Dearest Idol (1929) is a novel by Australian writer Martin Boyd. It was published under the author's pseudonym "Walter Beckett".Austlit - Dearest Idol by Martin Boyd
Story outline The 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 In her PhD thesis titled "Deconstructing Martin Boyd : Homosocial Desire and the Transgressive Aesthetic","Deconstructing Martin Boyd : Homosocial Desire and the Transgressive Aesthetic" by Jenny Blain, University of Sydney, Department of English, 1998 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.""Introduction : A wilful obliteration?" by Jenny Blain, University of Sydney, Department of English, 1998, p166
See also 1929 in Australian literature
Notes Martin 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."Scholars find a lost Boyd novel", Monash Reporter, 4 October 1977
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