y separately published work icon Kangaroo single work   novel  
First known date: 1923 Issue Details: First known date: 1923... 1923 Kangaroo
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Kangaroo, set in Australia, is D. H. Lawrence's eighth novel. He wrote the first draft in just forty-five days while living south of Sydney, in 1922, and revised it three months later in New Mexico. The descriptions of the country are among the most vivid and sympathetic ever penned, and the book fuses lightly disguised autobiography with an exploration of political ideas at an immensely personal level. His anxiety about the future of democracy, caught as it was in the turbulent cross currents of fascism and socialism, is only partly appeased by his vision of a new bond of comradeship between men based on their unique separateness. Lawrence's alter ego Richard Somers departs for America to continue his search.

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Kangaroo Evan Jones , ( dir. Tim Burstall ) Australia : Western Pacific Films Naked Country Productions , 1987 7871581 1987 single work film/TV

'Adapted from D.H. Lawrence's story of love, violence and political intrigue, based on his personal experiences in Australia in 1922. 'Kangaroo' - the code name of the charismatic leader of a secret fascist army - brings all his dark power to bear to seduce the writer into embracing his ideas, but the writer and his wife find strength in their love reawakened in the exotic southern land.'

Source: Screen Australia.

form y separately published work icon Kangaroo David Britton , United Kingdom (UK) : British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) , 2000 8145728 2000 single work radio play

'Set in Australia in 1922, Kangaroo tells the story of English writer Lovat and his wife, who arrive in Sydney in search of a new life.'

Source:

Radio Times, 2 March 2000, p.124.

Notes

  • Brief extract published in the Age, 6 February 1995, Student Upate, p.4.
  • First published in September 1923 in both New York and London.
  • For details of textual variations and variant endings see notes in the Cambridge edition 1994.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Thomas Seltzer ,
      1923 .
      Extent: 421p.
      Note/s:
      • Includes the author's later corrections; ending differs from English ed. 1923.
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Collins , 1989 .
      Extent: xii, 418p.p.
      Edition info: Corrected ed.
      Note/s:
      • Text follows the corrected edition published by Seltzer 1923.
      • Foreword by Raymond Southall.
      ISBN: 0732225736 (pbk.)
    • Potts Point, Kings Cross area, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: ETT Imprint , 1995 .
      Extent: xii, 418p.p.
      Edition info: Corrected ed.
      Description: illus.
      Note/s:
      • Text follows the corrected edition published by Seltzer 1923.
      • Foreword by Raymond Southall.
      ISBN: 1875892141 (pbk.)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Martin Secker ,
      1923 .
      Extent: 402p.
      Note/s:
      • Does not include the author's later corrections; They were included in the Seltzer edition. Ending differs from American edition.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Melbourne, Victoria,: Heinemann ,
      1955 .
      Extent: x, 367 p.p.
      Reprinted: 1960
      Note/s:
      • Introduction by Richard Aldington.
      • Phoenix edition of D.H. Lawrence
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Heinemann , 1963 .
      Extent: 401p.
      Note/s:
      • Critical notes by James Gribble.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Heron Books ,
      1969 .
      Extent: x, 366 p.p.
      Description: illus.
      Note/s:
      • Introduction by Richard Aldington; original illustrations by by Michael Jackson.
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 7360269952056969409.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 496p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 29 October 2018.

      ISBN: 9781925773187
      Series: y separately published work icon Text Classics Text Publishing (publisher), Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012- Z1851461 2012 series - publisher novel 'Great books by great Australian storytellers.' (Text website.)

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

Friday Essay: Kangaroos and Kindred Spirits – D.H. Lawrence, Garry Shead and Catching the Flame of Creativity Luke Johnson , 2024 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 7 June 2024;

'In 1922, self-exiled English novelist D.H. Lawrence arrived on Australian shores with his German wife Frieda. Travelling by steamboat from Italy to New Mexico via Sri Lanka, the pair disembarked in Sydney to spend a bit of time rediscovering their land legs. Lawrence was already a well-known writer by this point, with works such as Sons and Lovers and The Rainbow having been published in the decade before. However, this is to say little of his and Frieda’s financial situation.'  (Introduction)

Literary Visitors and the Australian Novel Brendan Casey , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel 2023; (p. 39-53)

'From early Australian writers such as Henry Savery and Barron Field through to modernist luminaries such as D. H. Lawrence and contemporary refugee writers such as Behrouz Boochani, authors who have had only a temporary, contingent, or ephemeral relationship to Australia have been a major feature of Australian literary history. This chapter surveys these writers, showing how they pose perennial problems for the institutionalization of Australian literary studies.' (Publication abstract)

Somewhere South Geoffrey Sykes , 2022 single work drama

Covers the period that D.H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda spent in Australia.

In 'The Far-Off Afterwards : D. H. Lawrence's Kangaroo at 100 William Holbrook , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Arena Quarterly , Summer no. 12 2022; (p. 70-73)
'1922 saw the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland and Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room. But in the same year, far from the famous Anglo-Euro-American sites of literary modernism in its annus mirabilis, the emblematically countermodern modernist D. H. Lawrence was in Australia. It was, he thought, ‘the most democratic place [he had] ever seen’—and ‘the more [he saw] of democracy the more [he] dislik[ed] it’. This extreme political reaction resulted in a novel: spending most of his six weeks in Australia in the seaside town of Thirroul, just north of Wollongong, Lawrence wrote a long book called Kangaroo and published it early the following year. It is a strange, somewhat autofictional, almost plotless work, and for a long time was only taken seriously for its mesmeric descriptions of Australian nature, with justly anthologised paragraphs about yellow wattle (‘as if angels had flown right down out of the softest gold regions of heaven to settle here’) or shark fins (‘like small, hard sails of hell boats’). But on the occasion of its centenary the novel ought to be read as well at the level of ideas. The book, in fact, sums up to being one of the most compelling and prognostic critiques ever made of democracy in Australia, and for that reason alone it should not be allowed to drop out of the memory of those of us uneasy with the defaulty democratic status quo.' (Introduction)
Sojourner Experiment : D. H. Lawrence's Kangaroo and Georges Perec's '53 Days' Philip Mead , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: I’m Listening Like the Orange Tree : In Memory of Laurie Hergenhan 2021; (p. 111-126)
Two Sides to the Story : Against Mindy Laube , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6-7 January 2007; (p. 32)

— Review of Kangaroo D. H. Lawrence , 1923 single work novel
Two Sides to the Story : For Matthew Thompson , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6-7 January 2007; (p. 32)

— Review of Kangaroo D. H. Lawrence , 1923 single work novel
Made in Heaven Frank Kermode , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: London Review of Books , 10 November vol. 16 no. 21 1994; (p. 24-25)

— Review of Kangaroo D. H. Lawrence , 1923 single work novel
Lawrence's Works Gain from Local Connection Christopher Pollnitz , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 1 March 1995; (p. 28)

— Review of Kangaroo D. H. Lawrence , 1923 single work novel
Untitled Frances Devlin-Glass , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , March no. 44 1995; (p. 103-104)

— Review of Kangaroo D. H. Lawrence , 1923 single work novel
The Dutch-Australian Connection : Willem Siebenhaar, D. H. Lawrence, Max Havelaar and Kangaroo Paul Eggert , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 21 no. 1 2003; (p. 3-19)
This thoroughly researched article traces the life and work of Dutch-born left-wing activist, theosophist, scholar and poet Willem Siebenhaar who moved to Western Australia in 1891, and his connection with D. H. Lawrence, whom he met in 1922 and who helped him secure publication for a translation of Multatuli's Max Havelaar. Drawing on archival material such as Siebenhaar's correspondence, and on the letters of Lawrence, the article provides evidence not only of Siebenhaar's socialist (and at the time rather unpopular) ideas and attitudes, but also of the effects some of these had on Lawrence who put his acquaintance with Siebenhaar to creative use in writing his 'Australian' novel Kangaroo, particularly with regard to the fictional character Willie Struthers.
The Evolving Literature of Australian Exploration Paul Genoni , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Subverting the Empire : Explorers and Exploration in Australian Fiction 2004; (p. 71-96)
The Passing of Dead Dog Nettie Palmer , 1934 single work essay
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 21 November vol. 55 no. 2858 1934; (p. 2, 5)
Discusses the contrasting views of the Australian landscape presented by these writers.
The Fox and Kangaroo: 'Non-Human Human Being' Jeff Wallace , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: D. H. Lawrence, Science and the Posthuman 2005; (p. 141-146)
Wallace argues that in The Fox (1923) and Kangaroo (1923) 'the human being is an animal. He discusses the meaning of this equivalence by examining the differences suggested through the narrative form of the two works.
Aaron's Rod, Kangaroo, The Plumed Serpent: Anti-Capitalism and the Post-Humanistic Jeff Wallace , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: D. H. Lawrence, Science and the Posthuman 2005; (p. 218-227)
Wallace collectively views three of Lawrence's 1920s novels: Aaron's Rod, Kangaroo and The Plumed Serpent. He suggests that they 'represent a departure or leave-taking from the illusionist conventions of the realist novel to which, despite marked stylistic-modernistic idiosynracies, Lawrence's earlier fiction had adhered ... In each case the exiled, nomadic protagonist finds in an alternative culture - Italy, Australia, Mexico - a context in which to cease to care about conventional human values, to lapse into a state of isolation or, in the key word of Kangaroo, "indifference".'
Last amended 14 Feb 2019 16:18:36
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