Completists' Club discussion

Patrick White (1912-1990)

List of works

Novels
Happy Valley (1939)
The Living and the Dead (1941)
The Aunt's Story (1948)
The Tree of Man (1955)
Voss (1957)
Riders in the Chariot (1961)
The Solid Mandala (1966)
The Vivisector (1970)
The Eye of the Storm (1973)
A Fringe of Leaves (1976)
The Twyborn Affair (1979)
Memoirs of Many in One (1986)
The Hanging Garden (2012) (Unfinished, posthumous)

Short story collections
The Burnt Ones (1964)
The Cockatoos (1974)
Three Uneasy Pieces (1987)

Plays
Bread and Butter Women (1935) Unpublished.
The School for Friends (1935) Unpublished.
Return to Abyssinia (1948) Unpublished.
The Ham Funeral (1947) prem. Union Theatre, Adelaide, 1961.
The Season at Sarsaparilla (1962)
A Cheery Soul (1963)
Night on Bald Mountain (1964)
Big Toys (1977)
Signal Driver: a Morality Play for the Times (1982)
Netherwood (1983)
Shepherd on the Rocks (1987)

Screenplay
The Night the Prowler (1978)

Autobiography
Flaws in the Glass (1981)

Just to be patriotic so that at least one Australian author is included, I have added this Nobel prize winning author, who in my opinion is Australia's finest author.

A couple of special events to mark his centenary year, last year, were the re-release of his first novel "The Happy Valley" after White's removal of the novel, shortly after it's first release and the first
release of his last unfinished novel "The Hanging Garden".

Thank you. Which one would you recommend to read first?

His later novels have the reputation of being quite difficult, so I would start with any of the trio of novels.

"The Tree of Man"
"Voss"
"Riders in the Chariot"

These 3 novels form the peak of his earlier writings in my opinion.

Voss is loosely based on the German born Australian explorer Ludwig Leichhardt and has been the subject of an opera.

I think, but am not sure, that the Eye of the Storm was the novel that won him the Nobel prize, which speaks for itself.

Thank you very much, David. Will TBR them and hopefully find the time as well.