Patrick White Libri

Elizabeth Hunter, matriarca australiana ottantenne, inchiodata al letto, riceve la visita - nella sua dimora di Sydney - dei suoi due figli, entrambi di carattere debole ed entrambi spinti a riavvicinarsi alla madre dal bisogno economico: Basil, attore insignito del titolo di baronetto, e Dorothy, che ha sposato un principe francese, trasferitisi molti anni prima in Europa. Mentre le trame dei figli, dell'avvocato, delle infermiere continuano a sollecitare la sua cattiveria e la sua furbizia, Elizabeth Hunter rievoca la sua vita matrimoniale, fatta di adulteri e fugaci fedeltà. La donna, dotata di particolare fascino e bellezza, ha sempre giocato un'unica carta, quella della sua fortissima femminilità, spinta da uno spasmodico e insaziabile bisogno d'amore. Ancora adesso, Elizabeth continua a esercitare una forte influenza su tutti: come un sole, intorno a lei il mondo continua a girare e a disporsi, sino a un ultimo colpo di coda che farà tremare tutto e tutti. Postfazione di Mario Fortunato.

Paperback edition of a novel by the Australian winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, first published in 1976. It tells of an English woman who is captured by Aborigines after a voyage to Australia ends in shipwreck. In the experiences that follow, she discovers human savagery and her own sensuality. It has some basis in the true story of Eliza Fraser, who was shipwrecked off Queensland in 1836.

Penguin 'Twentieth Century Classics' edition of the autobiography of one of Australia's most controversial and respected authors, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Described as 'A singularly penetrating act of self-scrutiny, a cold, calculating stare into the mirror of the artist's life' (David Lodge, 'Sunday Times'). First published in 1981.

Patrick White's brilliant 1961 novel, set in an Australian suburb, intertwines four deeply different lives. An Aborigine artist, a Holocaust survivor, a beatific washerwoman, and a childlike heiress are each blessed—and stricken—with visionary experiences that may or may not allow them to transcend the machinations of their fellow men. Tender and lacerating, pure and profane, subtle and sweeping, Riders in the Chariot is one of the Nobel Prize winner's boldest books.

Stan Parker, with only a horse and a dog for company journeys to a remote patch of land he has inherited in the Australian hills. Once the land is cleared and a rudimentary house built, he brings his wife Amy to the wilderness. Together they face lives of joy and sorrow as they struggle against the environment.

First published in 1979, this is the second-last novel published by the only Australian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The sexually ambiguous Eddie Twyborn is encountered in three stages of his life - as Eudoxia, the lover of an elderly Greek man; as Eddie, a jackeroo in the Australian outback; and as Eadith, the madam of a high-class London brothel. This is a paperback reprint in the 'Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics' series.

Hurtle Duffield is incapable of loving anything except what he paints. It is only when Hurtle meets an egocentric adolescent whom he sees as his spiritual child does he experience a deeper, more treacherous emotion.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANESet in nineteenth-century Australia, Voss is the story of the secret passion between an explorer and a naïve young woman. Although they have met only on a few occasions, Voss and Laura are joined by overwhelming, obsessive feelings for each other. Voss sets out to cross the continent, and as hardships, mutiny and betrayal whittle away his power to endure and to lead, his attachment to Laura gradually increases. Laura, waiting in Sydney, moves through the months of separation as if they were a dream and Voss the only reality.

These six novels and stories probe beneath the confused surface to expose the true nature of things. This book includes "A Woman's Hand", "The Full Belly", "The Night, the Prowler", "Five-Twenty", "Sicilian Vespers" and "The Cockatoos".