Dearest Idol (1929) is a novel by Australian writer Martin Boyd. It was published under the author's pseudonym "Walter Beckett".[1]
 | |
| Author | Martin Boyd |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Bobbs-Merrill, Indiana, USA |
Publication date | 1929 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 284 pp |
| Preceded by | The Madeleine Heritage |
| Followed by | Scandal of Spring |
Story outline
editThe novel is set in Europe and follows the story of a 19-year-old boy named Tony Dawson (called "Boysie" by his by Aunt Matilda). Tony and Matilda have moved to London, and Tony has left school and gone to work in a well-known bank. While working there he meets Boris and the novel explores the friendship that develops between them.
Critical reception
editIn her PhD thesis titled "Deconstructing Martin Boyd : Homosocial Desire and the Transgressive Aesthetic",[2] Jenny Blain notes in her introduction that "the novel's predominant focus [is] on narcissism, egoism and homosexual possibility. Tony is a monster of vanity and self-love; he also has an infantile fixation on adulation and power."[3]
Notes
editMartin Boyd was not acknowledged as the author of this book until this was unearthed in 1977 by Brenda Niall of Monash University and Terence O'Neill of Melbourne University.[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Austlit - Dearest Idol by Martin Boyd
- ^ "Deconstructing Martin Boyd : Homosocial Desire and the Transgressive Aesthetic" by Jenny Blain, University of Sydney, Department of English, 1998
- ^ "Introduction : A wilful obliteration?" by Jenny Blain, University of Sydney, Department of English, 1998, p166
- ^ "Scholars find a lost Boyd novel", Monash Reporter, 4 October 1977