The Young Desire It (SIGNED)
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Signed with inscription
Condition remarks: DJ: chipped and worn spine, unclipped, in mylar. Binding: Slight lean to book, no loose pages. Boards: Moderate soiling; light bumping on corners and spine. Pages: Yellowed, light stains on the book block. Markings: Inscribed by the author on the half-title page; small bookseller sticker on the fep.
A masterwork of Australian literature, The Young Desire It by Seaforth Mackenzie immerses the reader in the cloistered world of a boys' boarding school in Western Australia, where a sensitive and gifted adolescent named Charles Fox grapples with the awakening of his intellect, his emotions, and his sense of self against the rigid structures of institutional life. First published in 1937, this coming-of-age novel chronicles Charles's transformative encounters — with a girl glimpsed across a fence, with the brutalities of schoolyard hierarchies, and with the intoxicating beauty of the natural world — rendered in prose of extraordinary lyrical intensity. Mackenzie writes with a painterly precision and an almost musical sensitivity, drawing comparisons to D.H. Lawrence in his unflinching examination of adolescent desire, identity, and the conflict between wild inner life and social conformity. The novel's vivid evocation of the Australian landscape serves as both backdrop and mirror to its protagonist's interior journey, elevating the work far beyond a simple school story into a profound meditation on what it means to be young, alive, and reaching toward an undefined future. Winner of the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award's predecessor prize, this is a lost classic that rewards any reader bold enough to seek it out.
Author: Seaforth Mackenzie
Format: Hardback
Published: 1937, Jonathan Cape
Genre: Modern fiction
Edition: First Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Signed with inscription
Condition remarks: DJ: chipped and worn spine, unclipped, in mylar. Binding: Slight lean to book, no loose pages. Boards: Moderate soiling; light bumping on corners and spine. Pages: Yellowed, light stains on the book block. Markings: Inscribed by the author on the half-title page; small bookseller sticker on the fep.
A masterwork of Australian literature, The Young Desire It by Seaforth Mackenzie immerses the reader in the cloistered world of a boys' boarding school in Western Australia, where a sensitive and gifted adolescent named Charles Fox grapples with the awakening of his intellect, his emotions, and his sense of self against the rigid structures of institutional life. First published in 1937, this coming-of-age novel chronicles Charles's transformative encounters — with a girl glimpsed across a fence, with the brutalities of schoolyard hierarchies, and with the intoxicating beauty of the natural world — rendered in prose of extraordinary lyrical intensity. Mackenzie writes with a painterly precision and an almost musical sensitivity, drawing comparisons to D.H. Lawrence in his unflinching examination of adolescent desire, identity, and the conflict between wild inner life and social conformity. The novel's vivid evocation of the Australian landscape serves as both backdrop and mirror to its protagonist's interior journey, elevating the work far beyond a simple school story into a profound meditation on what it means to be young, alive, and reaching toward an undefined future. Winner of the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award's predecessor prize, this is a lost classic that rewards any reader bold enough to seek it out.