Kangaroo (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence) [Hardcover]

D. H. Lawrence (Author), Bruce Steele (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521384559 | ISBN-13: 978-0521384551 | Publication Date: August 29, 1994 | Edition: New edition

Kangaroo is D. H. Lawrence's eighth novel, set in Australia. 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 vivid and sympathetic and the book fuses lightly disguised autobiography with an exploration of political ideas at an immensely personal level. Based on a collation of the manuscript, typescripts and first editions, this text of Kangaroo is closest to what Lawrence would have expected to see in print. There is a full textual apparatus of variants, a comprehensive introduction giving the background and history of composition and publication and a summary of contemporary reviewers' opinions. Explanatory notes elucidate the many geographical, political and literary allusions in the text; there are three maps and an appendix detailing Australian locations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Presented in high editorial style." Frank Kermode, London Review of Books

Book Description

A critical edition of Kangaroo, D. H. Lawrence's eighth novel, set in Australia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 549 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; New edition edition (August 29, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521384559
• ISBN-13: 978-0521384551
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,997,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful perceptive and complex insight into Australia, April 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Kangaroo (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) (Paperback)

Tnis was the book that made me realize just how clever Lawrence was. His spiritual and analytical insight into the nature of a bastardized and inconquerable continent is just breathtaking, and it truly is a work of a supremely sensitive and perceptive individual.

Lawrence explores such depths that there are sometimes sinister truths and realizations that erupts from Lawrences mind, in the guise of the main character. This is a haunting and sad book, that pulls your mind completely into the wonder of Lawrences intellectual capacity and genius for seeing the imperciptible, where so many fail to. I love you Lorenzo, thank goodness for your genius.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Difficult introduction, January 10, 2002

By 

Andrew Miller (Dublin Ireland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kangaroo (Paperback)

I have just finished reading this book and to be honest I found it quite tough going. Recommended to me by an academic of Lawrence's work, he had to concede afterwards that perhaps it wasn't the ideal introduction to a new reader. What this story lacks mostly is a good old fashioned yarn, but instead seems to be a vehicle for the author to convey many of his thoughts on relationships between men and men, men and women and politics in general.

I can't be too specific on the authors ideas as I freely admit that much of this went "in one ear and out the other" as I frequently found after reading certain paragraphs I was left thinking "I have no idea what he was just talking about". Concentration therefore was fundamental to enjoying this book, and on the few occasions when I was truely focussed and emmersed, some of the ideas were interesting and rewarding.

This is a semi autobiographical account of Lawrence's own experiences in Australia, but strangly I found the most interesting part of the book was the "Nightmare" chapter, dedicated to the character's account of being in England during World War One. This too, mirrors the authors own experiences during this turbulent time.

Maybe I should go for the better known novels next time...

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars D. H. Lawrence scholar satisfied, June 29, 2009

By 

D. H. Lawrence maven - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kangaroo (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence) (Paperback)

Book was as advertised and arrived promptly. I only wish it had been a bit cheaper.