There are 5 books in the Children of Violence series. The newest book is The Four-Gated City which came out in 1969.

The first book in the "Children of Violence" series, a quintet of novels tracing the life of Martha Quest from her childhood in colonial Africa through to old age in a post-nuclear Britain. The other novels are "A Proper Marriage", "A Ripple from the Storm", "Landlocked" and "The Four-Gated City".
When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

2
A Proper Marriage

Book cover of A Proper Marriage

"A totally modern work. Martha Quest is, above all, ironically percieved by the author in whose hands irony is an instrument of compassion." — New Republic

An unconventional woman trapped in a conventional marriage, Martha Quest struggles to maintain her dignity and her sanity through the misunderstandings, frustrations, infidelities, and…

3
A Ripple From the Storm

Book cover of A Ripple From the Storm

"Doris Lessing, of all the postwar English novelists, is the foremost creative descendant of that great tradition' which includes George Eliot and D. H. Lawrence."  — New York Times Book Review

Martha Quest, the embodied heroine of the Children of Violence series, has been acclaimed as one of the greatest…

4
Landlocked

Book cover of Landlocked

"Doris Lessing is the Cassandra of the documentary novel...crying for something harshly denied to our age: a longing for magic, for the irrational. Her concern for life, her independence of judgment and her gift for diagnosing our hydra-headed social ills is extraordinary." — The Observer

In the aftermath of World…

5
The Four-Gated City

The Four-Gated City

The fifth and final book in the Nobel Prize for Literature winner's 'Children of Violence' series tracing the life of Martha Quest from her childhood in colonial Africa to old age in post-nuclear Britain.

'The Four-Gated City' finds Martha Quest in 1950s London and very much part of the social…