y separately published work icon The Langton Tetralogy series - author   novel  
Alternative title: Langton Quartet
Issue Details: First known date: 1952-1962... 1952-1962 The Langton Tetralogy
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Notes

  • Although not published as a series in Boyd's lifetime, the series of novels is now referred to as the Langton tetralogy (Oxford Companion to Australian Literature).

Includes

y separately published work icon A Difficult Young Man Martin Boyd , London : Cresset Press , 1955 Z500015 1955 single work novel (taught in 2 units)

' Handsome, proud, reprehensible, misunderstood. Dominic Langton is the dark heart of A Difficult Young Man. His brother Guy can scarcely understand where he fits into the pattern of things or what he might do next. Martin Boyd’s much loved novel is an elegant, witty and compelling family tale about the contradictions of growing up.' (Publication summary)

y separately published work icon When Blackbirds Sing Martin Boyd , London : Abelard-Schuman , 1962 Z501058 1962 single work novel war literature

'At the outbreak of World War I, Dominic Langton leaves his wife on a remote sheep farm in New South Wales to enlist in the British Army. What he experiences in the trenches changes him forever; his return home sees him cast off his past and find his own integrity. He has seen the true nature of war–the senseless waste of life, the millions of young men condemned to pointless slaughter–and has emerged a wiser, but troubled, man.

'When Blackbirds Sing is a masterful recreation of the vanished world of 1914, and a moving and powerful testament to the devastation of war. In this final instalment of Martin Boyd's celebrated Langton Quartet, Boyd confirms his reputation as one of the most outstanding novelists Australia has ever produced. ' (Publication summary)

y separately published work icon Outbreak of Love Martin Boyd , London : John Murray , 1957 Z501269 1957 single work novel

'Our minds are like those maps at the entrance to the Metro stations in Paris. They are full of unilluminated directions. But when we know where we want to go and press the right button, the route is illuminated before us in electric clarity.

Diana von Flugel warned her husband: a piece of toast that hard could break a tooth. When Diana goes to Melbourne to have the tooth fixed, Wolfie is far too concerned with finding inspiration for his musical compositions to realise the chain of events he has just set in motion. On Collins Street, Russell Lockwood catches a glimpse of his childhood friend and knows at once that she is a rare woman…

Now Diana and Wolfie’s marriage is under threat, the Great War is approaching, and no one quite knows where their hearts belong. First published in 1957, the third novel in Martin Boyd’s celebrated Langton Quartet is a beguiling comedy of manners about the outbreak of love in inconvenient places. ' (Publisher's blurb)

y separately published work icon The Cardboard Crown Martin Boyd , London : Cresset Press , 1952 Z501486 1952 single work novel (taught in 1 units) Dominic Langton dies, leaving the family home to his brother, Guy Langton. There, Guy's discovery of letters written by his grandmother, Alice, provokes him to tell his family's history, with Alice as the central figure, in a novel. As a writer, he sets himself the task of discovering, narrating, and creating from the remnants of the past. (Source: Sydney University Press)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

      London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      1952-1962 .

Works about this Work

It's Absurd that Our Best Books Are Not Made into Films Peter Craven , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 21 January 2013; (p. 11)
Museum Mentality Who Killed Australian Literature? Geordie Williamson , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 October 2012; (p. 8-9)
Gentlefolk Errant : The Family Writings of Martin Boyd John McLaren , 1972 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 5 no. 4 1972; (p. 339-351)
Discusses the importance of family in Boyd's life and work, arguing that for Boyd family is more important than place or nationality: 'it is family which gives significance to particular places, and one of the recurring themes of [Boyd's] writing is the loss of identity which follows the destruction of long family associations. His family novels, and his autobiography, chronicle the quest of his characters for an identity which they instinctively place in the imagined harmony of the past' (339).
Museum Mentality Who Killed Australian Literature? Geordie Williamson , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 October 2012; (p. 8-9)
It's Absurd that Our Best Books Are Not Made into Films Peter Craven , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 21 January 2013; (p. 11)
Gentlefolk Errant : The Family Writings of Martin Boyd John McLaren , 1972 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 5 no. 4 1972; (p. 339-351)
Discusses the importance of family in Boyd's life and work, arguing that for Boyd family is more important than place or nationality: 'it is family which gives significance to particular places, and one of the recurring themes of [Boyd's] writing is the loss of identity which follows the destruction of long family associations. His family novels, and his autobiography, chronicle the quest of his characters for an identity which they instinctively place in the imagined harmony of the past' (339).
Last amended 6 Feb 2012 13:04:13
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X