The Golden Notebook

By: Doris Lessing

Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson

One of the most important books of the growing feminist movement of the 1950s, The Golden Notebook was brought to the attention of a wider public by the Nobel Prize award to Doris Lessing in 2007.

Author Anna Wulf attempts to overcome writer’s block by writing a comprehensive "golden notebook" that draws together the preoccupations of her life, each of which is examined in a different notebook: sources of her creative inspiration in a black book, communism in a red book, the breakdown of her marriage in a yellow book, and day-to-day emotions and dreams in a blue book. Anna’s struggle to unify the various strands of her life – emotional, political, and professional – amasses into a fascinating encyclopaedia of female experience in the ‘50s.

In this authentic, taboo-breaking novel, Lessing brings the plight of women’s lives from obscurity behind closed doors into broad daylight. The Golden Notebook resonates with the concerns and experiences of a great many women and is a true modern classic, thoroughly deserving of its reputation as a feminist bible. A notoriously long and complex work, it is given a new life by this – its first unabridged recording.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©1962 Doris Lessing (P)2010 Naxos Audiobook

Critic reviews

" The Golden Notebook is Doris Lessing’s most important work and has left its mark upon the ideas and feelings of a whole generation of women." (Elizabeth Hardwick, New York Times Book Review)

Fantastic Narration

Juliet Stevenson beautifully narrates this complicated novel by Dorris Lessing. Lessing’s The Golden Notebook is full of stories and dreams within stories, an exploration of Anna Wulf’s mind and an attempt to un-fragment her fragmented life.

A great book

A wonderful book that I found to be developmental and maturative for a young man coming of age such as myself. I found this book relatable and generally intelligent. I further highly recommend this book.

Tough to start

While this book is full of reflection on a plethora of topics it’s hard to get the cadence of it down because there seemingly is no plot line. It’s more a shout out to the social and personal mind and all the troublesome thoughts that live there. I’m glad to have stuck it out as the ending was quite uneventfully satisfying.

Good Book

Would you consider the audio edition of The Golden Notebook to be better than the print version?

yes, the voices and characters that the reader takes on makes it very interesting.

Would you recommend The Golden Notebook to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes, very interesting glimpse in to the era

Which character – as performed by Juliet Stevenson – was your favorite?

Anna

A masterpiece

This is tough reading but a masterpiece. I feel no phrase is too much os misplaced. There is always an intention, an emotion and conflict being looked at. No wonder why this has converted into a classic.