Product Description

'Listening to the laughter, the sounds of children playing, Harriet and David would reach for each other's hand, and smile, and breathe happiness.' Four children, a beautiful old house, the love of relatives and friends, Harriet and David Lovatt's life is a glorious hymn to domestic bliss and old-fashioned family values. But when their fifth child is born, a sickly and implacable shadow is cast over this tender idyll. Large and ugly, violent and uncontrollable, the infant Ben, 'full of cold dislike,' tears at Harriet's breast. Struggling to care for her new-born child, faced with a darkness and a strange defiance she has never known before, Harriet is deeply afraid of what, exactly, she has brought into the world

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #115666 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Review
"The Fifth Child has the intensity of a nightmare, a horror story poised somewhere between a naturalistic account of family life and an allegory that draws on science fiction. Read it and tremble." CLARE TOMALIN, Independent "The Fifth Child is a book to send shivers down your spine, but one which it is impossible to put down until it is finished. Doris Lessing's power to captivate and convince is evident from the first, and the effect of the odd, alien child on the family is conveyed with quiet understatement which adds to the mounting sense of horror." Sunday Times "A powerful fable. Like the story of Frankenstein or the Minotaur, it generates all sorts of uneasiness. Its strength is expressive not didactic. A disturbing vision, The Fifth Child offers a faithful if chilling reflection of the world we live in." Sunday Telegraph "Doris Lessing can take any genre she chooses and brilliantly reinvent it; this time, the horror story. The Fifth Child is dramatic and memorable, playing as it does upon a most ancient fear." JUDY COOKE, Guardian

About the Author
Doris Lessing is one of the most radical, provocative and diverse writers of the modern age. 'A major figure in twentieth century literature, her labours and prodigious output have helped to change the way we see ourselves.' Michele Roberts, New Statesman

Customer Reviews

A traumatic but worthwhile read
I read this book because my 13 year old son was reading it at school and was finding it hard to relate to. I could not put it down. The three main themes of the book (the dangers of complacency, how society responds to those who do not or cannot conform, and the strength of a mother's love) are all hugely important. It made me appreciate my own children more than ever, but also forced me to realise that it could have been so different. I hope I emerged a more tolerant and understanding person; we all have hopes and dreams, but some of us end up lucky and some do not.

Horrifically good
This is not only a very modern horror story. It is so horrific because it is utterly believable and the plot could happen to anyone. I really could not put it down, I was so moved by the reactions of the main character, Harriet, to her frightening new son, the large, violent Ben. I thought the balance in Harriet between horror, confusion and reluctant love for her son was extremely touching and complex. As a result, I, as the reader, felt this mixture of reactions, too, one minute totally repulsed and frightened by Ben, the next moved and very sorry for him. One never understands, as Harriet never does, what goes on in Ben's mind. He remains a mystery to everyone within and without the novel. But Harriet's tough fight for any morsel of understanding is really powerful to read, right to the end, as she observes her son living an entirely separate life. It is a tragedy as well as a horror, which makes it all the more absorbing - the family gradually diminishes as a result of Ben's dominant presence in the big, once laugter-filled house.

There is also the sense that Lessing comments more generally on society. The novel is not only a domestic drama. Set in the 1960s initially, Lessing offers the characters Harriet and David, who fight determinedly against the 'sex and drugs' spirit of the era. They have ideals of simple, enriching family happiness, a big, lovely house with loads of children, and they seem to battle to gain their dream which seems too conventional for the age. The book progresses through to the 1980s, and Lessing comments on the growing crime and aggression which characterised the 80's, a violent backdrop for violent Ben who seems so comfortable in it. Lessing shows Harriet becoming more and more lost, isolated from the real, circulating world, first through the desire for a family, then seeing her son disappearing into a society so remote from her ideals.

I strongly recommend this to anyone, but not children - it is harrowing at times, and extremely graphic. One wonders exactly what this child Ben is and where he came from - I found that extremely traumatic so I can't imagine a child trying to understand. Perhaps the other readers who should avoid this are mothers-to-be. The description of the pregnancy is very disturbing indeed.

Far from simply being a horror story, I think it is a extremely engaging investigation of the disparity between honest dreams and the harshness of reality. There is such a lot contained in this novel.

A harrowing novel
Harriet and David met at an office end-of-the-year party. David Lovatt was a successful architect and they decided to marry the following spring. Soon they found a large Victorian house within commuting distance of London.
Their first son Luke was born in 1966. Then followed Helen, Jane and Paul in 1973.
Then Harriet was pregnant for the fifth time. But it was a difficult pregnancy, the foetus kicking and punching, but eventually their fifth child, Ben, was born. At four months, he already looked like an "angry, hostile little troll".
Later on, he became so aggressive and repulsive that Harriet and David had to protect themselves and other members of their family from his kicks and bites. Finally David decided to take him to an "institution". But soon Harriet could not tolerate the situation and on her own accord drove to the North of England to bring Ben back home. What she found there constitutes the most harrowing scene of the novel and is no doubt Mrs Lessing's sharp critique of the way such institutions used to treat mentally retarded children. Then follows Harriet's desperate attempts to re-educate Ben for social life, to the disgust of the other members of the family.
A moving and very disturbing novel in which Mrs Lessing brilliantly shows that a mother can love and devote herself to a child even if it is no more than a monster or an alien.