Plot summary
The book begins with an epigraph from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in which William Blake imagines a conversation with the prophets Isaiah andPart I
In the years after World War II, Mary Hare lives on the outskirts of suburban Sarsaparilla. While possessed with a deep love of nature and animals, she is socially awkward and ostracised from the community, who regard her as an eccentric. Flashbacks to her childhood show her abuse and torment at the hands of her father, a Sydney wine merchant who married above his station and arrogantly squandered his wife’s fortune on the construction of Xanadu, the crumbling estate where Mary now lives. Her distant cousin Eustace Cleugh, who once visited Xanadu but responded to Mary’s childhood infatuation with disdain, has recently resumed financially supporting her after a long absence during the war. She was once nursed back to health from a serious illness by Ruth Godbold, during which she had visions of a fiery chariot; Mary inwardly believes Ruth shares the same vision. With her new means, Mary hires Mrs Jolley to keep house for her. Jolley is outwardly religious but is soon revealed to be a callous, judgemental woman. The pair quickly develop a mutual fear and hostility of one another as Jolley strikes up a friendship with Mrs Flack, a kindred spirit and the town gossip who lives on her own in Sarsaparilla. Seeking refuge from the poisonous atmosphere of Xanadu, Mary takes refuge in the scrubland around the estate and encounters the elderly Mordecai Himmelfarb.Part II
Mordecai shares his life story with Mary as the pair bond under a tree. Born in the 1880s to a wealthy Jewish merchant family in Germany, Mordecai’s early childhood was tinged with the faint awareness of thePart III
Soon after his arrival inPart IV
Ruth is an impoverished and deeply religious woman supporting six young children by taking in laundry from other households. As a child she emigrates to Sydney from Britain after a farming accident kills her brother, and later works as a domestic servant in the household of wealthy socialite Jinny Chalmers-Robinson. She moves to Sarsaparilla with Tom, later revealed to be an abusive and philandering alcoholic. Their marriage comes to an end after she confronts him at a brothel where she also encounters and shows kindness to Alf Dubbo, an Aboriginal man who is treated abusively by the others present.Part V
Mrs Jolley tells Mary she is terminating her service to live with Mrs Flack, and reveals the depths of her own bigotry by scorning Mary’s friendship with Mordecai. The depths of Mordecai’s ostracism from the rest of the Brighta factory workforce are shown. In the factory bathroom, Mordecai finds a copy of the Bible open to the description of the chariot in the Book of Ezekiel. Alf, employed as a cleaner at the factory, comes in to reclaim his book and the men share a terse introduction. Despite Alf’s reticence to open up to Mordecai, both men individually recognise they share a deep spiritual connection over the chariot. Alf’s early life is recounted, including his abduction from his mother and childhood in the home of the Anglican clergyman Timothy Calderon, whose sister encourages his nascent gift for painting. Alf runs away as a teenager after Calderon’s sister catches both men having sex. Arriving in Sydney, he sublets a room from the prostitute Hannah, where he lives a reclusive existence honing his artistic talents by painting scenes of the Gospels. When Hannah steals some of his paintings and sells them, claiming to be helping his financial situation, he is deeply hurt by the betrayal and immediately leaves, later taking a room in Barranugli to work at the bicycle lamp factory.Part VI
In the present day, Easter is looming. Sensing trouble, Rosetree quietly offers Himmelfarb the opportunity to stay at home during Passover. Mordecai also has a sense that there is a conspiracy against him, but he nonetheless returns to the factory on the day beforePart VII
Years later, Xanadu is demolished and sold off by an agent of the beneficiary of Mary’s will, Eustace Cleugh. The land is subdivided for Sydney’s expanding suburban fringe. Mary is presumed dead after leaving Sarsaparilla the night of Mordecai’s death, but her body has never been found. Mrs Jolley discovers that Blue is actually Mrs Flack’s son, born out of wedlock. Separately, Mrs Jolley’s children are revealed to believe her responsible for the death of her husband, preventing her return to Melbourne — a fact Mrs Flack discovers snooping through Mrs Jolley’s letters. Both are condemned to live together in an environment of mutual fear, wary of the power each wields over the other. Rosetree’s wife Shirl, since remarried, is invited to a society lunch with Ruth’s former employer Jinny and another woman. The trio debate whether what occurred at Sarsaparilla was a miracle, and Shirl loses her composure after recalling Harry's suicide. Ruth watches her eldest daughter Else with her new partner Bob Tanner — both of whom helped tend to Mordecai — and realises that he will treat Else with the love and respect that she never knew in her own marriage. Walking past the land that was once Xanadu one day, she is overcome by the memory of Mordecai’s death. On future walks along the same route, she averts her eyes.Characters
The main four characters are outsiders with deeply different lives made more difficult because they are religious visionaries. Each experience the same vision of four horses drawing a chariot into a shining future: the fiery chariot from the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew bible; visions that make them vulnerable to – and affect the way they deal with – the wily plotting of others. Mary Hare - an eccentric and troubled heiress born into a reputable family of early Australian settlers, now living in a decaying estate on the outskirts of Sarsaparilla. Dismissed as mad by most of the townsfolk, she nonetheless perceives with great clarity the events that will lead to the novel’s climax. Mordecai Himmelfarb - A German Jew who leads a distinguished if provincial career as an English professor after decorated service in World War I, until the rising tide of anti-Semitism that accompanies the Third Reich robs him of his wife. He survives the Holocaust and settles in Sydney, taking a job in a machine shop. Ruth Godbold - A devoutly religious woman with a large brood of young children who emigrates to Australia from England after a family tragedy. She briefly enters domestic service before an ill-considered marriage to a tradesman who treats her abusively. Alf Dubbo - A half-Aboriginal member of the Stolen Generations who grows up in the care of a pastor who later sexually abuses him. He flees to Sydney where his artistic impulses are tempered by his mistrust of others and a self-destructive lifestyle. Mrs Jolley - Mary Hare’s housekeeper, who treats her employer with cruel contempt and later leaves to take up residence with Mrs Flack. Mrs Flack - A mean-spirited woman who helps precipitate the events that culminate with the attack on Himmelfarb. Timothy Calderon - A clergyman who raises Alf Dubbo and later sexually abuses him. Jinny Chalmers-Robinson - A wealthy Sydney socialite with a distant relationship to her husband who briefly employs Ruth Godbold in domestic service. Eustace Cleugh - Mary Hare’s distant cousin, the object of her childhood infatuations and later her modest benefactor. Konrad and Ingeborg Stauffer - A liberal couple who shelter Himmelfarb as the Nazi regime’s anti-Semitic policies gradually reach their zenith with the Holocaust. Both are later arrested and presumably executed. Mollie Khalil - The owner of an illegal brothel in Sarsaparilla, where Ruth Godbold confronts her abusive husband. Harry Rosetree - aka Haim Rosenbaum. The owner of the Brighta Bicycle Lamps factory which employs Dubbo and Himmelfarb. Shirl Rosetree - aka Shulamith Rosenbaum. The wife of Harry, who has pushed her husband and raised her children in line with the assimilationist policies of postwar Australia.Setting
Most of the narrative is set in Sarsaparilla, the fictional stand-in for the Sydney suburb of Castle Hill, where White lived with his partner Manoly Lascaris after returning to Australia. Himmelfarb and Dubbo work at a factory in nearby Barranguli, a fictionalised version of Baulkam Hills. The area is today colloquially known as Sydney’s “ Bible belt”.Religious symbolism
The primary form of symbolism within the book is through the chariot (or merkabah) as described in the Book of Ezekiel, a vehicle for God's chosen ones. The novel contains several narrative references to theReception
''Riders in the Chariot'' was singled out for praise by theReferences
{{Patrick White Novels by Patrick White 1961 Australian novels Miles Franklin Award-winning works Novels set in Sydney Eyre & Spottiswoode books NYRB Classics