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- CommentAuthoradmin
- CommentTimeNov 16th 2008
This thread is for discussions about Page 85 of the online edition of The Golden Notebook, and the readers' comments. Please show a courteous regard for the presence of other voices in the discussion. We reserve the right to edit or delete comments that do not adhere to this standard.
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- CommentAuthormarthaquest
- CommentTimeNov 16th 2008
I think the gift that Willi gives to the unnamed woman is very symbolic. He gives her a copy of The Golden Bough, and we're reading The Golden Notebook. Chapter 1 was very linear & chronological in style, but Chapter 2 is several stories (or books, or notes about books, or memories about the past which inspired books) overlaying each other, so we're reading books within books, all with similar storylines. The Golden Bough also has several literary references; the one that interests me is an incident in Virgil's Aenid when a golden bough is given to a traveler to protect him on his journey through the underworld. Lessing's storylines often trace a woman going deeply into herself, going into a scary formless internal world, going mad, and then coming back reconstructed. The title of one of her novels is 'Briefing for a Descent into Hell.'
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About
The Golden Notebook is a collaboration between if:book London and Apt.
Principal funding by Arts Council England.
HarperCollins, the publisher of The Golden Notebook, digitized the book for us and generously gave permission to reproduce it here in its entirety at no cost.
Additional support from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and New York University