The private depths of mind and soul are
revealed in a series of short stories by Doris Lessing entitled To Room
Nineteen.
The lives of the British working classes are
revealed in the wants and needs of women who struggle with inadequate working class men.
Life was terrible both pre and post Second World War. Life was frightening and dangerous and there was no justice. One woman felt there was a deep basic insecurity, that life itself was an enemy to be placated and humoured liable at any moment to confront her with death and destitution.
A Room described a room's decor in the present suddenly changing into a coal fired Victorian era room where there had been a gas fire moments before. Ms Lessing concentrated on the reader's imagination.
The short stories were not all as good, but the lives of the lower orders were mined for their experiences.
To Room
Nineteen imparted the sense of hopelessness of a middle class married woman who sought solitude in the midst of her midlife crisis which ended in tragedy.