Awards

• Winner of Australian Literature Society Gold Medal 1937 (Australia)
• Winner of Australian Literature Society Gold Medal 1937.

Overview

In the late afternoon of a day in February, that hottestof Australian summer months, when a brutal sun stoodbronze above the river flats which you may see fromthe dormitory windows of Chatterton, Charles came to the school with his mother, walking from the railway stationto the gates by a private path across a burnt, untidy field,overhung with Cape lilacs that still drooped, dusty andmelancholy...In the lower part of his belly fear kicked and pulsed like a child in the womb, ready to be born. Fifteen-year-old Charles Fox is sent away to boarding school, innocent, alone and afraid. There one of his masters develops an intense attachment to him. But when Charles meetsMargaret,a girl staying at a nearby farm for the holidays, he is besotted, and a passionate, unforgettable romance begins. Published in London in 1937 to wide acclaim,The Young DesireItis a stunning debut novel about coming of age- an intimate and lyrical account of first love, anda rich evocation of rural Western Australia.Itwon theAustralian Literature SocietyGold Medal, and is nowback in print as a Text Classic with a new introduction by David Malouf. 'A hymn to youth, to life, to sexual freedom and moral independence.' - David Malouf 'A book to set beside James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man...The best novel I've read in a long, long time...One of the great stories of first love...Why isn't this stunning novel famous?' - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

Full Product Details

9781925355352

Table of Contents

Reviews

'The Young Desire It is a revelation: a coming-of-age novel from 1937 that deserves a place alongside the classics in this genre. It's a feverish, fascinating, and surprising look into the mind of an adolescent discovering a sense of self in his quest for love. It's also a remarkably nuanced and moving portrait of the struggles of those around him to come to terms with their own lives and longings.' -- Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club 'A book to set beside James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man...The best novel I've read in a long, long time...One of the great stories of first love...Why isn't this stunning novel famous?' -- Michael Dirda Washington Post 'A hymn to youth, to life, to sexual freedom and moral independence.' -- David Malouf 'A beautifully written story of a sensitive boy's movement towards adult love.' Sydney Morning Herald 'Mackenzie's prose is at its most sparkling and most sensuous in this novel, and he evokes the hot Western Australian landscape with rare force...[The Young Desire It] is a pastoral charged with the awakening of desire, like spring.' Douglas Stewart 'The Young Desire It is an extraordinary novel, dazzling in its texture, wholly original in its vision, and heartbreaking in the power and freshness of the story it tells.' -- Peter Craven Australian Book Review 'The Young Desire It is one of the most brilliant, confident and unusual instances of a Bildungsroman in Australian literature.' -- Peter Pierce Sydney Review of Books 'Sensitive, vital and erotic.' -- Veronica Brady Australian Dictionary of Biography 'The Young Desire It reminds us there is more than a single line of descent in Australian literature...Mackenzie, who died, penniless and forgotten in his 50s, turns out to be a missing link in our literary tradition. The family tree burgeons at his return.' Weekend Australian 'An extremely impressive work of fiction that well deserves this reissue by Text Publishing...A novel to be welcomed back to Australian literature's available past.' Age 'The novel is distinguished by a rare sensitivity and an impressive ethical and psychological wisdom...its seamless narrative is able to probe the depths and ambiguities of its characters' personalities and lives.' SMH/Canberra Times 'The Young Desire It presents the adolescent boy's view with power and poignancy.' The Times 'A first novel of exceptional interest and originality.' Spectator 'The Young Desire It is suffused in such rich language and evocative allusions it is surprisingly hard to put aside.' NZ Weekend Herald 'This intensely personal work is a beautiful ode of colonial childhood.' Dominion Post/Weekend Press 'The growing intimacy between the two young people unfolds subtly and with great delicacy...With the power of language, Mackenzie creates an atmosphere of intimacy that is all his own.' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

`The Young Desire It is a revelation: a coming-of-age novel from 1937 that deserves a place alongside the classics in this genre. It’s a feverish, fascinating, and surprising look into the mind of an adolescent discovering a sense of self in his quest for love. It’s also a remarkably nuanced and moving portrait of the struggles of those around him to come to terms with their own lives and longings.’ -- Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club `A book to set beside James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man...The best novel I’ve read in a long, long time...One of the great stories of first love...Why isn’t this stunning novel famous?’ -- Michael Dirda * Washington Post * 'A hymn to youth, to life, to sexual freedom and moral independence.' -- David Malouf 'A beautifully written story of a sensitive boy's movement towards adult love.' * Sydney Morning Herald * 'Mackenzie’s prose is at its most sparkling and most sensuous in this novel, and he evokes the hot Western Australian landscape with rare force...[The Young Desire It] is a pastoral charged with the awakening of desire, like spring.' * Douglas Stewart * 'The Young Desire It is an extraordinary novel, dazzling in its texture, wholly original in its vision, and heartbreaking in the power and freshness of the story it tells.' -- Peter Craven * Australian Book Review * 'The Young Desire It is one of the most brilliant, confident and unusual instances of a Bildungsroman in Australian literature.' -- Peter Pierce * Sydney Review of Books * 'Sensitive, vital and erotic.' -- Veronica Brady * Australian Dictionary of Biography * 'The Young Desire It reminds us there is more than a single line of descent in Australian literature...Mackenzie, who died, penniless and forgotten in his 50s, turns out to be a missing link in our literary tradition. The family tree burgeons at his return.' * Weekend Australian * 'An extremely impressive work of fiction that well deserves this reissue by Text Publishing...A novel to be welcomed back to Australian literature's available past.' * Age * 'The novel is distinguished by a rare sensitivity and an impressive ethical and psychological wisdom...its seamless narrative is able to probe the depths and ambiguities of its characters' personalities and lives.' * SMH/Canberra Times * 'The Young Desire It presents the adolescent boy's view with power and poignancy.' * The Times * 'A first novel of exceptional interest and originality.' * Spectator * 'The Young Desire It is suffused in such rich language and evocative allusions it is surprisingly hard to put aside.' * NZ Weekend Herald * 'This intensely personal work is a beautiful ode of colonial childhood.' * Dominion Post/Weekend Press * 'The growing intimacy between the two young people unfolds subtly and with great delicacy...With the power of language, Mackenzie creates an atmosphere of intimacy that is all his own.' * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *

'The growing intimacy between the two young people unfolds subtly and with great delicacy...With the power of language, Mackenzie creates an atmosphere of intimacy that is all his own.' * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung * 'This intensely personal work is a beautiful ode of colonial childhood.' * Dominion Post/Weekend Press * 'The Young Desire It is suffused in such rich language and evocative allusions it is surprisingly hard to put aside.' * NZ Weekend Herald * 'A first novel of exceptional interest and originality.' * Spectator * 'The Young Desire It presents the adolescent boy's view with power and poignancy.' * The Times * 'The novel is distinguished by a rare sensitivity and an impressive ethical and psychological wisdom...its seamless narrative is able to probe the depths and ambiguities of its characters' personalities and lives.' * SMH/Canberra Times * 'An extremely impressive work of fiction that well deserves this reissue by Text Publishing...A novel to be welcomed back to Australian literature's available past.' * Age * 'The Young Desire It reminds us there is more than a single line of descent in Australian literature...Mackenzie, who died, penniless and forgotten in his 50s, turns out to be a missing link in our literary tradition. The family tree burgeons at his return.' * Weekend Australian * 'Sensitive, vital and erotic.' -- Veronica Brady * Australian Dictionary of Biography * 'The Young Desire It is one of the most brilliant, confident and unusual instances of a Bildungsroman in Australian literature.' -- Peter Pierce * Sydney Review of Books * 'The Young Desire It is an extraordinary novel, dazzling in its texture, wholly original in its vision, and heartbreaking in the power and freshness of the story it tells.' -- Peter Craven * Australian Book Review * 'Mackenzie's prose is at its most sparkling and most sensuous in this novel, and he evokes the hot Western Australian landscape with rare force...[The Young Desire It] is a pastoral charged with the awakening of desire, like spring.' * Douglas Stewart * 'A beautifully written story of a sensitive boy's movement towards adult love.' * Sydney Morning Herald * 'A hymn to youth, to life, to sexual freedom and moral independence.' -- David Malouf `A book to set beside James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man...The best novel I've read in a long, long time...One of the great stories of first love...Why isn't this stunning novel famous?' -- Michael Dirda * Washington Post * `The Young Desire It is a revelation: a coming-of-age novel from 1937 that deserves a place alongside the classics in this genre. It's a feverish, fascinating, and surprising look into the mind of an adolescent discovering a sense of self in his quest for love. It's also a remarkably nuanced and moving portrait of the struggles of those around him to come to terms with their own lives and longings.' -- Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club

Author Information

Kenneth Mackenzie was born in 1913 in South Perth. His parents divorced in 1919, and he grew up with his mother and maternal grandfather on a property at Pinjarra, south of Perth. He was a sensitive child who developed an intense love of nature. At age thirteen Mackenzie was sent to board at Guildford Grammar School in Perth. His experiences there informed his first novel, The Young Desire It, published under the name Seaforth Mackenzie by Jonathan Cape in 1937. The author was just twenty-three. The novel drew praise from The Times, Spectator and Sydney Morning Herald; the Liverpool Daily Post called it ‘amazingly brilliant’. It was awarded the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. By this time Mackenzie had studied law, worked as a journalist and moved to Sydney. There he met the leading lights of the literary scene—among them Kenneth Slessor and Norman Lindsay—and married. He and his wife had a daughter and a son. Mackenzie’s subsequent novels were Chosen People (1938), Dead Men Rising (1951), based partly on his experience of the Cowra prisoner breakout, and The Refuge (1954). He also produced two volumes of poetry. Kenneth Mackenzie’s last years were spent mainly alone, in declining health and battling alcoholism, at Kurrajong in New South Wales. On 19 January 1955 he drowned in mysterious circumstances while swimming in Tallong Creek, near Goulburn.

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