First published in 1923, Kangaroo is D. H. Lawrence's political novel set in postwar Australia, exploring nationalism, leadership, and the fragile psychology of modern democracy.
Written during Lawrence's stay in Australia, the novel follows Richard Lovat Somers, an English writer newly arrived in Sydney, who becomes entangled in competing political movements amid the unsettled atmosphere following the First World War. Somers is courted by a charismatic nationalist leader known as "Kangaroo," whose vision of strong authority and communal unity appeals to those disillusioned by parliamentary democracy. Yet beneath the rhetoric lies a deeper examination of power, loyalty, masculinity, and the psychological tensions of exile.
Kangaroo stands apart within Lawrence's body of work for its overt engagement with political ideology. While retaining the emotional intensity and introspective depth characteristic of Lawrence's fiction, the novel interrogates authoritarian temptation, individual freedom, and the spiritual dislocation of the modern world. It also offers a vivid portrait of 1920s Australia-its landscapes, social currents, and emerging national identity.
This Wilder Publications edition presents the complete, unabridged 1923 text, restoring Lawrence's complex and often controversial meditation on politics and the self.
"One of the sharpest fictional visions of the country [Australia] and its people".--Gideon Haigh
