Gentlefolk Errant: The Family Writings of Martin Boyd

Abstract

Discusses the importance of family in Boyd’s life and work, arguing that for Boyd family is more important than place or nationality: ‘it is family which gives significance to particular places, and one of the recurring themes of [Boyd’s] writing is the loss of identity which follows the destruction of long family associations. His family novels, and his autobiography, chronicle the quest of his characters for an identity which they instinctively place in the imagined harmony of the past’ (339).

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Published 1 October 1972 in Volume 5 No. 4. Subjects: Families, Identity, Martin Boyd.

Cite as: McLaren, John. ‘Gentlefolk Errant: The Family Writings of Martin Boyd.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 5, no. 4, 1972, doi: 10.20314/als.3882bb91a2.