Although Lessing herself claimed in the preface to the book: ”This novel was not a trumpet for Women’s Liberation…”, her friends called it “a tract about the sex war”. But trials and atrocities in the Soviet Union and other communist countries or revelations about Stalin’s crimes made them develop a feeling of doubt and disappointment towards Communism which was why they broke with communism.īesides this The Golden Notebook is about feminism. Doris Lessing and Anna were both deeply involved in politics and together with most of their friends they became members of the Communist Party. There she was confronted with the effects of the Cold War in the 1950s which are mentioned in the novel just as the dangers of nuclear threats are. Racism is not a central topic in The Golden Notebook but the problem is mentioned when the protagonist, Anna, talks about her successful novel “Frontiers of War” which concerns race relations and forbidden love in southern Africa.ĭoris Lessing escaped from this colonial society to London like Anna. To get things straightened out with herself she deals with them in four independent notebooks, each one has a different colour.Īs the following part will prove The Golden Notebook shows features of a political novel as well as characteristics of a novel of ideas and has, besides this, various autobiographic traces. Therefore she needs the treatment of a psychotherapist. She has a long love affair with Michael and an intense friendship with Molly.īeing about thirty Anna is in a life crises, disillusioned by communist politics under Stalin, doubting herself and her literary career. During World War II Anna marries a German refugee Max but divorces and then emigrates to London with her daughter Janet.

The central figure of “ The Golden Notebook ” is Anna Wulf, a writer from South Africa, living in London. The Golden Notebook was published in 1962 and is one of the best known of Doris Lessing’s novels.

Doris lessing the golden