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Le recueil le plus caractéristique de l'art de Katherine Mansfield, l'une des plus grandes nouvellistes du xxe siècle, morte à 33 ans il y a tout juste cent ans. Ce soir, Bertha Young reçoit. Les préparatifs du dîner requièrent tous ses soins et la comblent de joies à venir. Des amis chers, un mari espiègle, un bébé... sa vie n'est-elle pas comme ce poirier chargé de fruits ? Il y aura les Knight et aussi Pearl, une jeune femme énigmatique dont Bertha se sent étrangement proche. Si seulement Harry voulait lui montrer plus d'égards...
Un sens douloureux de l'observation, une délicatesse de touche inouie, un mélange de gravité et d'insoutenable légèreté caractérisent l'art subtil de Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), à son acmé dans ce recueil qui renferme l'une de ses plus fameuses nouvelles et peut-être la plus intime, Prélude . " Je ne voulais pas me l'avouer, dira Virginia Woolf, mais j'étais jalouse de son écriture. Elle avait la vibration. "
Un sens douloureux de l'observation, une délicatesse de touche inouie, un mélange de gravité et d'insoutenable légèreté caractérisent l'art subtil de Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), à son acmé dans ce recueil qui renferme l'une de ses plus fameuses nouvelles et peut-être la plus intime, Prélude . " Je ne voulais pas me l'avouer, dira Virginia Woolf, mais j'étais jalouse de son écriture. Elle avait la vibration. "
288 pages, Paperback
Published January 5, 2023
About the author
Katherine Mansfield
1,068 books1,276 followersKathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp) was a prominent New Zealand modernist writer of short fiction who wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield.
Katherine Mansfield is widely considered one of the best short story writers of her period. A number of her works, including "Miss Brill", "Prelude", "The Garden Party", "The Doll's House", and later works such as "The Fly", are frequently collected in short story anthologies. Mansfield also proved ahead of her time in her adoration of Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov, and incorporated some of his themes and techniques into her writing.
Katherine Mansfield was part of a "new dawn" in English literature with T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. She was associated with the brilliant group of writers who made the London of the period the centre of the literary world.
Nevertheless, Mansfield was a New Zealand writer - she could not have written as she did had she not gone to live in England and France, but she could not have done her best work if she had not had firm roots in her native land. She used her memories in her writing from the beginning, people, the places, even the colloquial speech of the country form the fabric of much of her best work.
Mansfield's stories were the first of significance in English to be written without a conventional plot. Supplanting the strictly structured plots of her predecessors in the genre (Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells), Mansfield concentrated on one moment, a crisis or a turning point, rather than on a sequence of events. The plot is secondary to mood and characters. The stories are innovative in many other ways. They feature simple things - a doll's house or a charwoman. Her imagery, frequently from nature, flowers, wind and colours, set the scene with which readers can identify easily.
Themes too are universal: human isolation, the questioning of traditional roles of men and women in society, the conflict between love and disillusionment, idealism and reality, beauty and ugliness, joy and suffering, and the inevitability of these paradoxes. Oblique narration (influenced by Chekhov but certainly developed by Mansfield) includes the use of symbolism - the doll's house lamp, the fly, the pear tree - hinting at the hidden layers of meaning. Suggestion and implication replace direct detail.
Katherine Mansfield is widely considered one of the best short story writers of her period. A number of her works, including "Miss Brill", "Prelude", "The Garden Party", "The Doll's House", and later works such as "The Fly", are frequently collected in short story anthologies. Mansfield also proved ahead of her time in her adoration of Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov, and incorporated some of his themes and techniques into her writing.
Katherine Mansfield was part of a "new dawn" in English literature with T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. She was associated with the brilliant group of writers who made the London of the period the centre of the literary world.
Nevertheless, Mansfield was a New Zealand writer - she could not have written as she did had she not gone to live in England and France, but she could not have done her best work if she had not had firm roots in her native land. She used her memories in her writing from the beginning, people, the places, even the colloquial speech of the country form the fabric of much of her best work.
Mansfield's stories were the first of significance in English to be written without a conventional plot. Supplanting the strictly structured plots of her predecessors in the genre (Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells), Mansfield concentrated on one moment, a crisis or a turning point, rather than on a sequence of events. The plot is secondary to mood and characters. The stories are innovative in many other ways. They feature simple things - a doll's house or a charwoman. Her imagery, frequently from nature, flowers, wind and colours, set the scene with which readers can identify easily.
Themes too are universal: human isolation, the questioning of traditional roles of men and women in society, the conflict between love and disillusionment, idealism and reality, beauty and ugliness, joy and suffering, and the inevitability of these paradoxes. Oblique narration (influenced by Chekhov but certainly developed by Mansfield) includes the use of symbolism - the doll's house lamp, the fly, the pear tree - hinting at the hidden layers of meaning. Suggestion and implication replace direct detail.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 25, 2018
Il sorriso di uno sconosciuto
Tempo fa mi trovavo alla stazione di Cremona, in attesa di un treno che mi riportasse a casa. Non avevo niente da leggere con me, perciò scrutavo con attenzione l’espositore della piccola edicola cercando qualcosa che mi tenesse compagnia durante il breve viaggio di ritorno. A un tratto qualcuno dice: “Aspetta”. Un ragazzo giovane, forse uno studente delle superiori, mi sorride, fruga nel suo zaino e mi porge un piccolo libretto sgualcito, questo. Neanche il tempo di ringraziarlo che… “Ciao!”, dice, ed è sparito.
I racconti di Katherine Mansfield li ho conosciuti così: questo libretto ne contiene solo quattro, ma così incantevoli che sono bastati per farmi acquistare in seguito l’edizione completa.
La prosa della Mansfield è sorprendentemente delicata e libera e scapestrata e dolce e ironica e lieve e scarna e cinica quanto basta… no, non cinica, meglio realistica. Lei è la più brava di tutte, la migliore!
”Credo che le persone siano come valigie, riempite di questo o quello, spedite, sbatacchiate, scaraventate in aria, sbattute per terra, perdute e ritrovate, d'un tratto vuotate a metà, o di nuovo stipate da scoppiare, finché l'Ultimo Facchino le lancia sull'Ultimo Treno, e filano via sferragliando”.
Tempo fa mi trovavo alla stazione di Cremona, in attesa di un treno che mi riportasse a casa. Non avevo niente da leggere con me, perciò scrutavo con attenzione l’espositore della piccola edicola cercando qualcosa che mi tenesse compagnia durante il breve viaggio di ritorno. A un tratto qualcuno dice: “Aspetta”. Un ragazzo giovane, forse uno studente delle superiori, mi sorride, fruga nel suo zaino e mi porge un piccolo libretto sgualcito, questo. Neanche il tempo di ringraziarlo che… “Ciao!”, dice, ed è sparito.
I racconti di Katherine Mansfield li ho conosciuti così: questo libretto ne contiene solo quattro, ma così incantevoli che sono bastati per farmi acquistare in seguito l’edizione completa.
La prosa della Mansfield è sorprendentemente delicata e libera e scapestrata e dolce e ironica e lieve e scarna e cinica quanto basta… no, non cinica, meglio realistica. Lei è la più brava di tutte, la migliore!
”Credo che le persone siano come valigie, riempite di questo o quello, spedite, sbatacchiate, scaraventate in aria, sbattute per terra, perdute e ritrovate, d'un tratto vuotate a metà, o di nuovo stipate da scoppiare, finché l'Ultimo Facchino le lancia sull'Ultimo Treno, e filano via sferragliando”.
October 13, 2025
Berta es una mujer de treinta años, casada y con una hija pequeña. Siente que su vida está completa, y que es completamente feliz. En estas veintidós páginas Katherine Mansfield nos muestra primero la exultación de una mujer que se sabe feliz pero que no quiere demostrarlo por las convenciones sociales, pero más adelante se ve que esta felicidad que presume está basada en un cúmulo de circunstancias superficiales, en las que si rascas un poco la pintura o levantas la alfombra, seguramente se abra al caja de Pandora.
Es increíble como en pocas páginas esta autora puede transmitir tanto.
Es increíble como en pocas páginas esta autora puede transmitir tanto.
January 30, 2022
''¿𝘘𝘶𝘦́ 𝘱𝘶𝘦𝘥𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘰 𝘴𝘪, 𝘢𝘶́𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢 𝘢𝘯̃𝘰𝘴, 𝘢𝘭 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘢 𝘦𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘥𝘦 𝘴𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘥𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘰́𝘯 𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘥, 𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘢, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘰 𝘴𝘪 𝘥𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘣𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘥𝘰 𝘶𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘻𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘭 𝘴𝘰𝘭 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘺 𝘦́𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘢𝘳𝘢 𝘦𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘰, 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘻𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘢 𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘥𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘶 𝘤𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘰?''
Creo que este es mi cuento favorito de Katherine Mansfield por todo lo que me hace sentir..
Me gusta mucho como empieza con una atmófera cálidad de felicidad.. pero conforme avanza el relato, te das cuento de que solo era algo superficial y eso me hace desconfiar bastante de la felicidad que puedo sentir en ciertos momentos..
Creo que este es mi cuento favorito de Katherine Mansfield por todo lo que me hace sentir..
Me gusta mucho como empieza con una atmófera cálidad de felicidad.. pero conforme avanza el relato, te das cuento de que solo era algo superficial y eso me hace desconfiar bastante de la felicidad que puedo sentir en ciertos momentos..
November 23, 2025
⭐⭐⭐✨
Todo el universo confabulaba en pro de la felicidad de Berta, que sólo lamentaba la rigidez de unas normas sociales que le impedían dar rienda suelta a la inmensa alegría que sentía en su corazón.
Tanta dicha es sospechosa y es imposible no esperar algo que turbe su ánimo, algo que efectivamente ocurrirá al final de una cena que Berta celebra en casa con sus excéntricos amigos. ¿Hubiera preferido no saberlo?
Todo el universo confabulaba en pro de la felicidad de Berta, que sólo lamentaba la rigidez de unas normas sociales que le impedían dar rienda suelta a la inmensa alegría que sentía en su corazón.
“… lo tenía todo: era joven; Harry y ella se querían más que nunca, llevándose muy bien; tenía una niña adorable; no le agobiaban preocupaciones económicas; vivían en una hermosa casa, con jardín, que reunía todas las condiciones deseables, y tenían amigos, modernos e interesantes: escritores, pintores, poetas y hombres de mundo…, precisamente la clase de amistades que a ambos les gustaban. Y, para colmo de su dicha, había descubierto una modista maravillosa, el próximo verano saldrían de viaje por el extranjero, y su nueva cocinera sabía hacer unas tortillas sabrosísimas…”
Tanta dicha es sospechosa y es imposible no esperar algo que turbe su ánimo, algo que efectivamente ocurrirá al final de una cena que Berta celebra en casa con sus excéntricos amigos. ¿Hubiera preferido no saberlo?
January 17, 2025
Il me semble que je connais Katherine Mansfield depuis toujours mais que je ne l'ai jamais vraiment lu. J'ai lu son Journal il y a longtemps et je n'en garde aucun souvenir. Je me suis donc plongée dans les nouvelles, curieuse d'enfin la connaître, mais j'ai trouvé cela terriblement insatisfaisant car j'avais toujours l'impression de début de roman qui finalement n'aboutissaient pas (il n'y a jamais de 'chute' à ses nouvelles). Néanmoins, Mansfield a un incontestable talent de romancière, et aucune nouvelle ne ressemble à la précédente, ce qui nous fait encore plus regretter sa mort prématurée. Ce qui m'a le plus frappé, cela dit, c'est à quel point elle a le style '1920-1930' qu'on retrouve aussi chez Virginia Woolf, avec qui elle était amie.
April 15, 2025
Tuve que leer "Felicidad" para la facultad y al terminar el cuento no lo comprendí, después de leer un análisis entendí (que el cuento) que representa la comunicación y la confianza; como amabas se ven en la relación de Berta con Harry y/o Perla.
Creo que ambos personajes son puntos extremos, Perla siendo la confianza silenciosa y Harry siendo la desconfianza visible.
Creo que ambos personajes son puntos extremos, Perla siendo la confianza silenciosa y Harry siendo la desconfianza visible.
May 25, 2021
Solo leí el cuento Felicidad y la verdad es que no me gustó mucho. De hecho la protagonista durante todo el cuento no me cayó bien. El final un poco que no lo entendí muy bien. No me gustan mucho los cuentos con ese estilo.
July 10, 2022
Buena lectura para sobrellevar el insomnio.
December 7, 2025
Nice, but not what I was expecting
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews