The Fifth Child Summary
Doris Lessing

The Fifth Child Summary

This short novel is the metaphor-rich story of a traditional family torn apart by the arrival of an angry, violent, destructive child. As parents Harriet and David struggle to hold together both the family and their own personal values, the narrative draws implied metaphorical parallels between that family's particular experience and the experiences of society in general, along the way also exploring the issues of idealism vs. practicality and the relationship...

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