Patrick
White was born in Australia
but sent to be educated
in England. He settled
to live in London during
the 1930s and served
in the RAF during the
war. After the war he
returned to live in
Australia, eking out
his small private income
by farming. His novels
offer great variety
in their themes, subjects,
and settings - but what
they have in common
is his use of powerfully
rich language, his deeply
psychological character
portraits, the dramatic
incidents of his stories,
and a semi-mystical
belief system which
he invites us to contemplate
without making his narratives
depend upon it. He was
awarded the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1973.
The
Tree of Man (1955)
is his first major work.
It is an epic account
of a young farmer, Stan
Parker and his wife
Amy and their struggles
to build themselves
a life and a family
in the middle of the
Australian wilderness
at the beginning of
the twentieth century.
The life they make is
full of small triumphs
and some bitter disappointments.
This is a novel which
has been compared with
D.H. Lawrence's The
Rainbow, yet
the tale is recounted
in a bare simple prose
which gives no hints
of the baroque complexities
of his later style.
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A
Fringe of Leaves
(1976) is the re-telling
of a true nineteenth
century incident which
has become a mythical
Australian narrative.
It's the story of Mrs
Fraser, an English woman
who is shipwrecked on
the island which now
bears her name. She
gets back to the mainland,
only to be seized and
held semi-captive by
Aboriginals. She escapes
from them and teams
up with an escaped convict
to make an epic journey
on foot back to 'civilization'.
The implication is that
she is spiritually transformed
by her experiences of
suffering and deprivation.
A very romantic evocation
of the period, with
all White's touches
of vivid and dramatic
scene painting.
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Voss
(1957) is another nineteenth
century epic tale -
this one based on the
true story of the tragic
and doomed journey made
in 1845 by the German
explorer Leichardt.
He leads a group across
the Australian desert,
and is accompanied imaginatively
by a young woman, Lara
Trevalyen from her home
in Sydney. She suffers
with him, right up to
the point of his death
- and then keeps his
memory alive. The scene
painting of the Australian
outback and desert is
truly wonderful, and
although an outsider,
Voss lives on as an
increasingly legendary,
martyred figure.
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The
Vivisector (1970)
is the story of Hurtle
Duffield, an Australian
painter - a portrait
loosely based on Sydney
Nolan, with whom White
was once friendly before
they fell out. It traces
very convincingly the
relationship between
the experiences of life
and their translation
into artistic expression.
What makes this novel
particularly interesting
is its dramatic conclusion
as Duffield sinks into
a psychologically chaotic
old age. His memories
from a past which we
have shared fictionally
are woven into his crumbling
grip on the present.
The fragmented narrative
is demanding on the
reader, but very impressively
written, as we are invited
to remember the sane
origins which lie beneath
his apparently deluded
old age.
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Try The
Twyborn Affair
(1979) if you want a
real challenge. It's
White's version of Virginia
Woolf's
Orlando. Without
giving away too much
of the very intriguing
story line, White is
exploring the relationship
between gender and sexuality.
The same character experiences
life in quite different
ways with different
sexual identities. It's
baffling, uncompromising,
and not at all an easy
read - but you know
he is onto something
interesting.
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Riders
in the Chariot
(1961) is seen by many
as his greatest work.
This puts together four
completely different
characters - all outsiders
in one way or another.
It's not difficult to
see them as various
aspects of White's own
complex personality.
Himmelfarb is a refugee
Jewish professor struggling
to come to terms with
his persecution and
the murder of his wife
by the Nazis. The other
misfits are a half-caste
painter, a spinster,
and a washerwoman, Ruth
Godbold, who finds a
mystic feeling of togetherness
with her living friends
and the dead ones. It
contains White's most
ferocious criticism
of Australian gentility
and ugliness, plus the
subtle gradations of
racism, ignorance, and
hypocrisy in the suburbs.
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Flaws
in the Glass
(1981) is an amazingly
frank self-portrait.
In this he reveals the
truths about his homosexuality;
his feelings of inhabiting
different personae and
sexual identities; his
lifelong feud with his
mother; his alcoholism,
and his later political
radicalism. It certainly
helps to understand
his complex fictions,
but more importantly
his relationship with
Australia.
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Patrick
White
