Katherine Mansfield’s Europe: Station to Station

by Redmer Yska

Beautifully written and illustrated with maps and stunning photography, Katherine Mansfield’ s Europe is part travelogue, part literary biography, part detective story and part ghost story. Guided by Mansfield’ s journals and letters, author Redmer Yska pursues the traces of her restless journeying in Europe, seeking out the places where she lived, worked and – a century ago this year – died.

272 pages, Paperback

Published September 29, 2023

Reviews

[Belinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had enjoyed Yska's "A Strange Beautiful Excitement" so decided to read a library copy of KM's Europe. The fleshing out of Mansfield's life in Europe was interesting, although I knew most of it. What I enjoyed was that there were details that were previously missing in other books, eg: Murry's use of KM's letters and writings to fake a journal, which he sold. I already knew a little about how he sold everything he could of KM's work. I also knew he meddled with what she wrote a la Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, but this detail made me realise just what a cad Murry was.

The book is particularly good because it combines photos and documents within its pages. The reader has the ability to see where Mansfield stayed, what her room looked like, the forest of Fontainebleau, etc. It's nice to "enter" her world in such a way and see how the places she visited or lived in looked when she was alive.

What really emerged for me with greater force than ever before as I finished the book is how tragic, almost unlucky K.M was. She got pregnant, lost her baby, cared for a child of the London slums and - for her love and care - probably caught TB off little Walter (I hadn't known this fact). Then, because she was a writer, and mingled with people who smoked, she acquired the habit and became very addicted. It meant anything and everything she did to alleviate the progress of TB was going to fail, as was her poor diet and the cold places she often lived in. All the travelling, all the stress and life in places where soot claimed the air, were basically undermining lungs that were full of tar.

The final bit of bad luck was marriage to Murry. I think this will be the last time I read a K.M biography because Murry always disgusts me so much. A cold fish would be the best description of the man, but he was also unsupportive, untalented and rarely there. He did to his children what he'd done to K.M too. There is, as far as I'm concerned, little to recommend him, but for some reason Katherine, a romantic through and through, needed to believe in their ideal love story.

I bought the book because I think it's one to add to my Mansfield collection. She was, as far as I am concerned, a genius and a pioneer in the style of Hodgkins or Rita Angus or Mary Oliver.

[ekaterine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful and thought-provoking account of Manfield's journey through Europe. Yska takes us on an incredibly immersive journey, and through examining Mansfield's encounters in Europe, we see that the stages of her life are subsequently revealed. I went into this not knowing much about Katherine Mansfield besides the few novels of hers that I had read, but I found myself deeply enjoying Yska's account of her life. Seeing the misconceptions formed of Katherine from both New Zealand and France, as well as her early pregnancy and her enduring battle with sickness, was something I wasn't expecting to read, but Yska takes the well-revered Katherine Mansfield and shows the reader how very real and human she was too. The accompanying photographs were also beautiful, and the intersection between Mansfield's experience with Europe and Yska's almost a century on made reading this book feel like something truly special and timeless. I would highly recommend it for all those wanting to learn something new or for already-established lovers of Mansfield and her stories. A beautifully executed piece of journalism and history- I will definitely be reading Mansfield's works in a new light from here on out.

[Anne Herbison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb companion to the Claire Harman book about KM. Wonderfully illustrated with maps and photos. The text is framed within the author's search for places KM visited. He discovers the French admirers of KM who have kept her story alive. New Zealand rushed to keep up (somewhat embarrassingly) but also to correct some misconceptions about her. Yska also reveals aspects of KM of which were new to me.

[Marg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Redmer Yska’s book brings a refreshing angle to the well-trodden Mansfield path. The desperate searches for a cure to her TB shape her journeys; the fly ravages Europe. Such an interesting read in the wake of our own pandemic.

[Helen Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful read and such a lovely complement to my two previous KM reads Wild Places and All Sorts of Lives. Beautifully illustrated with maps, quotes and photographs it made me want to travel in Katherine’s footsteps.

[Karen Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was utterly enchanted by this book. I loved the writing, the context and the discovery contained within its pages.

As a person who uses travel to unpick and discover, to look at tiny experiences outside the norm this book carried me on that sort of journey.

The pictorial aspect transported me into the landscape Mansfield inhabited. I dearly recall my extremely short time in Menton, its charm, and exploring those streets, my experience was rich as I stayed with a friend, that year's Menton beneficiary.

Yska navigates the perfect balance between Mansfield's writing, feelings, relationships, desire to travel and explore, and devastating impact of her health.

A must read for anyone with an interest in Mansfield, or those discovering the landscape of her being, life and work.

Another of the books I am reading in this, the centenary year of her death.