Cambridge Edition, Kangaroo

book reviews the evidence both of explicit and more subtle preoccupations with film that appear in Lawrence's fiction, as well as a brilliantly researched look at the rise of film technology during Lawrence's life. The latter essay includes a well-informed survey of virtually every film, theatre, and TV adaptation of Lawrence's work; Morris buttresses his detailed record with persuasive judgments about each production, and he even notes each mention of Lawrence in films that may only contain a passing reference to him (e.g. Morris's resonant rumination on Jack Nicholson's memorable toast, "to ol' D. H. Lawrence," in the 1969 movie, Easy Rider). Parts IV and V of D. H. Lawrence: A Centenary Companion contain master bibliographies and composite indexes of Lawrence's life, work, places, and films, as well as a complete listing of proper names gathered from Lawrence's life and from all the critics who have written about him since his work first appeared. Poplawski's book must be regarded as an important and convenient addition to the decade's burgeoning scholarship on Lawrence. Peter Balbert ________________ Trinity University Cambridge Edition, Kangaroo D. H. Lawrence. Kangaroo. Bruce Steele, ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. lvi + 493 pp. $89.95 LAWRENCE'S POSTWAR "wander years" were marked by a ceaseless search for an ideal spot far removed from the taint of the civilization that had engaged in the Great War. Along with his wife Frieda, he sought a place untouched by the blighting effects of bourgeois materialism, Puritanical religion, and what he regarded as the charade of modern democracy. After more than two years in Italy and Sicily they headed for America upon being warmly beckoned there by Mabel Dodge Luhan. They had hopes of finding in the mountains of New Mexico or perhaps among the indigenous peoples of rural Mexico the spiritual home they called Rananim, where they dreamed of settling among a community of enlightened souls to live in anticipation of a new beginning. The American dream had been in Lawrence's mind as early as the fall of 1915, after the suppression in England of The Rainbow. Enthusiastically reading Cooper, Melville, and especially Whitman, he imagined America—more particularly aboriginal America—as the vital antidote to the fatal decline of Europe. Yet curiously, when the Lawrences finally set out for America, they headed east, from Italy to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Australia. It is tempting to see the Australian visit, which lasted from 459 ELT 40:4 1997 4 May to 11 August 1922, as an afterthought. Not originally part of the visionary agenda, Australia nevertheless provided Lawrence with a suitable venue for testing certain key assumptions before facing the complex challenge of America. After less than a fortnight in Western Australia the Lawrences moved to Sidney, on the Pacific side of the continent, facing America. By 29 May they had settled in a seaside bungalow dubbed "Wyewurk" in the village of Thirroul in New South Wales, about forty miles south of Sidney. There on 3 June Lawrence began to work on Kangaroo. Writing at a prodigious pace (nearly 3,500 words per day), he finished the first draft of the novel in just forty-five days, sending the holograph manuscript to his agent on 17 July. Major revisions were undertaken about three months later, the Lawrences by this time having moved to Taos, New Mexico. Among other things he substantially revised the concluding chapter, and then changed it again in January before sending the corrected typescript off to his American publisher. As was his practice during these peripatetic years, Lawrence mailed a separate—and not identical—copy of the corrected typescript (and, later still, the corrected galley proofs) to his English publisher. Consequently, when Kangaroo was published in September 1923, readers on either side of the Atlantic were looking at rather different texts. For instance, the last chapter of the English edition contained about 375 words in its final pages not included in the American edition. Although these concluding paragraphs (describing the Australian coast receding as the protagonists sail westward "over the cold dark, inhospitable sea") have in fact appeared in most recent editions oÃ- Kangaroo...