Ben, in the World
2000 novel by Doris Lessing
Ben, in the World is a novel written by Doris Lessing, published in 2000, in which she stages a parody of the 'objectivity' of the narrator's voice. The story delves into the life of Ben Lovatt following the events of the first book dedicated to this character, The Fifth Child.
Plot summary
Ben, in the World takes place a number of years after the events in The Fifth Child.
In the beginning of Ben, in the World, Ben Lovatt is 18 years old and living with an elderly lady named Mrs. Biggs. However, she cannot afford to support both of them, and sends Ben to his estranged family to ask for his birth certificate so that he can get unemployment benefit. By the time Ben returns (without the birth certificate), Mrs. Biggs has been hospitalised. She returns home but needs to be nursed by Ben, but they cannot survive for long on her pension alone. He leaves to find somewhere else to stay.
The public source identifies “Ben, in the World” as 2000 novel by Doris Lessing. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around World, novel and Doris.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11820619. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ben, in the World” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.