The Burnt Ones

For other short stories, see Short Stories.

THE BURNT ONES (1964)

Russell Drysdale, Sunday evening (1941)

Editions:

  • Viking (US, November 1964, 308pp)
  • Eyre & Spottiswoode (UK, October 1964, 314pp)
  • Gallimard (France, “Les Échaudés”, 1969, trans: Yvonne Guilloux)
  • Penguin (UK/AU 1968 = reprinted eight times by 1990)
  • S. Fischer Verlag (Germany, “Die Verbrannten“, 1992, trans: Reinhard Kaiser).
  • All stories collected in Collected Short Stories, Text Publishing (AU 2019, introduction by Gail Jones: “Beautiful and Clumsy”)

There appears to have been no audiobook release of this collection, despite all other novels and short stories having received these between the 1980s and 2020s.

Original price: UK  25s  // US: $4.95

Award: Australian Literary Society Gold Medal.

Dedication: For Geoffrey and Nin Dutton

Epigraph:

“OI KAYMENOI – the burnt ones (the poor unfortunates)”

History: PW abandoned the short story format when he returned to Australia in 1947. It was not until the early 1960s that he discovered that short stories were a convenient way to focus on the tangential ideas that interrupted his focused novel writing. PW completed this stories between 1962 and 1964, most of them taking place either in Greece (the home country of his partner, Manoly) or in the fictional suburb of Sarsaparilla, which had been introduced in Riders in the Chariot. The original cover jacket was by Sidney Nolan, now a firm friend.

Sales: The collection sold moderately well in the UK and Australia but only sold 1,700 copies out of a small (~2,500) print run in hardback. It did not earn back its advance in the USA, although short story collections are usually harder to market than novels. Nevertheless, this continued a downward spiral in terms of popular sales in the USA.

Reviews:

  • Jeremy Randall, “Characters sapped by the sun”, Sunday Times 4/10/1964
  • Charles Osborne, Observer, 4/10/1964
  • Alwyn Lee, Times, 8/10/1964
    • Negative review
  • Francis Hope, New Statesman, 9/10/1964
  • Kirkus Reviews, 15/10/1964:
    • “While this collection is uneven in quality, it is consistently readable and the author remains a name to watch for.”
  • V.S. Naipaul, Spectator, 16/10/1964 :
    • calling the book an “embarrassment”
  • Denis Colquhoun, “Patrick White’s icy look at us”, Adelaide Advertiser 17/10/1964
  • John Knolwes, New York Times Book Review, 18/10/1964
  • New York Times 18/10/1964:
    • “This collection … possesses two major virtues: variety, and preoccupation with important themes. The limitation is in the telling, which is sometimes eloquent and sometimes laconic, sometimes sharply organized and clear, sometimes episodic and blurred…. Serious and varied, these stories are written in a fluent, often notional style, a sheen which sometimes re-enforces and sometimes blurs their meaning and force.”
  • Stephen Wall, Listener, 22/10/1964
  • “Sparks from a burning wheel”, TLS, 22/10/1964
  • Harry Kippax, SMH 24/10/1964:
    • “As tales, the stories are simple, sometimes slight… Mr White’s eye for concrete detail…and his ear for idiom anchor his stories to a world whose reality, whether cruel or beautiful, is beyond question… Some of the stories… are too slight to sustain the load of imagery and implication imposed by Mr. White’s style. But three stories, The Letters, A Cheery Soul… and Down at the Dump seem to me to be among the finer work of a writer whose style perhaps ideally demands the weight and scope of the large-scale novel to justify its poetic effects.”
  • Jill Crommelin, West Australian (30/10/1964)
  • Robert L. Stilwell, Saturday Review 31/10/1964
  • Richard K Burns, Library Journal, 15/11/1964
  • T.G. Rosenthal, Australian Book Review 4.1 (Nov 1964)
  • Frederick Laws, Daily Telegraph, 26/11/1964
  • Jack Lindsay, Meanjin 23.4 (Dec 1964)
  • Hameeda Hossain, Australian Quarterly 37.4 (1964)
  • Charles Higham, “Darkness at Sarsaparilla”, The Bulletin, 12/12/1964:
    • “Mr. White’s new book of stories has had a rather mixed reaction abroad, and it may be that his international reputation is now slightly past its peak… Several items in the book would have been better extended into the novella form. [In several stories, including Dead Roses], White is unable to resist a sly dig at the character’s expense. .. From then on, our interest in her plight is reduced; the scales have been weighed too heavily against her… In the descriptions of places these stories are unquestionably those of a master. But one looks forward to seeing Mr White’s black vision extended more fully in his next novel.”
  • Bernard Bergonzi, New York Review of Books, 19/1/1965
  • TLS 16/9/65
  • Harry Heseltine, Southerly 25.1 (1965)
  • J.M. Keeley, Westerly (May 1965)
  • Andrew Taylor, Overland 31 (1965)

Dead Roses (1962)

Plot: Anthea Scudmore is invited to be a guest of the Tullochs on The Island. Her mother prepares her for a clear romantic set-up with a man named Dr Barry Flegg. But Anthea does not fit in with the figures on the island, her self-consciously bourgeois upbringing brushing uncomfortably against the relaxed mores of the group she is visiting. The experience with Barry turns nasty when he attempts to rape her, and Anthea’s time on the island comes to an abrupt end. Instead, she marries an older man, Hessell Mortlock, taking the place of his previous wife, and finding that he is not the romantic hero she had (against the odds) believed him to be. From there, it is a slow journey to a choice between a life unwanted but survivable, or a life of choice but great distance from the goals Anthea has been instructed to pursue. Ultimately, when both father and husband die, she finds herself travelling with an inheritance, but also with an interminable feeling of emptiness and loss. Her reasons for fleeing were the right ones but, without a purpose, Anthea feels adrift from society.

History: PW wrote this novella in 1962 on return from a visit to Kangaroo Island with new friends Geoffrey and Nin Dutton, who are Val and Gil Tulloch in the story. Others in the house party were also parodied. In 1964, PW thought about adapting this as a potential screenplay, but does not appear to have done so. Dead Roses is one of the longest of PW’s shorter pieces of prose, and as such had not had an afterlife in anthologies like some others.

First published in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

Willy-Wagtails by Moonlight (1961)

Plot: Two couples have a typical 1960s suburban dinner party. Like every such party, the host couple are bound to impose something unwanted on their guests. Here, the imposition is to play the tapes of birdcalls which Mr and Mrs Mackenzie enjoy recording weekend after weekend. But when a tape is discovered labelled “willy wagtails”, it turns out that Arch Mackenzie has been doing a little more than birdwatching…

History: Written in 1961, this was one of the first short pieces PW worked on since WWII. His increased profile meant that magazines and journals were continually asking for his pieces, and Willy Wagtails was first published in the journal Australian Letters. Arch Mackenzie was modelled on the husband of a friend of PW’s who was also adulterous; PW intended the story partly as vengeance on her behalf.

Adaptation: PW adapted this into screenplay format, as part of a tripartite film which was never produced, Triple Sec. It is unclear if he finished this section of the script.

Published in Australian Letters, vol 4.3, March 1962. First collected in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

A Glass of Tea (1963)

Plot: Visiting Lausanne on the death of his aunt, a Greek man hears the story of a couple who fled Smyrna during the chaotic events of 1922, with only one loyal servant and a set of Russian tea glasses serving as their memories – and how that new life gradually came undone.

History: The story was written in 1963 in London, based on Manoly Lascaris’ grandmother’s own courtship. The moment where a gypsy tells a fortune is based on an incident Lascaris experienced during WWII.

One of the few short stories to be written without being included in a journal of some kind. First published in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

Clay (1962)

Dedication: For Barry Humphries and Zoe Caldwell

Plot: Over the course of Clay Skerritt’s life, he is often considered a “freak”, while his mother frets about his unusual nature and artistic leanings. Forced into normality, Clay gets a mundane job and marries. After his mother dies, Clay’s tether to this mundane world begins to fray, and he finds himself giving in to his desire to write…until a figure from his writing seems to come to life, a kind of haunting muse, in a surrealist nightmare.

History: Clay was written in Melbourne in October 1962, while PW was overseeing rehearsals of his play The Season at Sarsaparilla. Here, PW met the young comedian and satirist Barry Humphries, and envisaged the figure of Clay being played by Humphries.

Adaptation: White adapted the story into screenplay format, as part of his three-short-films-in-one Triple Sec, with the intention of Barry Humphries playing Clay, and Zoe Caldwell playing all three female roles. The film never eventuated.

Published in Overland 26 (April 1963) and then London Magazine 3.4 (July 1963). First collected in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

The Evening at Sissy Kamara’s (1964)

Plot: Two women who escaped from Smyrna during the 1922 war remain connected by their memories, even though Poppy is thoroughly humdrum while Sissy is an intellectual who has conjured an artistic salon around her. The women plan dinner together with their husbands, although a relationship based only in a shared history is always due for trouble.

History: PW wrote this short story in 1964 when he was collecting pieces for The Burnt Ones. This was the final piece written, to complete the collection.

Published in London Magazine 4.3 (1964). First collected in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

A Cheery Soul (1962)

Plot: When the Custances take in a boarder, the impoverished old lady Miss Docker, their small act of charity becomes a daily burden. This outspoken, determined, and self-righteous woman attempts to direct their life. Wherever Miss Docker goes – next, to the nursing home at the instance of Miss Custance – she leaves a trail of destruction in her wake, all in the name of doing good. When at last she is offered a moment of self-contemplation, through the act of a dog using her as a fire hydrant, Miss Docker may begin to question herself… or she may carry on the way things have always been. Resilient to the last.

History: PW wrote the short story in 1962, inspired by a woman who lived near him in Castle Hill, a tough old lady determined to offer her advice on everything – including White’s writing! Miss Docker, PW felt, was a lesson in the sin of being too good. It was published as part of a special edition of London Magazine, focused on Australian art and literature.

Adaptation: Before the story was even published, White saw its potential as a play. A Cheery Soul premièred in Melbourne in 1963.

Quotes: “So they rode to the funeral in the hired cars. Their grief was ever so gently, ever so expensively sprung… Those whom habit, or a sense of duty, would not leave in peace, drove… and drove… in the funeral procession. “(635)

Published in London Magazine 2.6 (September 1962). First collected in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

Being Kind to Titina (1962)

Plot: In Alexandria, young Dionysios is attracted to the mysterious Titina. When they were children she was an ungainly and unwanted child, but has now emerged in his life again as a sophisticated and beautiful lady. Everyone has their secrets in the old world, but what exactly is Titina’s…?

History: PW imagined writing a major novel called My Athenian Family, a massive trilogy loosely based on the Lascaris family, but he never got around to it. Instead, he wrote this short story about a young man being raised by his aunts – a portrait into his partner’s childhood. The story was completed by January 1962 and submitted to Harper’s in the US, who paid $300 for it. But after they demanded substantial changes and cuts, PW withdrew the story in a huff, repaid the money, and hardened himself against publishing any more short stories in American magazines.

Published in Meanjin 21.1 (March 1962). First collected in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

Miss Slattery and Her Demon Lover (1962)

Plot: A door to door market researcher, Miss Slattery, develops a complicated sexual relationship with a Hungarian immigrant on her rounds in Sydney. Later, at a boho party, Miss Slattery reveals her knack with a whip, and the relationship becomes ever more complicated…

History: PW rote this in 1962 and sent it to, he said, “every magazine in America”, including Esquire and The New Yorker, before it was finally published in Australia and London.

First published in Australian Letters, 5.3 (April 1963) and then London Magazine 3.8 (Nov 1963). First collected in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

The Letters (1962)

Plot: In Sarsaparilla, Charles Polkinghorn – the once promising scion of the family – has spent years living with his mother. As a young man he showed promise, but this gave way to a sustained period of mental illness. A disappointment to the family firm, and a subject of immense curiosity to his mother’s correspondents, Charles is now on the cusp of his 50th birthday. After years of boxing up his mail rather than opening it, Charles is spurred on to finally face these letters – but nothing good could come of this.

History: Written in early 1962, during PW’s first burst of short story writing in many years, The Letters features a young man who attended school in England as a dapper fellow with a moustache, whose father died while he was over there, and who returns home a disappointment to his family, never able to explain why he doesn’t have a girlfriend. In short, rather a canny portrayal of aspects of PW’s own family.

First published in Quadrant 6.2 (Autumn 1962) and then Voices anthology (London, 1965). First collected in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

The Woman Who Wasn’t Allowed to Keep Cats (1962)

Plot: A Greek-American couple in Greece argue over their friendship with a local couple. Spiro and Maro have elevated themselves to a wealthy American life, while their friends remain impoverished and eccentric. Over a number of visits and encounters, Maro watches her friend Kikitsa and writer husband Aleko become more prosperous. Their social divide is further exacerbated by an illicit secret from the women’s past.

History: The story was reportedly inspired by Manoly Lacaris’ siter Catina, whom PW met during the dying days of World War II when he was living in Greece. The story was completed in 1962, at a time when PW was feverishly experimenting with the short story format. It was rejected by Meanjin before being published in Australian Letters.

First published in Australian Letters, 5.2 (December 1962). First collected in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

Down at the Dump (1962)

Plot: During a warm day on the outskirts of Sarsaparilla, the funeral of Daise Morrow, the sister-in-law of the local Councillor, takes place. Daise was a kind woman who embodied traits not felt by the majority of those on the “right” side of the tracks. Close by is the town dump, where scrap dealers Wal and Mum, and their son Lummy, are scavenging for scrap rather than attending the funeral. But for young Lummy, and for Meg – Daise Morrow’s young niece – the social barrier that divides the rest of the town is not quite so firm…

History: This ultimately life-affirming short piece, which PW wrote in late 1962, was chosen as the final piece in The Burnt Ones, suggesting a hopeful ending to a series of stories largely about failure and decline. The piece was offered to Meanjin, who accepted it on the proviso that they could sanitise certain swear words. PW did so, reluctantly, but this was one of the last times (possibly the last) that he accepted any kind of demand to edit his work beyond his own satisfaction.

Critic Leonie Kramer – who famously disapproved of much of PW’s work – felt that Down at the Dump was the worst short story in the collection, although to be fair she didn’t really like any of them.

Quotes: “Truly, we needn’t experience tortures, unless we build chambers in our minds to house instruments of hatred in. Don’t you know, my darling creatures, that death isn’t death, unless it’s the death of love? Love should be the greatest explosion it is reasonable to expect. Which sends us whirling, spinning, creating millions of other worlds. Never destroying.”

First published in Meanjin 22.2 (1963). First collected in The Burnt Ones (1964). Appears in Collected Short Stories.

Theatre Adaptation: “The Aspirations of Daise Morrow”

Text: Patrick White (a word-for-word adaptation), conceived by Chris Drummond.

Brink Productions, Adelaide, in association with Adelaide Festival: Space Theatre, 10-24 October 2015.

Dir: Chris Drummond, design: Michael Hankin, with cast: Paul Blackwell, Lucy Lehmann, Kris McQuade, James Smith, and the Zephyr Quartet.

Subsequent productions by the same company in Canberra and Wollongong, 2018.

The play utilises actors playing multiple characters as well as sharing the narration, with – in the original conception – live music to portray shifts in space and time. For the original production, the audience were sitting amongst the production rather than in standard theatre seating.

Review: Murray Bramwell, “A Lighter White” , The Australian 15/10/15

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