Dearest Idol (1929) is a novel by Australian writer Martin Boyd.

[1] The novel is set in Europe and follows the story of a 19-year-old boy named Tony Dawson (called "Boysie" by his by Aunt Matilda).

While working there he meets Boris and the novel explores the friendship that develops between them.

In her PhD thesis titled "Deconstructing Martin Boyd : Homosocial Desire and the Transgressive Aesthetic",[2] Jenny Blain notes in her introduction that "the novel's predominant focus [is] on narcissism, egoism and homosexual possibility.

Tony is a monster of vanity and self-love; he also has an infantile fixation on adulation and power.