Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
Before you go...
Check Out
The Bestselling Books of All Time
See the List

Briefing for a Descent Into Hell

A Psychological Thriller

By Doris Lessing

By Doris Lessing

By Doris Lessing

By Doris Lessing

By Doris Lessing

By Doris Lessing

Best Seller

Part of Vintage International

Part of Vintage International

Part of Vintage International

Paperback $16.95

Jul 14, 2009 | ISBN 9780307390615

Mass Market Paperback $13.95

Apr 12, 1981 | ISBN 9781400077267 *This format is not eligible to earn points towards the Reader Rewards program

Ebook $7.99

Nov 17, 2010 | ISBN 9780307777638

All Formats
+
    Briefing for a Descent Into Hell by Doris Lessing
    Paperback $16.95
    Jul 14, 2009 | ISBN 9780307390615

    Also available from:

    See All Formats (2) +

    Paperback (2)
    –

    • Paperback $16.95

      Jul 14, 2009 | ISBN 9780307390615

      Also available from:

    • Mass Market Paperback $13.95

      Apr 12, 1981 | ISBN 9781400077267

      Also available from:

      *This format is not eligible to earn points towards the Reader Rewards program

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook

      Nov 17, 2010 | ISBN 9780307777638

      Available from:

    Buy the Ebook:

    About Briefing for a Descent Into Hell

    In this ambitious novel of madness and release, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Doris Lessing imagines the fantastical "inner-space" life of an amnesiac.Charles Watkins, a Professor of Classics at Cambridge University, has suffered a breakdown, confined to a mental hospital as his friends and doctors attempt to bring him back to reality. But Watkins has embarked on a tremendous pyschological adventure that takes him from a spinning raft in the Atlantic to a ruined stone city on a tropical island to an outer-space journey through singing planets. As he travels in his mind through memory and the farther reaches of imagination, his doctors try to subdue him with ever more powerful drugs in a competition for his soul. In this provocative novel, Lessing takes us on a harrowing voyage into the rarely glimpsed territory of the inner mind.

    About Briefing for a Descent Into Hell

    A fascinating look inside the mind of a man who is supposedly “mad.” Professor Charles Watkins of Cambridge University is a patient at a mental hospital where the doctors try with increasing drugs to bring his mind under control. But Watkins has embarked on a tremendous psychological adventure where, after spinning endlessly on a raft in the Atlantic, he lands on a tropical island inhabited by strange creatures with strange customs. Later, he is carried off on a cosmic journey into space…

    About Briefing for a Descent Into Hell

    A fascinating look inside the mind of a man who is supposedly "mad."

    Read An Excerpt

    About Doris Lessing

    Doris Lessing was born of British parents in Persia, in 1919, and moved with her family to southern Rhodesia when she was five years old. She went to England in 1949 and has lived there ever since. She is the… More about Doris Lessing

    About Doris Lessing

    Doris Lessing was born of British parents in Persia, in 1919, and moved with her family to southern Rhodesia when she was five years old. She went to England in 1949 and has lived there ever since. She is the… More about Doris Lessing

    About Doris Lessing

    Doris Lessing was born of British parents in Persia, in 1919, and moved with her family to southern Rhodesia when she was five years old. She went to England in 1949 and has lived there ever since. She is the… More about Doris Lessing

    Product Details

    Category: Suspense & Thriller | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $16.95
    Published by Vintage
    Jul 14, 2009 | 320 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780307390615

    Category: Suspense & Thriller | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Literary Fiction

    Mass Market Paperback | $13.95
    Published by Vintage
    Apr 12, 1981 | 288 Pages | 4-3/16 x 6-7/8 | ISBN 9781400077267

    Category: Suspense & Thriller | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $7.99
    Published by Vintage
    Nov 17, 2010 | 288 Pages | ISBN 9780307777638

    Inspired by Your Browsing History

    Also in

    ‹ ›
    The Bad Seed
    The Bad Seed
    William March
    The Best of Richard Matheson
    The Best of Richard Matheson
    Richard Matheson
    Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone
    Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone
    Stefan Kiesbye
    The Devil in Silver
    The Devil in Silver
    Victor LaValle
    Ring
    Ring
    Koji Suzuki
    The Case Against Satan
    The Case Against Satan
    Ray Russell
    LOAC Essentials Volume 13: Charlie Chan, 1938
    LOAC Essentials Volume 13: Charlie Chan, 1938
    Alfred Andriola
    Ancestor
    Ancestor
    Scott Sigler
    The Rim of Morning
    The Rim of Morning
    William Sloane
    The Big Book of Ghost Stories
    The Big Book of Ghost Stories
    Otto Penzler
    Those Across the River
    Those Across the River
    Christopher Buehlman
    The Epiphany Machine
    The Epiphany Machine
    David Burr Gerrard
    Children of the Corn
    Children of the Corn
    Stephen King
    Sorry Please Thank You
    Sorry Please Thank You
    Charles Yu
    Interior Darkness
    Interior Darkness
    Peter Straub
    Lullaby
    Lullaby
    Chuck Palahniuk
    Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
    Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
    Thomas Ligotti
    How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
    How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
    Charles Yu
    After On
    After On
    Rob Reid
    This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us
    This Body’s Not Big Enough for Both of Us
    Edgar Cantero
    The Ruins
    The Ruins
    Scott Smith
    The Bird's Nest
    The Bird’s Nest
    Shirley Jackson
    Atlas Alone
    Atlas Alone
    Emma Newman
    From Hell
    From Hell
    Alan Moore
    The Salt Line
    The Salt Line
    Holly Goddard Jones
    Just an Ordinary Day
    Just an Ordinary Day
    Shirley Jackson
    American Gothic Tales
    American Gothic Tales
    Various
    The End of the World
    The End of the World
    Don Hertzfeldt
    World of Trouble
    World of Trouble
    Ben H. Winters
    The Familiar, Volume 1
    The Familiar, Volume 1
    Mark Z. Danielewski
    The Gone-Away World
    The Gone-Away World
    Nick Harkaway
    A Good and Happy Child
    A Good and Happy Child
    Justin Evans

    Praise

    "Touching and beautiful." —The New York Review of Books"A brilliant and untamed image of the possibilities that may still constitute man’s destiny." —Time"An excursion into private consciousness . . . ending up in the darkest reaches of the unconscious at its most primitive." —The Washington Post Book World

    Awards

    Nobel Prize WINNER 2007

    Man Booker Prize FINALIST 1970

    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read
    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook
    The eBooks you want at the lowest prices

    LitFlash

    The eBooks you want at the lowest prices
    Read it first. Pass it on!

    Read it Forward

    Read it first. Pass it on!