SOURCE: “Short Stories and Plays,” in Patrick White: A General Introduction, translated by Stanley Gerson, University of Queensland Press, 1976, pp. 75-8.

In the following excerpt, Björksten states that the short story is “not Patrick White's best medium of expression” during his discussion of The Burnt Ones.

Gi; the Burnt Ones =~ Sthe Burnt Ones

After Riders in the Chariot Patrick White wrote eleven short stories, which were published in 1964 in his first collection of short stories. He named the collection after the Greek hoi kaumenoi—the burnt ones, the poor unfortunates. The title characterizes all White's “elect”, those inhabitants of his created world who have been burnt by society and by existence. However, even if one recognizes the characters in the short stories, they are not representative of the whole of White's portrait gallery. They reflect features of some of the figures in his novels, placed in a...