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Lessing, in her preface, claimed that the most important theme in the novel is fragmentation; the mental breakdown that Anna suffers, perhaps from the compartmentalization of her life reflected in the division of the four notebooks but also reflecting the fragmentation of society. Anna's relationship
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and attempt to draw everything together in the golden notebook at the end of the novel are both the final stage of her intolerable mental breakdown, and her attempt to overcome the fragmentation and madness.
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The book intersperses segments of an ostensibly realistic narrative of the lives of Anna and her friend Molly Jacobs as well as their children, ex-husbands and lovers—entitled
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is the story of writer Anna Wulf, the four notebooks in which she records her life, and her attempt to tie them together in a fifth, gold-coloured notebook.
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Fragmentation and
Integration. A Critical Study of Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook by Nan Bentzen Skille, Universitetet i Bergen 1977
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one of the 100 best
English-language novels since 1923. It has been translated into a number of other languages, including
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Dr West (Yellow
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509:"Full text of Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, with annotations for an internet reading group"
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Willi (Wilhelm) Rodde (Black
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Anna (Freeman) Wulf: Writer. Main character of Free Women and writer of the
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Milt (Free Women 5): American writer (= Saul Green from the Blue and Golden
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Maryrose (Black
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Ella (Yellow
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Charlie Themba (Free Women 4): Trade union leader, friend of Tom Mathlong
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Each notebook is returned to four times, interspersed with episodes from
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Jackson (Black Notebook): Cook at the Mashopi Hotel. Friend of Jimmy.
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Marie (Black Notebook): Jackson's wife. Has an affair with George.
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Jimmy McGrath (Black Notebook): Royal Air Force pilot. Homosexual.
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June Boothby (Black Notebook): Daughter of Mr & Mrs Boothby
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from the 1930s to the 1950s, and an examination of the budding
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Mrs Boothby (Black Notebook): Proprietor of the Mashopi Hotel
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Ted Brown (Black Notebook): Royal Air Force pilot, socialist.
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Mr Boothby (Black Notebook): Proprietor of the Mashopi Hotel
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Paul Blackenhurst (Black Notebook): Royal Air Force Pilot
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Mother Sugar (Mrs Marks): Anna and Molly's psychoanalyst
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Tom Mathlong (Free Women): African political activist
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George Hounslow (Black Notebook): Worked on roads.
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648:The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five
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804:The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
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386:Translations include:
429:Az arany jegyzetfĂĽzet
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478:References
282:Characters
267:Free Women
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704:The Cleft
561:Works by
446:, 1978),
234:Hungarian
206:In 2005,
185:communism
181:Stalinist
179:and anti-
138:823/.9/14
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641:Shikasta
397:, 1976)
187:and the
49:Language
791:Related
766:memoirs
444:Am Oved
230:Swedish
226:Italian
193:England
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729:Flight
570:Novels
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238:Hebrew
236:, and
222:Polish
218:French
125:595787
39:Author
62:Novel
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494:Time
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209:TIME
199:and
119:OCLC
106:ISBN
82:1962
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