“Report on a Threatened City”
In addition being known for writing stories about the imperialism and colonization of Africa by white Europeans, Lessing enjoys a completely different successful career as a writer of science fiction. This is one of her famous stories from that genre written as a progress report being sent by aliens who have come to Earth to warn the population about an upcoming catastrophic earthquake only to discover that the people of threatened city already know of the coming natural disaster and are too busy involved in preparations for conducting war with their enemies to care. In fact, so focused are earthlings on ensuring their mutual devastation that they can’t even get worked up about the extraordinary arrival of intelligent life from another world.
“The Nuisance”
The title character is the wife of a black man working for a white colonial family. The husband, having finally had enough of this nuisance in his life, finally murders her and disposes her body down a well. Because he represents such a valuable economic commodity to his white employers, they overlook the nuisance of a legal investigation that might relieve them of this commodity and turn a blind eye to the man’s crime.
“Sparrows”
Neither an African story nor science fiction, “Sparrows” is centered in a city café where the reaction of the diners to the sight of a group of sparrows eating table scraps thrown to the birds has the effect of the behavior of the sparrows become a metaphor for human behavior.
“The Habit of Loving”
George is an aging producer whose success in business is matched by failure in his personal life and develops the flu as a result of an aching heart. This results in his falling in love and marrying a younger nurse. While younger, the nurse is not exactly young; George is too old to fulfill her sexually but the 22 year old with whom she falls in love only brings her heartache. Both reveal the potential disappointment of waiting too long to love.
“Leopard George”
The title character enjoys his status as the eccentric guy who prefers an isolated life in the wild who quite uncharacteristically prohibits hunting on his property. As an alternative to the dominance of white landowners with no respect for the land, George is welcomed by the African natives. Until he sleeps with the wife of one of his father’s servants and she is attacked and killed by a leopard in the night on her way home. The guilt of this event transforms George into a great white hunter who eventually transforms into the very stereotype he had tried to avoid.
“The Eye of God in Paradise”
Another atmospheric story short on action and long on metaphor like “Sparrows.” Two British doctors married to each other go for holiday in the Alps. The storybook village is placed in juxtaposition with the oppressive presence of lingering reminders of its occupation by the Nazis.
“A Woman on a Roof”
Over the course of one unbearably hot week, three men of various ages are doing repair work on the roof of an apartment building. Meanwhile, on the roof a neighboring building is a beautiful young woman sunbathing in various modes of undress. Each day becomes something of a battle between the men to maneuver against the others as part of their own unique individual fantasies of what might possibly happen between them and the woman if certain conditions were met. And on the seventh day, the rain came and for the first time the woman was not on the other roof and all agree to finish the job by the end of the day.
“The Woman”
Somewhat similarly, “The Woman” is also about how men view women in ways completely at odds with the reality. In this case, the title character is a waitress overhearing two older men brag to each other about previous sexual conquests who grows increasingly contemptuous of them.
“The Day Stalin Died”
A viciously ironic story about the vagaries of history, infamy and celebrity taking the form of a mundane accounting of the kinds of everyday things that a person would recount in their diary at the end of a mundane day in which nothing very special happened. The death of notably infamous despot Stalin becomes just another casual event no different than what one has for lunch or the topic of a conversation in passing with a co-worker. The passive reaction of the protagonist, however, paradoxically represents a major transformative moment for her.
"Mrs. Fortescue"
A strange, almost-dreamlike story heavily infused with appropriately Freudian symbolism about a sixteen-year-old boy becoming a “man” through a sexual initiation with an unattractive older neighbor whom he learns is a prostitute followed by the perception of a newfound look of respect from his sister as aims a gun at her.
"An Old Woman and Her Cat"
A story that reminds readers that crazy old cat ladies don’t start out that way. The trajectory of the title character from social misfit to homeless outcast is charted as a way of illuminating the complex process of marginalization in society.
