ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Lawrence’s fictional engagement with Australia before his visit in 1922, and therefore before he wrote his “Australian” novels Kangaroo (1923) and The Boy in the Bush (1924), and before St. Mawr (1925), which, with its expatriate Australian characters, should also be included in Lawrence’s Australian oeuvre. “The Vicar’s Garden” (2009), written in 1907, introduces Lawrence’s first fictional reference to Australia. Then follow The White Peacock (1911), The Daughter-in-Law (1913), “The Primrose Path” (1922), written in 1913, The Lost Girl (1920), Aaron’s Rod (1922) and Mr Noon (1984), which was abandoned by October 1922. These works are rarely noted for their Australian content. Lawrence, however, in these works, presents a range of visions of Australia that reveal his escalating interest in Australia and the possibility that it could offer a site for personal regeneration. With the exception of “The Primrose Path” the vision is largely positive and contrasts sharply with the disappointed picture of Australia Lawrence portrays in his later Australian work from Kangaroo onwards.
