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The Burnt Ones
The Burnt Ones is a collection of eleven short stories by Australian writer Patrick White, first published by Eyre and Spottiswoode in 1964. Penguin Books published it in 1968 with reprints in 1972 and 1974. Each story in the collection, whose title refers to people burnt by society, has a reference to burning actually and in metaphor.
Seven of the stories are set in Australia and four are set in Greece or concern Greek migrants. The suburb of Sarsaparilla, the setting for several stories, is like Our Town of Thornton Wilder, but with White's "beadily disapproving gaze".
In White's first collection of a series of three, The Burnt Ones are haunted by feelings of isolation, intense self-examination, and an acute awareness of how they are different from others. The stories follow the theme of loneliness as do the second collection titled The Cockatoos, and Three Uneasy Pieces, his third and last collection.
Dead Roses
Willy-Wagtails by Moonlight
A Glass of Tea
Clay
The Evening at Sissy Kamara's
A Cheery Soul
Being Kind to Titina
Miss Slattery and her Demon Lover
The Letters
The Woman who wasn't Allowed to Keep Cats
Down at the Dump
Seven of the stories are set in Australia and four are set in Greece or concern Greek migrants. The suburb of Sarsaparilla, the setting for several stories, is like Our Town of Thornton Wilder, but with White's "beadily disapproving gaze".
In White's first collection of a series of three, The Burnt Ones are haunted by feelings of isolation, intense self-examination, and an acute awareness of how they are different from others. The stories follow the theme of loneliness as do the second collection titled The Cockatoos, and Three Uneasy Pieces, his third and last collection.
Dead Roses
Willy-Wagtails by Moonlight
A Glass of Tea
Clay
The Evening at Sissy Kamara's
A Cheery Soul
Being Kind to Titina
Miss Slattery and her Demon Lover
The Letters
The Woman who wasn't Allowed to Keep Cats
Down at the Dump
316 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
15 people are currently reading
212 people want to read
About the author
Patrick White
82 books366 followers There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads. For the Canadian Poet Laureate see "Patrick^^^^^White".
Patrick Victor Martindale White was an Australian author widely regarded as one of the major English-language novelists of the 20th century, and winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Born in England while his Australian parents were visiting family, White grew up in Sydney before studying at Cambridge. Publishing his first two novels to critical acclaim in the UK, White then enlisted to serve in World War II, where he met his lifelong partner, the Greek Manoly Lascaris. The pair returned to Australia after the war.
Home again, White published a total of twelve novels, two short story collections, eight plays, as well as a miscellany of non-fiction. His fiction freely employs shifting narrative vantages and the stream of consciousness technique. In 1973, he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature."
From 1947 to 1964, White and Lascaris lived a retired life on the outer fringes of Sydney. However after their subsequent move to the inner suburb of Centennial Park, White experienced an increased passion for activism. He became known as an outspoken champion for the disadvantaged, for Indigenous rights, and for the teaching and promotion of art, in a culture he deemed often backward and conservative. In their personal life, White and Lascaris' home became a regular haunt for noted figures from all levels of society.
Although he achieved a great deal of critical applause, and was hailed as a national hero after his Nobel win, White retained a challenged relationship with the Australian public and ordinary readers. In his final decades the books sold well in paperback, but he retained a reputation as difficult, dense, and sometimes inscrutable.
Following White's death in 1990, his reputation was briefly buoyed by David Marr's well-received biography, although he disappeared off most university and school syllabuses, with his novels mostly out of print, by the end of the century. Interest in White's books was revived around 2012, the year of his centenary, with all now available again.
Sources: Wikipedia, David Marr's biography, The Patrick White Catalogue
Patrick Victor Martindale White was an Australian author widely regarded as one of the major English-language novelists of the 20th century, and winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Born in England while his Australian parents were visiting family, White grew up in Sydney before studying at Cambridge. Publishing his first two novels to critical acclaim in the UK, White then enlisted to serve in World War II, where he met his lifelong partner, the Greek Manoly Lascaris. The pair returned to Australia after the war.
Home again, White published a total of twelve novels, two short story collections, eight plays, as well as a miscellany of non-fiction. His fiction freely employs shifting narrative vantages and the stream of consciousness technique. In 1973, he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature."
From 1947 to 1964, White and Lascaris lived a retired life on the outer fringes of Sydney. However after their subsequent move to the inner suburb of Centennial Park, White experienced an increased passion for activism. He became known as an outspoken champion for the disadvantaged, for Indigenous rights, and for the teaching and promotion of art, in a culture he deemed often backward and conservative. In their personal life, White and Lascaris' home became a regular haunt for noted figures from all levels of society.
Although he achieved a great deal of critical applause, and was hailed as a national hero after his Nobel win, White retained a challenged relationship with the Australian public and ordinary readers. In his final decades the books sold well in paperback, but he retained a reputation as difficult, dense, and sometimes inscrutable.
Following White's death in 1990, his reputation was briefly buoyed by David Marr's well-received biography, although he disappeared off most university and school syllabuses, with his novels mostly out of print, by the end of the century. Interest in White's books was revived around 2012, the year of his centenary, with all now available again.
Sources: Wikipedia, David Marr's biography, The Patrick White Catalogue
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 9, 2022
The Burnt Ones is a fine collection of sombre stories about human misery and human beings scorched by society and singed with the heat of existence.
Patrick White strips a man right “down to its core of mystery” like that flower. And no one can be more psychologically profound about loneliness and isolation of a man than he was.
Every man is an island… And so often a man is a desert island.
When he was about five years old some kids asked Clay why his mother had called him that. And he did not know. But began to wonder. He did, in fact, wonder a great deal, particularly while picking the bark off trees, or stripping a flower down to its core of mystery. He too, would ask questions, but more often than not failed to receive the answer because his mother could not bring herself to leave her own train of thought.
Patrick White strips a man right “down to its core of mystery” like that flower. And no one can be more psychologically profound about loneliness and isolation of a man than he was.
As he drove, prudently, he avoided the mattress the dump had spewed, from under the wire, half across the road. Strange things had happened at the dump on and off, the grocer recollected. Screaming girls, their long tight pants ripped to tatters. An arm in a sugar-bag, and not a sign of the body that went with it. Yet some found, peace amongst the refuse: elderly derelict men, whose pale, dead, fish eyes never divulged anything of what they had lived, and women with blue, metho skins, hanging around the doors of shacks put together from sheets of bark and rusty iron. Once an old down-and-out had crawled amongst the rubbish apparently to rot, and did, before they sent for the constable, to examine what seemed at first a bundle of stinking rags.
Every man is an island… And so often a man is a desert island.
September 6, 2020
“You know somethin’s happenin’, but you don’t know what it is”
About ten thousand miles from here, if you drive up a really bad dirt road early in the morning, avoiding any of the kangaroos that hop desultorily across the way, you’ll come to a dark billabong, just below the Murray. It’s lined by giant gums with chestnut-cream mottled bark, interspersed with the young ones, still spindly. They all mirror in the still waters of the billabong so perfectly that the eye cannot tell where reality ends and reflection begins. Throw a pebble far out into the waters and the single tiny wave will radiate perfectly, slightly disturbing the mirrored trees and sky, distorting the whole ever so slightly. Will you regret your deed? Have you altered the reality as well as the reflection? Will you wonder whether the disturbance is as normal as the stillness? Ah, you are coming closer to a story by Patrick White.
The Australian stories in this collection reflect a sure knowledge of the delicacies of class and language in 20th century Australia. The Greek stories are vaguer, those of us not familiar with Greece cannot quite tell if they ring as true, they seem to wander more. Both, like the billabong ripples, ultimately distort slightly the moods and aspirations of the characters, leaving unspoken key connections that other authors usually fill in. Suppressed desires, unfulfilled hopes, unexpressed disdain and twisted, blurred memories. Loneliness, failing connections, disappointment whips in every wind. All these lurk on the pages amidst often-bland description to unexpectedly strike you with a sudden turn or phrase. None are “easy reads”, be sure of that. What are they about? The amount of action, of deeds performed is surprisingly little; it is the telling, the unfolding, that counts. If you need sharp, clear tales with strong endings probably better avoid this collection entirely. A lot of these stories are like crocodiles, submerged just off the riverbanks, ready to pounce on the unwary, hidden but strong. We have to wonder if they will strike or not. The funeral of a “loose woman” who lived a vivid life attended by all those stuck in their duller routines. The connection of two Greek women who had known each other as girls, even been brief lovers, separated by distance and marriage—one to a businessman in America, the other to a Marxist intellectual. The twelve tea glasses rescued from the burning of Smyrna and their connection to a man’s life. A tape, recording something quite different from a bird’s song. The topics are subtle and not often dramatic. Human nature is so contradictory, it reveals constantly that nobody is alike, and the surface conceals both the better and the worse.
And who are the burnt ones? We all are.
About ten thousand miles from here, if you drive up a really bad dirt road early in the morning, avoiding any of the kangaroos that hop desultorily across the way, you’ll come to a dark billabong, just below the Murray. It’s lined by giant gums with chestnut-cream mottled bark, interspersed with the young ones, still spindly. They all mirror in the still waters of the billabong so perfectly that the eye cannot tell where reality ends and reflection begins. Throw a pebble far out into the waters and the single tiny wave will radiate perfectly, slightly disturbing the mirrored trees and sky, distorting the whole ever so slightly. Will you regret your deed? Have you altered the reality as well as the reflection? Will you wonder whether the disturbance is as normal as the stillness? Ah, you are coming closer to a story by Patrick White.
The Australian stories in this collection reflect a sure knowledge of the delicacies of class and language in 20th century Australia. The Greek stories are vaguer, those of us not familiar with Greece cannot quite tell if they ring as true, they seem to wander more. Both, like the billabong ripples, ultimately distort slightly the moods and aspirations of the characters, leaving unspoken key connections that other authors usually fill in. Suppressed desires, unfulfilled hopes, unexpressed disdain and twisted, blurred memories. Loneliness, failing connections, disappointment whips in every wind. All these lurk on the pages amidst often-bland description to unexpectedly strike you with a sudden turn or phrase. None are “easy reads”, be sure of that. What are they about? The amount of action, of deeds performed is surprisingly little; it is the telling, the unfolding, that counts. If you need sharp, clear tales with strong endings probably better avoid this collection entirely. A lot of these stories are like crocodiles, submerged just off the riverbanks, ready to pounce on the unwary, hidden but strong. We have to wonder if they will strike or not. The funeral of a “loose woman” who lived a vivid life attended by all those stuck in their duller routines. The connection of two Greek women who had known each other as girls, even been brief lovers, separated by distance and marriage—one to a businessman in America, the other to a Marxist intellectual. The twelve tea glasses rescued from the burning of Smyrna and their connection to a man’s life. A tape, recording something quite different from a bird’s song. The topics are subtle and not often dramatic. Human nature is so contradictory, it reveals constantly that nobody is alike, and the surface conceals both the better and the worse.
And who are the burnt ones? We all are.
July 28, 2025
This is one of the most depressing books I've read, mostly because nothing hugely depressing happens. Instead, ordinary people go about their lives, doing their best to find happiness, and failing repeatedly. Every story left me with a sense of hopelessness. It was very well done!
October 31, 2017
I normally reserve one star reviews for books I don't finish but I made an exception in this case. A book of short stories, some set in Australia, some in Greece. None of the characters draw me in. None of the scenarios interest me. I am baffled by the reasonable rating this book has. All I can think is that people have rated the author rather than this collection.
August 16, 2019
Time for some Patrick White: I was looking for something else on my Collections shelf, and it dawned on me that it's been too long!
Alas, this battered Penguin paperback looks badly out of place among my carefully protected first editions, but I'm yet to find a copy of a first edition of White's first short story collection The Burnt Ones, so we must make do. And I must say, that I am quite taken with the cover design by Jack Larkin. You can tell that he's read the book, by his image of a laconic Aussie male and the discontented faces of the women.
Along with a dedication to the literary couple Nan and Geoffrey Dutton (which is significant, because it predates White's notable falling out with the Duttons), the title The Burnt Ones is explained at the beginning of the book. It comes from the Greek οι καυμενοι [oi kaymenoi], meaning 'the burnt ones'. It has connotations of more than just 'unfortunate' - it conveys the savagery and scar tissue of burning, whether literal or metaphorical.
'Dead Roses' at 66 pages is quite long, for a short story, allowing for greater character development. This story makes me wonder if White—who I've never thought of as having any feminist credentials—was beginning to realise that there were structural reasons why the women of his class were so painful. It was the 60s, after all, and maybe he was paying attention to the emerging feminist movement...
(I know, I know, I really must read David Marr's biography.)
The central character is Anthea Scudamore, who's a bit brought-up and not brought out. That makes her suitable as one of Val's patronising projects and she is therefore included as a house-guest at the Tulloch Christmas house-party on the Island. Val Tulloch knows what is the only obvious and only possible direction in life, and she is convinced that all others must accept the one way to happiness. For women of that era and that class, this means marriage and children, and so she has also invited Barry Flegg to the house-party. For Anthea.
Anthea, packing for the trip, is advised by her mother to put in her blue although she knows that summer on the Island is what people call informal now, but one should go prepared for all eventualities. She is collected from the airport by Ossie Ryan in one of those loosely-connected bombs which rattle between fixed points in the remoter parts of Australia. She dusts the seat, and Ossie marvels at this spotless girl from the city. Dust turns out to be the least of Anthea's discomfitures: from the veranda Mollie Aspinall mocks that 'Mummy hasn't let her come without a hat' and Val Tulloch can't resist: 'She's probably left the gloves on the plane.' She felt a beast, however. As well she might.
I love Patrick White but I'm not so keen on his short stories: to see the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/08/16/d...
Alas, this battered Penguin paperback looks badly out of place among my carefully protected first editions, but I'm yet to find a copy of a first edition of White's first short story collection The Burnt Ones, so we must make do. And I must say, that I am quite taken with the cover design by Jack Larkin. You can tell that he's read the book, by his image of a laconic Aussie male and the discontented faces of the women.
Along with a dedication to the literary couple Nan and Geoffrey Dutton (which is significant, because it predates White's notable falling out with the Duttons), the title The Burnt Ones is explained at the beginning of the book. It comes from the Greek οι καυμενοι [oi kaymenoi], meaning 'the burnt ones'. It has connotations of more than just 'unfortunate' - it conveys the savagery and scar tissue of burning, whether literal or metaphorical.
'Dead Roses' at 66 pages is quite long, for a short story, allowing for greater character development. This story makes me wonder if White—who I've never thought of as having any feminist credentials—was beginning to realise that there were structural reasons why the women of his class were so painful. It was the 60s, after all, and maybe he was paying attention to the emerging feminist movement...
(I know, I know, I really must read David Marr's biography.)
The central character is Anthea Scudamore, who's a bit brought-up and not brought out. That makes her suitable as one of Val's patronising projects and she is therefore included as a house-guest at the Tulloch Christmas house-party on the Island. Val Tulloch knows what is the only obvious and only possible direction in life, and she is convinced that all others must accept the one way to happiness. For women of that era and that class, this means marriage and children, and so she has also invited Barry Flegg to the house-party. For Anthea.
Anthea, packing for the trip, is advised by her mother to put in her blue although she knows that summer on the Island is what people call informal now, but one should go prepared for all eventualities. She is collected from the airport by Ossie Ryan in one of those loosely-connected bombs which rattle between fixed points in the remoter parts of Australia. She dusts the seat, and Ossie marvels at this spotless girl from the city. Dust turns out to be the least of Anthea's discomfitures: from the veranda Mollie Aspinall mocks that 'Mummy hasn't let her come without a hat' and Val Tulloch can't resist: 'She's probably left the gloves on the plane.' She felt a beast, however. As well she might.
I love Patrick White but I'm not so keen on his short stories: to see the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/08/16/d...
August 1, 2013
I did not particularly enjoy this book. It is possible that I simply did not understand or that my background prevented me from connecting with most of the stories (for instance all this Greek stuff...). Or maybe it's the times the stories are set in that make it hard to comprehend completely.
The cover of the book says that with these stories the author "bring his immense understanding of the urges which lie just beneath the facade of ordinary human relationships, especially those between men and women...". Well, the stories glance behind the facades, but unfortunately to me most still remains incomprehensible.
The best two stories in my humble opinion are "Willy-Wagtails..." and "Down by the dump".
Spoiler alert: Short descriptions of stories ahead.
Dead Roses
A story about defining moments in the life of a girl turning woman. Observations about several relationships (with mother, father, friends of the family, which are kind of "high societish"). No neutral point of view, narrator skips between perspectives/people and knows all. Small minded mother, very carefully avoiding "unhappiness" in her life when that's probably exactly what she has. Obsessed with what other people think, who is "good enough" etc.
Friends of girls' family have match making plans with man who certainly is undesired by family: Doctor Flegg. Man tries to get close to girl (attempt at sex on beach), but she resists, feeling repelled. Leaves island and marries remote, rich friend of her fathers' (much older). Lives with him but is kept on a short leash. Later emancipates herself (leaves him) and after he dies in a car accident she travels the world where ultimately she meets Dr. Flegg again. He has three children from a beautiful but somewhat stupid woman. She is affected by this greatly, maybe thinking "this could have been me" and wanting the life she saw there?
Willy-Wagtails by moonlight
One couple is invited for an evening by another couple. The inviting couple has a sickly, insecure and somewhat naive wife and bird-noise recording husband with a not-so-good-looking secretary. The invited couple is thinking condescendingly about their hosts, but don't say so. They "suffer" the "watered-down drinks", the "bad food", the naivety, or dullness of their hosts.
The reader wonders why they a) are friends at all and b) why they showed up. The excitement of the story is all placed on the last few pages, where the host plays "bird song recordings" to his guests. One of these recordings is a bit funny, requiring him to create a distraction to lure his wife into the kitchen so she doesn't hear. In fact, he accidentally taped having sex with his secretary. That creates an uptight ending to the evening...
A Glas of Tea
A Greek bachelor reluctantly accept an invitation for tea of another, elderly Greek man living in Geneva. Over tea, the old man tells about his live in various places. They are drinking from tea glasses with a history: A gipsy once prophesied that the man would live until all tea glasses of a set he was given as a present were broken. Has a wife that retreats from society, doesn't like but accepts his way of life, which includes lots of traveling and having mistresses.
It turns out that not only the tea glasses break over time, but also his wife: She commits suicide by jumping off a high place. The old man then married the servant of his former wife. The bachelor leaves, having been captivated by the old man's story.
Clay
Clay grows up fatherless, with a not-so bright mother. He's mobbed by other school children for being "different" (maybe, surely, he is). He starts to work as an official at customs office and meets a girl that becomes his wife (a bit like his mother, some sort of a simpleton herself). He just grows weirder and weirder, imagining people, becoming more crazy, until something of a total breakdown occurs. This one was hard for me to read, hard to relate and digest.
The evening at Sissy Kamara's
Woman on dentists chair with painful procedure remembers and evenly painful episode from her past (Greeks getting kicked out of Smyrna by the Turks). Hard to understand for me, I probably lack the background. Tension between hostess and her husband as well as invited couple somewhat unclear to me.
A Cheery Soul
Superficially pleasant old woman goes on the nerves of about everyone. (couple takes her in but cannot tolerate her, send to old peoples home, where she meets acquantaince whom she terrorized before - told in different episodes). Then an episode how she haunted the priest of the church until he got sick of her.
The old woman is talking a lot, is being self-righteuos, and not well liked. Someone mentions "kindness as a disease" - we all know people that talk too much, are just too friendly and know everything better. At the very end not even an old dog wants to have to do with her, pisses on her leg and runs away.
Being kind to Titina
Upper-class family instructs youngest son to be kind to girl named Titina. She's from a (refugee) family that the other family looks down on, shuns. They think the other family is ordinary. Story is set against refugee background (Smyrna, Turkey - once more). Other children, including boy, tease her, treat her badly.
Years later, as a young adult, boy meets Titina again. She's turned out sexy, beautiful and engaged(?) to a rich Frenchman. She has fond memories of the boy (why?) and spends some quality time with him. They have sex, but she then departs for Paris again. Rest of family mentions seeing her, describing her as a cheap bitch. Well, perceptions differ?
Miss Slattery and her Demon Lover
Saleswoman meets strange Hungarian man during her sales activity. Falls for him, goes to parties, lives the life of the rich. He speaks in strong dialect and has strong (not really well-meaning opinion about women, Australians, artists...). Relationship changes, with him adoring her more and more. Aspects of sado-masochism.
The Letters
Old widow writes letters to relatives. Has fifty-something son that worries her, because he pursues strange interests (reading books on raising fowls) and having "retired" (not doing any real work). Father apparently hat a business/factory that supplies the money they have. "Retreat" from factory work was founded in a phobia of machine (noise). Late in the story the son opens a couple of the letters he kept unopened in a box. There's a friendly letter from his godmother, who seems to understand him better than his mother, but he breaks down on reading other letters, clearly showing his phobias.
The woman who wasn't allowed to keep cats
Two couples meet in Greece, because the women were friends as children. One moved to the United States and married a restaurant owner and is now well-off. The other stayed in Greece and married an "intellectual". The couples dislike each, but the women are still somewhat fond of each other. The woman from Greece is cat crazy. She lets the cats live in the apartment, and there is no cause for concern even if they shit on the books. Her intellectual husband is "tired" all the time, looks sloppy - might be caused by his wife's cat craziness. The U.S. couple make fun of their friends behind their back because of these situations they observed.
The couples meet years later. The intellectual has become famous, inheritance made the Greek couple rich. The enjoy each other, take walks, have sex and are content. The U.S. couple sees this is and is very frustrated and feels estranged. Well, luck turns?
Down by the dump
The protagonists of this story mainly come from two families. There's young William, from a "white trash family" and Meg, whose aunt has just died; both kids are about 14 years old. It's time for the aunts funeral, and the adults all have their thoughts and emotions about it - for most of them it's just a duty to fulfill. The white trash family scavenges dumps (for what is not quite clear, but they do enjoy a beer while doing it), and they decide to go to different one for a change. As it turns it is the dump right next to the cemetery. While Meg sneaks off and meets William, which turns into a romantic encounter... on the dump... The adults think about the deceased woman. In contrast to the living she seemed more alive, having had affairs with several men, some married, some shunned by society. When it's all over - relief presides on the parts of most adults - both families drive back home in their cars. Megs mum worries that her daughter might turn out like her sister. The kids savor their experiences (first kisses) and feel a little bit of freedom, of possibility, maybe of a turning point.
The cover of the book says that with these stories the author "bring his immense understanding of the urges which lie just beneath the facade of ordinary human relationships, especially those between men and women...". Well, the stories glance behind the facades, but unfortunately to me most still remains incomprehensible.
The best two stories in my humble opinion are "Willy-Wagtails..." and "Down by the dump".
Spoiler alert: Short descriptions of stories ahead.
Dead Roses
A story about defining moments in the life of a girl turning woman. Observations about several relationships (with mother, father, friends of the family, which are kind of "high societish"). No neutral point of view, narrator skips between perspectives/people and knows all. Small minded mother, very carefully avoiding "unhappiness" in her life when that's probably exactly what she has. Obsessed with what other people think, who is "good enough" etc.
Friends of girls' family have match making plans with man who certainly is undesired by family: Doctor Flegg. Man tries to get close to girl (attempt at sex on beach), but she resists, feeling repelled. Leaves island and marries remote, rich friend of her fathers' (much older). Lives with him but is kept on a short leash. Later emancipates herself (leaves him) and after he dies in a car accident she travels the world where ultimately she meets Dr. Flegg again. He has three children from a beautiful but somewhat stupid woman. She is affected by this greatly, maybe thinking "this could have been me" and wanting the life she saw there?
Willy-Wagtails by moonlight
One couple is invited for an evening by another couple. The inviting couple has a sickly, insecure and somewhat naive wife and bird-noise recording husband with a not-so-good-looking secretary. The invited couple is thinking condescendingly about their hosts, but don't say so. They "suffer" the "watered-down drinks", the "bad food", the naivety, or dullness of their hosts.
The reader wonders why they a) are friends at all and b) why they showed up. The excitement of the story is all placed on the last few pages, where the host plays "bird song recordings" to his guests. One of these recordings is a bit funny, requiring him to create a distraction to lure his wife into the kitchen so she doesn't hear. In fact, he accidentally taped having sex with his secretary. That creates an uptight ending to the evening...
A Glas of Tea
A Greek bachelor reluctantly accept an invitation for tea of another, elderly Greek man living in Geneva. Over tea, the old man tells about his live in various places. They are drinking from tea glasses with a history: A gipsy once prophesied that the man would live until all tea glasses of a set he was given as a present were broken. Has a wife that retreats from society, doesn't like but accepts his way of life, which includes lots of traveling and having mistresses.
It turns out that not only the tea glasses break over time, but also his wife: She commits suicide by jumping off a high place. The old man then married the servant of his former wife. The bachelor leaves, having been captivated by the old man's story.
Clay
Clay grows up fatherless, with a not-so bright mother. He's mobbed by other school children for being "different" (maybe, surely, he is). He starts to work as an official at customs office and meets a girl that becomes his wife (a bit like his mother, some sort of a simpleton herself). He just grows weirder and weirder, imagining people, becoming more crazy, until something of a total breakdown occurs. This one was hard for me to read, hard to relate and digest.
The evening at Sissy Kamara's
Woman on dentists chair with painful procedure remembers and evenly painful episode from her past (Greeks getting kicked out of Smyrna by the Turks). Hard to understand for me, I probably lack the background. Tension between hostess and her husband as well as invited couple somewhat unclear to me.
A Cheery Soul
Superficially pleasant old woman goes on the nerves of about everyone. (couple takes her in but cannot tolerate her, send to old peoples home, where she meets acquantaince whom she terrorized before - told in different episodes). Then an episode how she haunted the priest of the church until he got sick of her.
The old woman is talking a lot, is being self-righteuos, and not well liked. Someone mentions "kindness as a disease" - we all know people that talk too much, are just too friendly and know everything better. At the very end not even an old dog wants to have to do with her, pisses on her leg and runs away.
Being kind to Titina
Upper-class family instructs youngest son to be kind to girl named Titina. She's from a (refugee) family that the other family looks down on, shuns. They think the other family is ordinary. Story is set against refugee background (Smyrna, Turkey - once more). Other children, including boy, tease her, treat her badly.
Years later, as a young adult, boy meets Titina again. She's turned out sexy, beautiful and engaged(?) to a rich Frenchman. She has fond memories of the boy (why?) and spends some quality time with him. They have sex, but she then departs for Paris again. Rest of family mentions seeing her, describing her as a cheap bitch. Well, perceptions differ?
Miss Slattery and her Demon Lover
Saleswoman meets strange Hungarian man during her sales activity. Falls for him, goes to parties, lives the life of the rich. He speaks in strong dialect and has strong (not really well-meaning opinion about women, Australians, artists...). Relationship changes, with him adoring her more and more. Aspects of sado-masochism.
The Letters
Old widow writes letters to relatives. Has fifty-something son that worries her, because he pursues strange interests (reading books on raising fowls) and having "retired" (not doing any real work). Father apparently hat a business/factory that supplies the money they have. "Retreat" from factory work was founded in a phobia of machine (noise). Late in the story the son opens a couple of the letters he kept unopened in a box. There's a friendly letter from his godmother, who seems to understand him better than his mother, but he breaks down on reading other letters, clearly showing his phobias.
The woman who wasn't allowed to keep cats
Two couples meet in Greece, because the women were friends as children. One moved to the United States and married a restaurant owner and is now well-off. The other stayed in Greece and married an "intellectual". The couples dislike each, but the women are still somewhat fond of each other. The woman from Greece is cat crazy. She lets the cats live in the apartment, and there is no cause for concern even if they shit on the books. Her intellectual husband is "tired" all the time, looks sloppy - might be caused by his wife's cat craziness. The U.S. couple make fun of their friends behind their back because of these situations they observed.
The couples meet years later. The intellectual has become famous, inheritance made the Greek couple rich. The enjoy each other, take walks, have sex and are content. The U.S. couple sees this is and is very frustrated and feels estranged. Well, luck turns?
Down by the dump
The protagonists of this story mainly come from two families. There's young William, from a "white trash family" and Meg, whose aunt has just died; both kids are about 14 years old. It's time for the aunts funeral, and the adults all have their thoughts and emotions about it - for most of them it's just a duty to fulfill. The white trash family scavenges dumps (for what is not quite clear, but they do enjoy a beer while doing it), and they decide to go to different one for a change. As it turns it is the dump right next to the cemetery. While Meg sneaks off and meets William, which turns into a romantic encounter... on the dump... The adults think about the deceased woman. In contrast to the living she seemed more alive, having had affairs with several men, some married, some shunned by society. When it's all over - relief presides on the parts of most adults - both families drive back home in their cars. Megs mum worries that her daughter might turn out like her sister. The kids savor their experiences (first kisses) and feel a little bit of freedom, of possibility, maybe of a turning point.
April 11, 2021
If I had to sum up this collection of short stories in one word, I'd say acerbic. Happy to be moving onto something else to read.
October 9, 2017
This was my first spooky October book and although I didn't find it spooky I did enjoy it very much. Maurice Allington is a cad obsessed with death and sex. He has quite a few problems to deal with including an aloof teenage daughter, aging father, neglected second wife, and running The Green Man, his inn. Maurice deals with all of this by consuming a bottle of whisky a day. Are his stories about ghosts and apparitions DTs as his doctor insists or has the necromancer, Thomas Underhill returned from the 17th century to wreak more havoc?
Kingsley Amis's characters, his depictions of the life and routines of the inn owner, were great fun and the ghost story was more than eerie, it was an interesting rumination on death, god and the possibility of an afterlife.
Kingsley Amis's characters, his depictions of the life and routines of the inn owner, were great fun and the ghost story was more than eerie, it was an interesting rumination on death, god and the possibility of an afterlife.
April 17, 2012
This book is a text for the course I am currently studying, which looks at, and analyses Australian literature. While I admit the stories are complex, and well-written - often ironic and critical, the subject matter, Australian suburbia and lifestyle of the 1950-60's etc, is not one that interests me in the slightest. I found it difficult to get through this book, the writing is complex, as is the structure at times, and to grasp the full meaning and substance of a sentence, one must make sure to have read it carefully with a clear head. Not my genre, unfortunately, but I do see the value and deep thought the White put into his writing.
December 6, 2016
A book of short stories by Australia's pre-eminent writer. I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy this but was presently surprised. Having read a few of his books I can now detect some of his habitual mannerisms and stylistic fallbacks but he never ceases to surprise with the difficult and very vulnerable human moments he depicts.
April 11, 2018
So many tangible characters and such visceral settings. These are people I can imaging returning to because each time there is something new that the writer opens a window to.
February 18, 2019
A varied collection from one of Australian literature's more controversial figures. It is easy to see why White was regarded this way - adultery in outwardly respectable suburban Sydney is a feature of several stories and there is an uneasiness in some that is slightly unnerving. But there are also moments of humour and light and acute observations of tension at social gatherings and of the experience of immigrants in post-World War II Australia. Greek-Australians and a wealthy Hungarian-Australian are some of the more memorable characters, the latter partly for his thick accent that is phoenetically presented by White in a way that may seem racist and inappropriate by today's standards - ie "Vitch is veuorse?" Several stories are too long, though the longest, Dead Roses, isn't - it's very readable. My favourite was A Cheery Soul, a brilliant portrayal of a sincere-but-incredibly-annoying never-married older woman and her interactions with the community around her. White had me wondering if someone was going to get so aggravated by her that they throttle her. The nicely brief Willy-Wagtails by Moonlight has great tension and a great twist at the end but the other tales in this collection fall short of the standard it and the two other previously-mentioned stories reach.
March 27, 2018
3.5 stars. Eleven short character driven stories. A good introduction to Patrick White, however I feel his strongest work is the novel form. I enjoyed "Dead Roses", the longest story at 66 pages. The protagonist, Anthea Scudmore, is well developed and the story is the closest to White's novel format. My favourite story is "Willy-Wagtails by Moonlight". An amusing story about two older couples. "A Cheery Soul" is about an old lady who is a very charitable person and on her own. Unfortunately she is very opinionated and a pain to get on with.
Patrick White fans should find most of the stories an enjoyable read.
Patrick White fans should find most of the stories an enjoyable read.
January 5, 2014
I would have liked to meet Patrick White. His characters are real thus usually flawed. As this is a book of short stories, there were some I liked more than others but, as usual with his books, I hated coming to the end. The story dedicated to Barry Humphries was unusual, would love to know the background on that one.
October 30, 2012
If the best stories had been at the end rather than the one or two I struggled through, I could have given this a four-star or even a five.
May 8, 2025
These stories seem to be of a time and place that has passed or that I just never visited. I had trouble getting interested in the characters and their society dilemmas, and I didn't understand anything about the Australia references (which is my problem, not the author's, obviously!). I guess my point is that a typical American reading this in 2025 won't get much out of it, like an Australian today would struggle with Faulkner or Steinbeck.
I found some of the phrases beautifully written, and I liked that the keystone story, "Burnt Roses," has very little plot. It's just a tiny amount of regular life, an easy life but unfulfilled. It focuses on a young woman, Anthea. We don't know her exact age, but she's marrying age, maybe 20. Her family has some class background but not much money, and they are on the slide. Unexpectedly, Anthea is invited to a posh Christmas in another part of Australia by higher-class people. Her mother pushes her to go, with the hope she might find a husband. And in fact she has been invited because the posh couple want to introduce her to an eligible young man. Things don't go great, as Anthea feels out of place and doesn't especially care for the man, who is a bit vulgar (vulgar by her standards, not necessarily ours today). And so she returns early from Christmas when her mom injures her wrist. At home she meets an older man who's a friend of her father's, and she winds up marrying him. The last half of the novella is her plain, sometimes bleak life with him on the other side of Australia. Nothing particularly exciting happens, and she doesn't seem to have much of an inner life or burning desires for anything. It's just blah, and while I respect the author for telling it like it is, this makes the novella sort of blah as well.
The short stories in the collection have much of the same theme of people going through life bored and mildly unhappy, but not inspired to do anything about it. It's sad and, sadly, reflects what life is for many.
I found some of the phrases beautifully written, and I liked that the keystone story, "Burnt Roses," has very little plot. It's just a tiny amount of regular life, an easy life but unfulfilled. It focuses on a young woman, Anthea. We don't know her exact age, but she's marrying age, maybe 20. Her family has some class background but not much money, and they are on the slide. Unexpectedly, Anthea is invited to a posh Christmas in another part of Australia by higher-class people. Her mother pushes her to go, with the hope she might find a husband. And in fact she has been invited because the posh couple want to introduce her to an eligible young man. Things don't go great, as Anthea feels out of place and doesn't especially care for the man, who is a bit vulgar (vulgar by her standards, not necessarily ours today). And so she returns early from Christmas when her mom injures her wrist. At home she meets an older man who's a friend of her father's, and she winds up marrying him. The last half of the novella is her plain, sometimes bleak life with him on the other side of Australia. Nothing particularly exciting happens, and she doesn't seem to have much of an inner life or burning desires for anything. It's just blah, and while I respect the author for telling it like it is, this makes the novella sort of blah as well.
The short stories in the collection have much of the same theme of people going through life bored and mildly unhappy, but not inspired to do anything about it. It's sad and, sadly, reflects what life is for many.
November 18, 2021
I've never read any other author like Patrick White and maybe there aren't any. This will be a short review partly because so much has already been written about his work. If his stories appeal to you it is probably because he is so unforgiving, direct, heart wrenching but unsentimental, slicing into normal lives of his characters with shocking and true observation. Often it is painful but wonderful at the same time.
April 25, 2020
Das unverständlichste Buch. Sehr komisch und ermüdend zu lesen...
February 12, 2021
Vague, meaningless, and too-long short stories.
September 25, 2021
White has perfected the art of making drudgery and pathetic people into art
Read
November 24, 2021probably the most unengaging book I have ever read - nine - I think (a golden number for short-ish stories) entrances and not one decent way in.
April 2, 2022
For the first time with this and the Solid Mandala I see why people see Patrick White as a misogynist.
Read
February 28, 2024A series of shorts about the repressed lives of middle-class Australians, Greeks. White is very talented but I might have hit my quota for vividly limned drawing room ennui.
Read
June 3, 2025A reminder that, all things equal, novels are worth more than short stories—but also that the short stories of great novelists are worth a great deal indeed.
December 9, 2015
Patrick White is reliably impressive, and worth reading and re-reading. The short stories make for quick hits if you don't have time for the immersive experience of a novel.
Goodreads does not list the colourful edition here, part of the classic series, with the distinctive cover by Stewart and Mel Odom.
Goodreads does not list the colourful edition here, part of the classic series, with the distinctive cover by Stewart and Mel Odom.
Want to read
April 22, 2025Read so far:
Dead roses--
*Willy-Wagtails by moonlight--
A glass of tea--
*Clay--
The evening at Sissy Kamara's--
*A cheery soul--
Being kind to Titina--
*Miss Slattery and her demon lover--
The letters--
The woman who wasn't allowed to keep cats--
*Down at the dump--
***
Five-twenty--2
A woman's hand
Dead roses--
*Willy-Wagtails by moonlight--
A glass of tea--
*Clay--
The evening at Sissy Kamara's--
*A cheery soul--
Being kind to Titina--
*Miss Slattery and her demon lover--
The letters--
The woman who wasn't allowed to keep cats--
*Down at the dump--
***
Five-twenty--2
A woman's hand
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews