Publication year 1988
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Fear, Hate & Anger, Loneliness, Shame & Pride, Disability, Femininity, Gender Identity, Masculinity, Mental Health, Birth, Childhood & Youth, Appearance & Reality, Nature Versus Nurture, Daughters & Sons, Family, Marriage, Mothers, Siblings, Social Class, Beauty
Tags Horror & Suspense, Gothic Literature, Classic Fiction
The Fifth Child is a novella by British writer Doris Lessing, recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature. First published in the UK in 1988, the work blends domestic realism and gothic horror in an unsettling portrait of Harriet and David Lovatt, a couple with old-fashioned values whose lives are upended by the birth of their fifth child, Ben. Aggressive, unusually strong, and non-communicative, Ben does not conform to the Lovatts’ expectations of a... Read The Fifth Child Summary