Overview

Introduced by Brenda Niall This remarkable novel, first published to a chorus of acclaim in 1952, is one of the lost classics of Australian literature. Martin Boyd is a deeply humane novelist, a writer of family sagas without peer. Set in Australia and England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, The Cardboard Crown presents an unforgettable portrait of an upper middle-class family who love both countries but are not quite at home in either. At the centre of this scintillating and immensely readable novel is Alice Verso, whose unexpected marriage to Austin Langton not only brings financial stability to the Langtons but founds an Anglo-Australian dynasty. But when her grandson finds her diaries and begins to uncover her story he chances on an intricate web of deception and reveals the complex fate of his family over three generations. Features an introduction by one of Australia's best-known and award-winning biographers, Brenda Niall.

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9781922079411

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Reviews

'A rueful, cheerfully savage novel...lit with unearthly fires and enchantments.' * New York Times * 'The grace and wit of his best writing, the subtlety with which he captures social nuances, and his placing of intimate family dramas against a broader social background, make Boyd quite individual as an Australian novelist.' * Australian * 'A spirited and highly accomplished novel, done with the most engaging liveliness and intelligence.' * Times *

'A spirited and highly accomplished novel, done with the most engaging liveliness and intelligence.' Times 'A rueful, cheerfully savage novel...lit with unearthly fires and enchantments.' New York Times 'The grace and wit of his best writing, the subtlety with which he captures social nuances, and his placing of intimate family dramas against a broader social background, make Boyd quite individual as an Australian novelist.' Australian

Author Information

Martin Boyd was born in Switzerland in 1893 of Anglo-Australian parents. At six months he was brought to Australia, where the Boyd family made impressive contributions to the artistic and intellectual life. At the outbreak of the first world war he travelled to England and joined an English regiment and later the Royal Flying Corps. In 1948, at the height of his literary success, he returned to Australia to make a home near Berwick but lived the last 15 years of his life in Rome (1957-1972). Most of his novels maintain an Anglo-Australian theme. Martin Boyd moved to Rome in 1957 and lived there till his death in 1972.

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