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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Long before the post-WWII migration, over one hundred Australian writers left their homeland to seek fame and fortune in London. Some made little mark despite their arduous efforts; some made a tolerable living; a few, like Martin Boyd, H.H. Richardson and Christina Stead, actually achieved permanent fame. Lusting for London analyses how these writers reacted to their new surroundings—in both their autobiographical writings and their creative work. With wit and rigor, Peter Morton studies the expatriate experience and reveals the ways in which the loss of these expatriates affected the evolving literary culture of Australia' (Publisher blurb).
Contents: Issues of Definition and Evidence; Sailing for El Dorado: Going Home in the Literary Imagination; A Gout of Bile: Metic and Immigrant Expatriates; The Aroma of the Past: in Antipodean London; Drawing off the Rich Cream: The Struggle in London; Who Are You? No One: The Hacking Journalist in London; The Dear Old Mother Country: Richardson's The Way Home and Stead's For Love Alone; Always the Feeling of Australia in the Air: Martin Boyd's Lucinda Brayford; A Leaven of Venturesome Minds: Literary Expatriates and Australian Culture; No More Pap from the Teats of London: From Expatriation toTtransnationalism; Conclusion: A Padded Cell in Wagga Wagga.
Notes
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Dedication: This book is for Heather, again.
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Epigraph: It was almost an insane lust, this lust to get to England...They were all going, going to England...all, except me.
-Philip Lindsay, I'd Live the Same Life Over (1941)
Contents
- Introduction : Issues of Definition and Evidence, single work criticism (p. 2-13)
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Sailing for Eldorado : Going Home in the Literary Imagination,
single work
criticism
'In the year 1900, at the age of thirty-three, Henry Lawson was riding high. His collections of ballads and stories, In the Days When the World Was Wide and While the Billy Boils, were read in city and bush by the educated and uneducated alike. In the nationalistic mood that prevailed during most of the 1890s, he was regarded by nearly everyone as the first truly distinctive voice of his native land. Yet, on April 20 of that year, this truly famous man took ship with his wife and two small children, with a one-way ticket to England. He was seen off by a group of Sydney novelists, poets, and journalists, none of whom thought it especially odd that their compatriot should wish to continue his career half a world away. In fact many shared his ambition, and some would go on to realize it for themselves.' (15)
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A Gout of Bile : Metic and Immigrant Expatriates,
single work
criticism
'In the unpublished novel by the young Philip Lindsay, The Mangle...there is a fine scene when the character Ronnie Doebrook is leaving for England. He does not expect ever to return. As his liner pulls away from the Sydney dockside, Ronnie picks up one of the yellow paper streamers dangling over the rail, raises it to his lips, and pretends to send a gout of bile spurting over his receding friends and relatives. It is his parting comment on his birthplace. He is realizing his wish. Already he has become - what? An emigrant? An exile? Or an expatirate?' (Author's introduction 36)
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The Aroma of the Past : In Antipodean London,
single work
criticism
'Representations of London in Australia have been mediated for so long by books, newspapers, magazines and, eventually, by film and television, that new arrivals tended to read it as a dictionary of quotations. It has been well said that, above all cities, London is not just 'a place'; it also 'takes place' as it is defined and redefined in the countless versions of it over 800 years or more. And the bounds between the physical city and its imaginative reworkings between presence and association, are indefinite and permeable. Nowhere was this more true than in the Australia of this era... ' (From author's introduction 58)
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Drawing off the Rich Cream : The Struggle in London,
single work
criticism
'The rich cream of Miles Franklin's simile on some cases maintained its sweetly luscious quality in England, but in others it turned out to be just skim milk after all, or else the vinegary life of the metropolis soon curdled it. Franklin herself knew this very well. She found no real literary success herself in London, and permits the authorial voice in Cockatoos (speaking from her own experience) to strike a conspiratorial note, with a warning of a deliberate censoring of bad news from the capital. "The facts about those who starved in the Big Smoke until the hat went round to generous compatriots to send them home," says the narrator darkly, " were not in the Sydney newspapers and did not weigh against successes." Perhaps so, but there was always room in the newspapers for yet another report on that most acceptable and uplifting trajectory of the expatriate: the longing to leave, the confused arrival, the temporary disillusionment, the struggle, the slowly rising fortunes, the moderate or great success: in short, the good news that the game plan had worked. The fewer the initial prospects, the more unlikely the ascent, the more the stay-at-homes were eager for details.' (Authors introduction 91-92)
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Who are You? No One : The Hacking Journalist in London,
single work
criticism
‘In 1909 the English journalist Philip Gibbs was in his early thirties and had already known both failure and success. That year he published a semiautobiographical novel, The Street of Adventure, drawing on his varied experiences. It was an immediate bestseller. The street of the title is Fleet Street. Shy, diffident Frank Luttrell has tried school-teaching after Oxford but he is bored. He determines to try the life of a freelance journalist in London. His friend is horrified…’ (From author’s introduction 111)
- The Dear Old Mother Country : Richardson's the Way Home and Stead's For Love Alone, single work criticism (p. 133-163)
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Always the Feeling of Australia in the Air : Martin Boyd's Lucinda Brayford,
single work
criticism
‘”My inner division, if I have one, is the age-long one of the European, between Mediterranean and the north.” With this uncompromising sentence the novelist Martin Boyd (1893-1972) elided Australia from his own history. He repudiated the assumption that expatriation was significant to him because, quite simply, it was not his condition. We note Boyd’s personal geographical orientation. He sees the “division” entirely from the perspective of a European. Australians, it implies, may have issues of identity, but deciding whether their spiritual homeland is north or south of the Alps cannot be one of them.’ (Author’s introduction 165)
- A Leaven of Venturesome Minds : Literary Expatriates and Australian Culture, single work criticism (p. 187-211)
- No More Pap From the Teats of London : From Expatiation to Transnationalism, single work criticism (p. 213-229)
- Conclusion : In a Padded Cell in Wagga Wagga, single work criticism (p. 231-246)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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[Untitled]
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 5 no. 2 2013;
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism -
Untitled
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Reviews in Australian Studies , vol. 6 no. 3 2012;
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism -
Life in Dingo Dell
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 342 2012; (p. 43-44)
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism -
London's Literary Lure
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 19 May 2012; (p. 25)
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism -
Siren Song of London Calling
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 19-20 May 2012; (p. 20)
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism
-
Siren Song of London Calling
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 19-20 May 2012; (p. 20)
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism -
London's Literary Lure
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 19 May 2012; (p. 25)
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism -
Life in Dingo Dell
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 342 2012; (p. 43-44)
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism -
Untitled
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Reviews in Australian Studies , vol. 6 no. 3 2012;
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism -
[Untitled]
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 5 no. 2 2013;
— Review of Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011 single work criticism -
Conclusion : In a Padded Cell in Wagga Wagga
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011; (p. 231-246)
- The Way Home: Being the Second Part of the Chronicle of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony 1925 single work novel
- Lucinda Brayford 1946 single work novel
- For Love Alone 1944 single work novel
- 1870-1950