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| The Fifth Child | |
|---|---|
| Name | The Fifth Child |
| Author | Doris Lessing |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Harper & Row |
| Pub date | 1988 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 160 |
| Isbn | 978-0-06-015802-3 |
The Fifth Child is a novella by Doris Lessing published in 1988 that explores familial conflict, social expectations, and the uncanny through the story of a British family. Set against a backdrop of postwar Britain and informed by Lessing's earlier works such as The Golden Notebook and Briefing for a Descent into Hell, the work juxtaposes bourgeois aspirations with transgressive disruption. Critics often connect the book to traditions represented by Gothic fiction, Mary Shelley, Nathanael Hawthorne, and contemporary realist novels by Iris Murdoch and Kazuo Ishiguro.
The narrative follows Harriet Lovatt, a woman from Salisbury who marries David Lovatt, a man linked to postwar Britain family ideals and suburban life, as they build a household influenced by the ideals of Victorian family novels and consumer culture. Their early children—linked to images from Beatrix Potter and nursery conventions popularized by Winnie-the-Pooh era publications—fit into expectations of domestic harmony, but the birth of the fifth child, named Ben, disrupts this stability in ways critics compare to incidents in Frankenstein, The Wasp Woman, and folklore about changelings. The plot progresses through escalating tensions involving institutions such as National Health Service hospitals, encounters with social services agencies, and a climactic removal of the child that recalls themes present in child welfare debates and cases like those discussed in child protection histories. Narration alternates between third-person domestic chronicle and intense scenes that evoke novels like The Turn of the Screw and plays such as Look Back in Anger.
Primary figures include Harriet Lovatt and David Lovatt, described as embodiments of differing postwar British sensibilities akin to personalities found in Anthony Trollope or E. M. Forster fiction. Their children—Luke Lovatt, Paul Lovatt, Helen Lovatt, Jane Lovatt—serve as contrasts to Ben Lovatt, whose presence invites comparisons to monstrous offspring in Robert Louis Stevenson and Bram Stoker. Supporting characters include medical professionals from institutions comparable to Great Ormond Street Hospital and bureaucrats resembling staff from Local education authorities and social work departments, as well as neighbors echoing figures from Anglo-American suburbia chronicled by authors like John Updike and Philip Larkin.
Scholars situate the novella within debates on motherhood in literature by comparing it to texts by Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, and Elaine Showalter, addressing reproductive anxieties and the ethics of care in modern societies influenced by policies from Welfare state frameworks and critiques from Second-wave feminism. The book interrogates ideas of the monstrous child, invoking intertexts including Mary Shelley and J. R. R. Tolkien’s examinations of otherness, while engaging with psychoanalytic traditions rooted in Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan about the uncanny and family dynamics. Critics also read the work through lenses provided by postwar British social history, class analysis present in work by E. P. Thompson, and trauma theory as developed in studies by Cathy Caruth and Christopher Bollas.
Originally published in 1988 by Harper & Row in the United States and by Century Publishing in the United Kingdom, the novella followed Lessing’s critical acclaim culminating in awards from institutions like Nobel Prize in Literature committees and prizes including the Booker Prize shortlist discussions. Editions appeared in hardcover and paperback and were anthologized in collections and academic curricula alongside texts by Doris Lessing contemporaries such as Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, and Angela Carter. Translations were produced for readers in France, Germany, Spain, and Japan, involving publishers linked to international rights agencies like Penguin Random House affiliates and regional houses.
Contemporary reviews in outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Times (London) sparked debate; some reviewers praised Lessing’s austere prose and moral clarity, likening the novella to works by Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad, while others criticized perceived melodrama similar to critiques leveled at H. G. Wells pastiches. Academic response appeared in journals addressing comparative literature, gender studies, and psychoanalysis, and commentators invoked theorists like Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault to interpret power relations within the family. The book sustained popular discussion in literary circles and book clubs alongside novels by Pat Barker and Ian McEwan.
The novella inspired dramatic and screen adaptations, including a 1993 television film produced in collaboration with BBC Television and independent production companies, featuring actors active in British theatre and television such as performers associated with Royal Shakespeare Company casts. Stage adaptations have been mounted at venues like the Royal Court Theatre and regional companies influenced by directors from National Theatre circles, often staged in repertory alongside other modern British works. Audio editions were issued by publishers working with narrators linked to BBC Radio 4 Drama performers.
Category:1988 novels Category:Novellas Category:Works by Doris Lessing