{"product_id":"in-pursuit-of-the-english-a-documentary-isbn-9780060976293","title":"In Pursuit of the English: A Documentary","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"One of the most authentic books ever written about the English....Funny, touching and so real that the smell and taste of London seem to rise from its pages.\" — San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Pursuit of the English is a novelist's account of a lusty, quarrelsome, unscrupulous, funny, pathetic, full-blooded life in a working-class rooming house. It is a shrewd and unsentimental picture of Londoners you've probably never met or even read about--though they are the real English. The cast of characters — if that term can be applied to real people — includes: Bobby Brent, a con man; Mrs. Skeffington, a genteel woman who bullies her small child and flings herself down two flights of stairs to avoid having another; and Miss Priest, a prostitute, who replies to Lessing's question \"Don't you ever like sex?\" with \"If you're going to talk dirty, I'm not interested.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn swift, barbed style, in high, hard, farcical writing that is eruptively funny, Doris Lessing records the joys and terrors of everyday life. The truth of her perception shines through the pages of a work that is a brilliant piece of cultural interpretation, an intriguing memoir and a thoroughly engaging read.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat are the English \u003ci\u003ereally\u003c\/i\u003e like when they think no one is watching?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eEnglish Character Study:\u003c\/b\u003e From con men to prostitutes, Lessing documents the full-blooded, often contradictory, nature of her fellow lodgers.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA Colonial Eye on England:\u003c\/b\u003e A sharp, outsider’s perspective on the strange customs and unspoken rules of the supposed \"mother country.\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eLife in a Rooming House:\u003c\/b\u003e The joys, terrors, and sheer absurdity of everyday life crammed into a single, sprawling boarding house.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eWry Social Commentary:\u003c\/b\u003e Lessing’s famously swift, barbed style dissects the nuances of class, money, and ambition with eruptively funny precision.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e | \u003cem\u003eIn Pursuit of the English\u003c\/em\u003e is a novelist's account of a lusty, quarrelsome, unscrupulous, funny, pathetic, full-blooded life in a working-class rooming house. It is a shrewd and unsentimental picture of Londoners you've probably never met or even read about--though they are the \u003cem\u003ereal\u003c\/em\u003e English. The cast of characters--if that term can be applied to real people--includes: Bobby Brent, a con man; Mrs. Skeffington, a genteel woman who bullies her small child and flings herself down two flights of stairs to avoid having another; and Miss Priest, a prostitute, who replies to Lessing's question \"Don't you ever like sex?\" with \"If you're going to talk dirty, I'm not interested.\" \u003cp\u003e In swift, barbed style, in high, hard, farcical writing that is eruptively funny, Doris Lessing records the joys and terrors of everyday life. The truth of her perception shines through the pages of a work that is a brilliantpiece of cultural interpretation, an intriguing memoir and a thoroughly engaging read.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\"One of the most authentic books ever written about the English....Funny, touching and so real that the smell and taste of London seem to rise from its pages.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A magnificent book, quite staggering in its penetration of the ordinary working-class Londoner's nature.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCyril Dunn, Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Eloquent...Wry and ribald...[Lessing's] impressive gifts for characterization and dialogue, her skill as a raconteur and her tartly humorous style combine to make\u003cem\u003e In Pursuit of the English \u003c\/em\u003ereadable and amusing.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"No other writer, from any continent, has this raceless, classless fellowship combined with total physical receptiveness. . . . Lessing has always been more than a regional moral messenger; she is a prospector into the minds, spirit and senses of all, imaginatively at home anywhere.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Times (London)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44887338680549,"sku":"NP9780060976293","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780060976293.jpg?v=1730225928","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/in-pursuit-of-the-english-a-documentary-isbn-9780060976293","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}