RIDERS IN THE CHARIOT (532 pp.)Patrick WhiteViking ($5.95).
Australia's Patrick White, while still a lamb in the field of letters, was unfortunately carried away by a big bad Woolf named Virginia. He still listens with the Bloomsbury ear, speaks in the Bloomsbury accentbroadened by a slight Australian snarl. In Britain, where Woolf's Bloomsbury is still held dear as well as precious, critics say he listens acutely and speaks with distinction. They have greeted all five of his novels (e.g., Voss, The Tree of Man) with little civil cries of educated pleasure. U.S. reviewers have...