Kangaroo is a tale of a visit to New South Wales by an English writer named Richard Lovat Somers and his German wife Harriet in the early 1920s. ‘Kangaroo’ is the nickname of Benjamin Cooley, a prominent ex-soldier and lawyer, who is also the leader of a secretive, fascist paramilitary organisation, the ‘Diggers Club’. Cooley fascinates Somers, but he maintains his distance from the movement itself. The novel is autobiographical, based on a three-month visit to Australia by D. H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda, in 1922.
Circa l’autore
David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) was an English writer and poet. His collected works represent, among other things, an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. Some of the issues Lawrence explores are sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. Lawrence is best known for his novels Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover. In these books, Lawrence explores the possibilities for life within an industrial setting. In particular Lawrence is concerned with the nature of relationships that can be had within such a setting.