The Burnt Ones

First US cover (Viking 1964)
Author	Patrick White
Country	Australia
Language	English
Genre	Short story collection
Publisher	Penguin Books Australia
Publication date	1964 1964
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	316
ISBN
Followed by	The Cockatoos

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.

The title comes from the Greek turn of phrase meaning, "the poor unfortunates" (οι καυμενοι [hoi kaumenoi]), the burnt ones. White plays on the literal meaning of the title by introducing the motif of burning in most of the stories through sun burn, fire, war, anger, burn-out or hurt to characterise his "elect", those burnt by society and by existence.

The book is dedicated to the late author and historian Geoffrey Dutton and his wife, Nin. The fourth story, "Clay" is also for fellow Australians, satirist Barry Humphries and actress Zoe Caldwell (p 114).

Anthea Scudamore, a girl who's very close to her mother and influenced by her tastes, is growing up with few social skills. After staying with friends on an island for the summer, she returns home feeling somehow changed. She marries her father's old friend, Hessell Mortlock – moving away to live in his family home where he subtly morphs from a confident businessman, revealing his stingy, mean-spirited ways and that he was married several times before. Like the heat-blasted roses that stand throughout the house, domestic life with Mortlock petrifies. Eventually Anthea leaves him, returning home on the death of her father. By chance her husband dies in a car accident before changing his will against her and on her inheritance she travels the world, never quite finding what she is looking for.