{"product_id":"2026770000910-secondhand-the-cardboard-crown","title":"The Cardboard Crown","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good                          \u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing                  \u003cbr\u003eMarkings: No markings\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this brilliant opening movement of the celebrated Langton Tetralogy, acclaimed Anglo-Australian chronicler Martin Boyd introduces readers to the glamorous, deeply conflicted world of a patrician family torn between two hemispheres. The narrative unfolds through the discovery of the intimate, decades-old diaries of the family matriarch, Alice Langton, which are unraveled by her grandson Guy in a quest to understand his heritage. Moving effortlessly between the sun-drenched pastoral expanses of pre-Federation Australia and the rigid, aristocratic drawing rooms of Victorian Europe, the plot lays bare the secret passions, financial instabilities, and cultural anxieties of an elite class caught between the old world and the new.\n\nThe Cardboard Crown stands as a monumental achievement in twentieth-century Australian literature, offering an unmatched, sophisticated exploration of the colonial search for identity. Boyd's distinctive style seamlessly weaves sparkling, Edwardian comedy of manners with a deeply melancholic, Proustian meditation on the passage of time and the decay of ancestral houses. For collectors of classic Australian fiction and readers drawn to complex family dynamics, this elegant Lansdowne Press edition serves as an essential and exquisite window into the nation's literary heritage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48826077151451,"sku":"2026770000910-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/d8cadf3e-8b92-4460-b64c-c7713f049fff.png?v=1780312152","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026770000910-secondhand-the-cardboard-crown","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}