
"A totally modern work. Martha Quest is, above all, ironically percieved by the author in whose hands irony is an instrument of compassion." -- New Republic
An unconventional woman trapped in a conventional marriage, Martha Quest struggles to maintain her dignity and her sanity through the misunderstandings, frustrations, infidelities, and degrading violence of a failing marriage. Finally, she must make the heartbreaking choice of whether to sacrifice her child as she turns her back on marriage and security.
A Proper Marriage is the second novel in Doris Lessing's classic Children of Violence series of novels, each a masterpiece on its own right, and, taken together, an incisive and all-encompassing vision of our world in the twentieth century.
Winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, Doris Lessing was one of the most celebrated and distinguished writers of our time, the recipient of a host of international awards. She wrote more than thirty books--among them the novels Martha Quest, The Golden Notebook, and The Fifth Child. She died in 2013.
"Very impressive....Portrays modern woman in all her complexity." -- Literary Horizons
"One cannot praise the writing too highly...She plays on language as on an instrument with the severe discipline of a professional master." -- Best Seller
"A totally modern work. Martha Quest is, above all, ironically percieved by the author in whose hands irony is an instrument of compassion." -- New Republic
"I read the Children of Violence novels and began to understand how a person could write about the problems of the world in a compelling and beautiful way. And it seems to me that as the most important thing I could ever do." -- Barbara Kingsolver
"With deceptive simplicity she reveals more about the private depths of mind and soul that perhaps one ought to know." -- Daily Telegraph