It is interesting and somewhat unexpected that Lessing chooses to tell Sarah's story using a conventional third-person narrative rather than the more intimate and confessional first-person voice. This is, after all, a love story, unconventional as the dynamics of it may be. Possible reasons for this choice may involve Sarah Durham's highly analytical turn of mind. She insists on getting to the bottom of her passion for Bill and Henry, rather than simply allowing herself to be swept away. First-person narration may have struck Lessing as too intimate and confidential, perhaps allowing sentimentality to enter the picture. Sarah may be a tender-hearted and inwardly passionate woman, but she is decidedly not sentimental. She resists emotion throughout the novel, especially when listening to Julie's haunting music: "She was determined to feel nothing at all when the music began, but a sweet shaft winged straight to Sarah's solar plexus, and...