Lessing

American  

[les-ing] / ˈlɛs ɪŋ /

noun

1. Doris (May), 1919–2013, British novelist in Africa; born in Persia; Nobel Prize in Literature 2007.

2. Gotthold Ephraim 1729–81, German critic and dramatist.

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Lessing British  

/ ˈlɛsɪŋ /

noun

1. Doris ( May ). born 1919, English novelist and short-story writer, brought up in Rhodesia: her novels include the five-novel sequence Children of Violence (1952–69), The Golden Notebook (1962), a series of science-fiction works (1979–83), The Good Terrorist (1985), and The Sweetest Dream (2001). Nobel prize for literature 2007

2. Gotthold Ephraim (ˈɡɔthɔlt ˈeːfrɑɪm). 1729–81, German dramatist and critic. His plays include Miss Sara Sampson (1755), the first German domestic tragedy, and Nathan der Weise (1779). He is noted for his criticism of French classical dramatists, and for his treatise on aesthetics Laokoon (1766)

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Example Sentences

There is one book that changed my life — it didn’t wreck my life — “The Golden Notebook” by Doris Lessing.

From Salon • May 30, 2025

Previous winners of the prize - given for a body of work, rather than a book - have included Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Bob Dylan.

From BBC • Oct. 5, 2023

But during the four years they lived together, Lessing never offered notes or advice; anything Diski learned was through observation and osmosis.

From New York Times • Apr. 20, 2023

Lizzie Gottlieb came to know Heller, Lessing and some of her father’s other authors well, but says she had never met Caro until he turned 80.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 20, 2022

During the entire walk, across the heaths and fens near Cambridge, Lessing did all the talking; Watson said not one word.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee