ghost stories