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The Collected Stories
The 73 three short stories and 15 unfinished fragments contained in this volume represent the whole range of Katherine Mansfield's writing. Contemporary critics compared her to Chekhov in her treatment of apparently trifling incidents and her symbolic use of objects to convey powerful atmosphere.
779 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1945
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About the author
Katherine Mansfield
983 books1,211 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 - 30 of 210 reviews
November 19, 2016
I was going through my books, almost forgotten now than I am cheating on them with my kindle (not so often, mind you!), and I found an old favorite that I read many years ago. I enjoyed so much these short-stories, I had to include The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield here. When you read her marvelous stories, you travel throughout Europe and meet common or peculiar people. Overall, their reading is a timeless experience. Mansfield had the talent to write apparently simplistic stories that are rich in their meaning. Some of my favorites are: ‘Miss Brill’, ‘Je ne Parle pas Français’ and ‘Marriage a la Mode’. I also loved the collection included in ‘The German Pension’ and The Garden Party.
From Miss Brill:
Give it a try if you never had the pleasure of readimg one of her stories, great chance you will enjoy it!
From Miss Brill:
“She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn't listen, at sitting in other people's lives just for a minute while they talked round her.”From The Garden Party and Other Stories:
“You are a Queen. Let mine be the joy of giving you your kingdom.”From The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield:
“Regret is an appalling waste of energy, and no one who intends to be a writer can afford to indulge in it.”
Give it a try if you never had the pleasure of readimg one of her stories, great chance you will enjoy it!
December 7, 2017
I love these short stories so much. Of course, the one is better than another but... they're great. The way she makes a short story feel as a full novel, that's masterful. You get the feeling they are complete, that nothing is missing. They are a full grown entity on theirselves. The way she descripes what happens or often, what things look like, what people hear or see, how things are, what people think... it's so precise and accurate. Her stories are like little jewels wrapped in silk and step for step the jewel gets unfold until she is there in her most precious way of being.
July 17, 2023
Why is it so difficult to write simply - and not simply only but sotto voce, if you know what I mean? That is how I long to write. No fine effects - no bravura. But just the plain truth, as only a liar can tell it.
(A Married Man's Story)
This striking extract from Mansfield's unfinished story 'A Married Man's Story' almost reads like a cutting from her journal: that concept of writing sotto voce is one of the best ways of describing a crucial quality of Mansfield's art - not just capturing interiority but also that sense of things that the character wants to say and yet daren't quite say out loud. It's interesting that she puts these words into the mouth of a male character - but, then, androgyny was something that Mansfield embraced - and also foregrounds that tension between 'plain truth' and 'as only a liar can tell it'.
Because for all the 'truth' of Mansfield's stories, there's simultaneously something artfully constructed about them. Characters are performative and fluid, and theatrical similes and metaphors abound. From the teacher in 'A Singing Lesson' who acts the strict schoolmistress while processing the heartbreaking news of a letter she's just received, to the eponymous Miss Brill who finds her role rejected by her audience who place her in quite a different way, to the inner lives of so many married couples which radically contest their surface ways of beings, Mansfield excavates a sense of what's hidden, subterranean, never fully acknowledged... until it pours out as a kind of muted epiphany.
This collection comprises the volumes Bliss and Other Stories, The Garden Party and Other Stories, In a German Pension together with early stories and unfinished tales. It's fascinating to see how the early stories already gesture towards key Mansfield themes but feel less polished, less dense, the writing and conceptualisation less layered. For one of the things that is so distinctively Mansfield is the way she is so accessible, so seemingly straightforward ('no fine effects - no bravura') while adding symbolic resonance via tone, rhythm and imagery.
At heart, these stories rest on an un-reconcilable conflict between a frantic, gorgeous embracing of life and a melancholic sense of the betrayals of love, of confidence and the presence of death. It's hard not to attribute this to Mansfield's ill health and fore-shortened life, her untimely death at the age of just 34 when she had so much she wanted to do and write. There's a sense of rootlessness, restlessness, so many stories involving travel, something attributed, probably rightly, to Mansfield's own sense of being a 'colonial', hence an outsider to some extent and an observer, but which also seems to be something intrinsic to her personality.
These glorious, artful stories are all the evidence we need to understand why Mansfield was a writer of whom Virginia Woolf was jealous: as Woolf wrote in her diary, there's 'no point in writing any more... Katherine won't read it... Katherine's my rival no longer'.
December 22, 2023
Katherine Mansfield née Beauchamp
Wrote many a Short Story—
Though some say she was a Vamp—
Why should that make you sorry?
The most important Thing in Life is
Not Whom you go to Bed with
But How you wake up after Crisis—
I can’t recall who said this—
Relationships are difficult
From every Side of Sex—
Unless you join a Sixties Cult
Where they cease to exist—
Besides had you a serious Case
Of K’s Tuberculosis—
Would you wear a studious Face
And prance around—like Moses?—
Your time on Earth is limited—
This you don’t have to learn—
But in a life inhibited
Your Candle won’t less burn—
This was supposed to be a Review—
Not a self-help Column—
When did I shift my Point-of-View
And get to be so—solemn?
Perhaps it was while reading “Bliss”
A Story about Delusion
Where in lieu of a deep—long—Kiss
I got a sad Conclusion—
Mansfield was so good at these un-
Expected final twists—
I daresay her Stories—um—
Did more than match—my Wits—
Read
May 2, 2019This book lay unread on a shelf for years and years. If I had known what treasures it contained, it most definitely would not have remained unopened.
I read it during a particularly busy month of my life so I've had no time to write a review. However, I did find time to post update notes as I made my way through the eighty-eight stories, and they provide some idea of the themes and style of the various collections in this volume. I've included them here instead of a review.
The first story in this collection of short story collections is called Prelude and at 50 pages is almost a novella. I thought at first Mansfield should have continued it but then realised it works perfectly as it is. She is good at describing the very imaginative way children experience the world, something most of us tend to forget once we reach adulthood. How has she retained such clear memories?
The next story, Je Ne Parle Pas Français is a curious one showing Mansfield's idiosyncratic approach to narrative. The narrator projects himself as a faithful dog some of the time - we see him wag his tail or slump his ears depending on events. And the crux of the story is slowly and perfectly revealed.
Blissreminded me of Virginia Woolf's writing, especially in Mrs Dalloway, but with an added brittleness. We see more cracks.
The Wind Blows and Mr Peacock's Day are like two sides of the same story, the one from the p.o.v. of a girl attending music lessons, the other from the p.o.v. of a singing teacher.
Psychology and Pictures both reveal how good Mansfield is at endings when she chooses to offer them.
Sun and Moon offer excellent insight into a child's mind.
The dilemma of The Man Without a Temperament has stayed with me all day.
Feuille d'Album: a tiny story but rich, like an egg.
Dill Pickle: longer and sharper.
The Little Governess: even longer but oddly, neither sharp nor rich.
Revelations: it's as if KM's conscience about her privileged existence is bothering her in this one.
The Escape: sudden shifts in p.o.v. make this one very interesting.
That story marks the end of the first collection in this volume, Bliss, dated 1920.
The first story in The Garden-Party collection is called At the Bay, and at 40 pages long, and divided into sections, it is almost a novella. To my great surprise and pleasure, it picks up the story of the characters in the almost-novella Prelude that began the first collection. I remember wishing I could read more about those characters and now I have! Both stories are set in Tasmania or New Zealand, I think..
After At the Bay, I skipped forward to the final collection in this volume, In a German Pension because it seems to have been written first and I was curious to read Mansfield's first experiments with short stories. The thirteen very short tales are all set in Germany; almost all are about the clients of a particular boarding house in a spa town where they are all on a cure. The odd characters drift in and out of the stories which are mostly narrated by a young English woman with a very satirical voice.
Back to the The Garden Party collection: the title story examines class differences. Mansfield does this from time to time in her stories, as if her conscience sometimes needles her, though most of the stories in the first collection I read were filled with people who were privileged and had no thought for those who provide their comforts. However, more of the stories in this later collection question inequalities in society.
The Dove's Nest collection is dedicated to Walter de la Mare. Just as in the earlier collections in this volume, it begins with a story about the Burnell family, the characters I'd enjoyed so much in Prelude and At the Bay. K M must have been working up to a novel with this set of characters. If she'd written it, I'd have read it.
The other five stories in the collection haven't got the same energy.
In A Truthful Adventure from the Something Childish collection, one of the characters is traveling to the city I live in. Nothing unusual about that you might say except that the city is rarely mentioned in literature. I remember that Nabokov also has a character who travels here. When I read his book, I wondered if N had visited the city himself and if he'd scratched his name on a monument like another famous author had done. Can't imagine KM leaving any graffiti though..
From Violet, also in the Something Childish collection, this interesting observation which gives a flavour of the ironic tone of many of Mansfield's young female narrators: There is a very unctuous and irritating proverb to the effect that every cloud has a silver lining. What comfort can it be to one steeped in clouds to ponder over the linings, and what an unpleasant picture-postcard seal it sets upon one's tragedy, turning it into a little ha'penny monstrosity with a moon in the lefthand corner like a vainglorious threepenny bit! Nevertheless, like most unctuous things, it is true..
I read it during a particularly busy month of my life so I've had no time to write a review. However, I did find time to post update notes as I made my way through the eighty-eight stories, and they provide some idea of the themes and style of the various collections in this volume. I've included them here instead of a review.
The first story in this collection of short story collections is called Prelude and at 50 pages is almost a novella. I thought at first Mansfield should have continued it but then realised it works perfectly as it is. She is good at describing the very imaginative way children experience the world, something most of us tend to forget once we reach adulthood. How has she retained such clear memories?
The next story, Je Ne Parle Pas Français is a curious one showing Mansfield's idiosyncratic approach to narrative. The narrator projects himself as a faithful dog some of the time - we see him wag his tail or slump his ears depending on events. And the crux of the story is slowly and perfectly revealed.
Blissreminded me of Virginia Woolf's writing, especially in Mrs Dalloway, but with an added brittleness. We see more cracks.
The Wind Blows and Mr Peacock's Day are like two sides of the same story, the one from the p.o.v. of a girl attending music lessons, the other from the p.o.v. of a singing teacher.
Psychology and Pictures both reveal how good Mansfield is at endings when she chooses to offer them.
Sun and Moon offer excellent insight into a child's mind.
The dilemma of The Man Without a Temperament has stayed with me all day.
Feuille d'Album: a tiny story but rich, like an egg.
Dill Pickle: longer and sharper.
The Little Governess: even longer but oddly, neither sharp nor rich.
Revelations: it's as if KM's conscience about her privileged existence is bothering her in this one.
The Escape: sudden shifts in p.o.v. make this one very interesting.
That story marks the end of the first collection in this volume, Bliss, dated 1920.
The first story in The Garden-Party collection is called At the Bay, and at 40 pages long, and divided into sections, it is almost a novella. To my great surprise and pleasure, it picks up the story of the characters in the almost-novella Prelude that began the first collection. I remember wishing I could read more about those characters and now I have! Both stories are set in Tasmania or New Zealand, I think..
After At the Bay, I skipped forward to the final collection in this volume, In a German Pension because it seems to have been written first and I was curious to read Mansfield's first experiments with short stories. The thirteen very short tales are all set in Germany; almost all are about the clients of a particular boarding house in a spa town where they are all on a cure. The odd characters drift in and out of the stories which are mostly narrated by a young English woman with a very satirical voice.
Back to the The Garden Party collection: the title story examines class differences. Mansfield does this from time to time in her stories, as if her conscience sometimes needles her, though most of the stories in the first collection I read were filled with people who were privileged and had no thought for those who provide their comforts. However, more of the stories in this later collection question inequalities in society.
The Dove's Nest collection is dedicated to Walter de la Mare. Just as in the earlier collections in this volume, it begins with a story about the Burnell family, the characters I'd enjoyed so much in Prelude and At the Bay. K M must have been working up to a novel with this set of characters. If she'd written it, I'd have read it.
The other five stories in the collection haven't got the same energy.
In A Truthful Adventure from the Something Childish collection, one of the characters is traveling to the city I live in. Nothing unusual about that you might say except that the city is rarely mentioned in literature. I remember that Nabokov also has a character who travels here. When I read his book, I wondered if N had visited the city himself and if he'd scratched his name on a monument like another famous author had done. Can't imagine KM leaving any graffiti though..
From Violet, also in the Something Childish collection, this interesting observation which gives a flavour of the ironic tone of many of Mansfield's young female narrators: There is a very unctuous and irritating proverb to the effect that every cloud has a silver lining. What comfort can it be to one steeped in clouds to ponder over the linings, and what an unpleasant picture-postcard seal it sets upon one's tragedy, turning it into a little ha'penny monstrosity with a moon in the lefthand corner like a vainglorious threepenny bit! Nevertheless, like most unctuous things, it is true..
April 21, 2023
"What I feel for you can’t be conveyed in phrasal combinations; It either screams out loud or stays painfully silent but I promise — it beats words. It beats worlds.”
Katherine Mansfield understands how my heart beats, why it sings for that singular flower in the wasteland or swoons over that lusciously green forest, but most importantly, why I choose her writing over others. The simple fact of the matter is that Mansfield wrote with every fibre of her being, so that I may feel her delight or agony in every sentence. It's a difficult thing to do, letting loose, and she, like a select few authors I've familiarised myself with, are able to do so.
There are many themes within this collection, and I believe there is something to reward everybody, especially those that seek it. There is the subject of marriage and the concern of losing oneself once joined with another, childhood fears, the uneasiness of being alone, and other general life struggles that many go on to experience. She examines each of these themes with ease and I found myself comfortably exploring the extent of Mansfield's mind.
Mansfield wrote with such depth and love for the world around her, and this is reflected in each story. We are taken around the world in a whimsical fashion with all the sights and scents of the spectacular world we live in. I love it when an author is able to capture such detail in their writing.
One of the greatest aspects of Mansfield's writing are her characters. They don't follow a set theme, and they flourish being their own authentic selves, which is a delight to read. The only thing I would mention is the desire to know the characters better than I did, which was unable to happen, because of the shortness of the stories. Mansfield was ahead of her time, and she knew that having the freedom to be oneself was paramount, and I strongly believe that her and I would have broken the mould together.
It is a shame Mansfield passed away as young as she did, as I believe she was just getting started, and her love of the world fascinates me, but honestly, I'm just grateful to be able to savour her stories in the present, to appreciate such a magnificent writer each day of my life.
I have added a few of my favourite quotes;
"The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books."
"The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody's fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind."
"And I love you-I love you; the humiliation of it-I adore you. Don't-don't, just a minute let me stay here, just a moment in a whole life..."
Katherine Mansfield understands how my heart beats, why it sings for that singular flower in the wasteland or swoons over that lusciously green forest, but most importantly, why I choose her writing over others. The simple fact of the matter is that Mansfield wrote with every fibre of her being, so that I may feel her delight or agony in every sentence. It's a difficult thing to do, letting loose, and she, like a select few authors I've familiarised myself with, are able to do so.
There are many themes within this collection, and I believe there is something to reward everybody, especially those that seek it. There is the subject of marriage and the concern of losing oneself once joined with another, childhood fears, the uneasiness of being alone, and other general life struggles that many go on to experience. She examines each of these themes with ease and I found myself comfortably exploring the extent of Mansfield's mind.
Mansfield wrote with such depth and love for the world around her, and this is reflected in each story. We are taken around the world in a whimsical fashion with all the sights and scents of the spectacular world we live in. I love it when an author is able to capture such detail in their writing.
One of the greatest aspects of Mansfield's writing are her characters. They don't follow a set theme, and they flourish being their own authentic selves, which is a delight to read. The only thing I would mention is the desire to know the characters better than I did, which was unable to happen, because of the shortness of the stories. Mansfield was ahead of her time, and she knew that having the freedom to be oneself was paramount, and I strongly believe that her and I would have broken the mould together.
It is a shame Mansfield passed away as young as she did, as I believe she was just getting started, and her love of the world fascinates me, but honestly, I'm just grateful to be able to savour her stories in the present, to appreciate such a magnificent writer each day of my life.
I have added a few of my favourite quotes;
"The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books."
"The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody's fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind."
"And I love you-I love you; the humiliation of it-I adore you. Don't-don't, just a minute let me stay here, just a moment in a whole life..."
April 22, 2023
She is an amazingly good writer, rich and lively and lovely with her English, and her stories are totally accessible, entertaining, and meaningful 💕
July 3, 2022
When it comes to short stories, how short is short exactly?
I can't tell you the number of time that question prevented me from reading short stories in the past. It's not that it's a bad genre. It's just that I don't want a story to be over so soon!
Then I bumped into one of the short story books by Katherine Mansfield titled 'Bliss & Other Stories' last month. It was a bliss indeed and now I can't stop reading them!
After doing some search, I found my way to this collection of her five short story books in the end of 2021. It was a blessing! I’ll write the reviews of these five books separately.
For this collection, my overall rating is ★★★★½ and here are my ranks as well as ratings for the five books in it:
1. Bliss and Other Stories with ★★★★☆
2. The Doves' Nest and Other Stories with ★★★★☆
3. In a German Pension and Other Stories with ★★★★☆
4. Something Childish and Other Stories with ★★★★☆
5. The Garden Party and Other Stories with ★★★½
This collection takes me on some journeys into different lives and I like how nicely written they were! Moreover, some of the stories carry my imagination beyond their endings. I can't help but thinking about 'What If...' versions of them which is pretty fun!
There are some stories that I don't particularly like and some of them are indeed too short but the overall reading experience is still nice. I now understand why Katherine Mansfield is widely considered one of the best short story writers of her period.
At the end, it all boils down to the benefits of reading this kind of book and the biggest one to me is exploring different types of stories without the fear of not being able to finish them. It's always nice to finish what you start and I finished each book in this one with a smile!
Picture credit: unsplash.com
October 29, 2014
Last night it was cold and raining with a fierce wind. On the train home all I could think about was soup. I got to the front door before realising I didn't have my keys. Luckily my (slightly unorganised) brother had left a box of books in my garage. I sat down on the broken rocking chair in the damp, cobwebby garage and lost myself in these sad stories. I really like her writing and found it totally fitting. Really good winter reading.
June 24, 2013
Sono sempre stata curiosa a riguardo dell' unico essere di cui Virginia Woolf fosse invidiosa.
E così eccomi qua.
E -vi chiederete voi- l' invidia era giustificata?
Mettiamo per un attimo che voi sbadatamente non abbiate visto le 5 stellette.
Capita talvolta di imbattersi in artisti unici nel loro campo che pur usando le tecniche di altri, magari anche affinandole,riescono a creare qualcosa di unico, Stradivari costruiva violini e altri strumenti (e non è che non si costruissero già da anni prima) in una maniera semplicemente unica e perfetta, che nessuno più nel corso della storia è riuscito ad eguagliare, Michelangelo con marmo di Carrara, utilizzato da tantissimi altri scultori della sua epoca e non solo, ha creato capolavori. E via di questo passo si potrebbe andare avanti alla' infinito, ma devo proprio? Credo che voi abbiate capito benissimo dove voglio arrivare.
Quello che voglio dire è che per essere originali si può essere anche i più tradizionalisti dei tradizionalisti, in ogni caso il mondo lo si può rivoluzionare lo stesso.
Katherine Mansfield ha assorbito ,ed è impregnata, di naturalismo francese. In particolare segue l' amato Cechov.
Tuttavia il clima modernista della letteratura europea dei primi anni del novecento pervade i suoi racconti sempre più di raccolta in raccolta.
E la porta a diventare sempre più originale, sempre più Mansfied.
Non ho mai nascosto la mia preferenza per i racconti a scapito dei romanzi, e quando mi imbatto in racconti come questi rimango basita e ammirata, sono semplicemente perfetti, c' è tutto e in poche pagine eppure non potrebbero essere più completi.
Peccato la Mansfield sia morta così prematuramente e così presto per due motivi principalmente :
1. Avrei proprio voluto sapere cos'altro avrebbe combinato questa donna scapestrata e completamente libera se solo fosse vissuta un ' altro po.
2. Ha lasciato purtroppo troppi racconti incompiuti, fra cui ne ho letti tantissimi di cui vorrei proprio sapere il seguito. Che rabbia! In ogni caso , sempre un ottimo stimolo per l' immaginazione...
E cos' altro aggiungere se non che:se volete scrivere, se volete imparare come si fa, lei non può che aggiungersi alla lunga lista di scrittori da cui avete da imparare.
E così eccomi qua.
E -vi chiederete voi- l' invidia era giustificata?
Mettiamo per un attimo che voi sbadatamente non abbiate visto le 5 stellette.
Capita talvolta di imbattersi in artisti unici nel loro campo che pur usando le tecniche di altri, magari anche affinandole,riescono a creare qualcosa di unico, Stradivari costruiva violini e altri strumenti (e non è che non si costruissero già da anni prima) in una maniera semplicemente unica e perfetta, che nessuno più nel corso della storia è riuscito ad eguagliare, Michelangelo con marmo di Carrara, utilizzato da tantissimi altri scultori della sua epoca e non solo, ha creato capolavori. E via di questo passo si potrebbe andare avanti alla' infinito, ma devo proprio? Credo che voi abbiate capito benissimo dove voglio arrivare.
Quello che voglio dire è che per essere originali si può essere anche i più tradizionalisti dei tradizionalisti, in ogni caso il mondo lo si può rivoluzionare lo stesso.
Katherine Mansfield ha assorbito ,ed è impregnata, di naturalismo francese. In particolare segue l' amato Cechov.
Tuttavia il clima modernista della letteratura europea dei primi anni del novecento pervade i suoi racconti sempre più di raccolta in raccolta.
E la porta a diventare sempre più originale, sempre più Mansfied.
Non ho mai nascosto la mia preferenza per i racconti a scapito dei romanzi, e quando mi imbatto in racconti come questi rimango basita e ammirata, sono semplicemente perfetti, c' è tutto e in poche pagine eppure non potrebbero essere più completi.
Peccato la Mansfield sia morta così prematuramente e così presto per due motivi principalmente :
1. Avrei proprio voluto sapere cos'altro avrebbe combinato questa donna scapestrata e completamente libera se solo fosse vissuta un ' altro po.
2. Ha lasciato purtroppo troppi racconti incompiuti, fra cui ne ho letti tantissimi di cui vorrei proprio sapere il seguito. Che rabbia! In ogni caso , sempre un ottimo stimolo per l' immaginazione...
E cos' altro aggiungere se non che:se volete scrivere, se volete imparare come si fa, lei non può che aggiungersi alla lunga lista di scrittori da cui avete da imparare.
September 2, 2015
This will not be a terribly thoughtful review, just an expression of excitement. I don’t know how I got this far in my life without anybody telling me what a wonderful writer Katherine Mansfield was. She was a master of the modern short story. When I consider most of the 20C short story collections I’ve read, I think that Mansfield got there first, and did it better. And there was a terrible moment when I saw why Virginia Woolf felt so threatened by her, because, if I’d read the book with no cover or front matter, I’d have thought, Wow, Virginia’s in really good form here! I’d only have been puzzled by the references to New Zealand. More thoughts here:
http://alisonkinney.com/category/mans...
Thanks!
http://alisonkinney.com/category/mans...
Thanks!
November 18, 2025
Dopo questa raccolta di racconti si rimane senza parole. Ho frugato in ogni angolo polveroso della mia mente, nel doppiofondo di qualche cassetto, dove custodisco gelosamente la mia scorta, ma non ne ho trovata nemmeno una.
Quindi ho riaperto questo libro, l'ho sfogliato, ho accarezzato con gli occhi i titoli di ogni racconto e le parole di Mansfield hanno sussultato dentro di me, come se ognuna di loro fosse rimasta lì, nascosta ma infrangibile, nella mia memoria.
In questi racconti, scritti più di cent'anni fa, dalla giovanissima e ahimè sfortunata autrice neozelandese, troverete la rappresentazione più appagante dei sentimenti umani: quella vera, senza orpelli. Così è la scrittura di Mansfield, talmente limpida nella descrizione delle emozioni da lasciarvi senza difese, talmente onesta da travalicare un secolo di storia dell'umanità e da restituire noi, esseri umani, esattamente come siamo sempre stati e come, purtroppo o per fortuna, saremo per sempre.
Ogni racconto si apre in medias res e, come una scena teatrale, ci lascia qualche secondo da soli con il personaggio prima di rivelarci la sua identità, dandoci la possibilità, solo studiando le sue azioni, di trarre le nostre conclusioni (molto spesso sbagliate ma che ci dicono parecchio sull'impressione che il personaggio suscita nella sua natura).
Per me è stato impossibile non commuovermi di fronte all'incredibile modernità di Mansfield nel trattare l'espressione dei sentimenti, non sempre aulici ed eterei ma molto più spesso goffi, teneri, a volte imbarazzati. Ed è tutto così decisamente infantile ma, credetemi, molto naturale.
Quindi ho riaperto questo libro, l'ho sfogliato, ho accarezzato con gli occhi i titoli di ogni racconto e le parole di Mansfield hanno sussultato dentro di me, come se ognuna di loro fosse rimasta lì, nascosta ma infrangibile, nella mia memoria.
In questi racconti, scritti più di cent'anni fa, dalla giovanissima e ahimè sfortunata autrice neozelandese, troverete la rappresentazione più appagante dei sentimenti umani: quella vera, senza orpelli. Così è la scrittura di Mansfield, talmente limpida nella descrizione delle emozioni da lasciarvi senza difese, talmente onesta da travalicare un secolo di storia dell'umanità e da restituire noi, esseri umani, esattamente come siamo sempre stati e come, purtroppo o per fortuna, saremo per sempre.
Ogni racconto si apre in medias res e, come una scena teatrale, ci lascia qualche secondo da soli con il personaggio prima di rivelarci la sua identità, dandoci la possibilità, solo studiando le sue azioni, di trarre le nostre conclusioni (molto spesso sbagliate ma che ci dicono parecchio sull'impressione che il personaggio suscita nella sua natura).
Per me è stato impossibile non commuovermi di fronte all'incredibile modernità di Mansfield nel trattare l'espressione dei sentimenti, non sempre aulici ed eterei ma molto più spesso goffi, teneri, a volte imbarazzati. Ed è tutto così decisamente infantile ma, credetemi, molto naturale.
August 29, 2017
atharine Mansfield's opalescent prose, like the diaphanous glimmer of pale winter sunshine on the early morning frost, echoes and reverberates across her stories, suffusing it with a kind of sad, somnolent atmosphere, snapshots into the various facets of human behaviour, although the primary driving force behind Mansfield's portraits is sympathy; sympathy for the vain and vapid; yet endearing Beryl or the impoverished Kelvey family in 'The Doll's House' or the timid and timorous Reginald in the wonderful 'Mrs and Mrs Dove' , Mansfield s uses pathos to explore the desire and motives of her characters, their dreams and hopes and the small, often unnoticed and un-celebrated but important moments of their lives.
The Burnell family are one of the mainstays in Mansfield's stories, with 'Prelude' dealing with their recent move to the country-the story is dominated by light and its resplendence;
"Long pencil rays of sunlight shone through and the wavy shadow of a bush outside danced on the golden lines. Now it was still, now it began to flutter again, and now it came as far as her feet."
"Everything looked different-the painted wooden houses far smaller than they did by day, the gardens far bigger and wilder. Bright stars speckled the sky and the moon hung over the harbour dabbling the waves with gold."
Light is largely symbolic of the story itself, the Burnell's are making a fresh start, of life away form the hustle of the town and into the comparative freedom of the country, yet beneath Mansfield's picaresque prose, there likes a sense of apprehension, from the childish nervousness of Kezia and Lottie to Linda's baleful boredom with her at times fatuous husband husband or Beryl's uncertainty about finding an unsuitable (rich) partner in the country. Few writers explored the inner lives of their female characters with as much depth and subtlety as Mansfield-sometimes, in the case of Beryl's soliloquies on her beauty, the reader becomes more sympathetic than expected, or in the case of Linda's outwardly boorish husband, Mansfield is able to late confound her initial characterisation-and reader expectations, by revealing that beneath the macho posturing he can be a kind and sensitive man, such as when he spends the whole day fretting about not saying goodbye to his wife Linda.
Mansfield's painterly vignettes frequently evoke impressionism and it's obsession with light and natures as Mansfield describes the various textures of the natural world, from her Cezanne like description of a bowl of fruit in 'Je Ne Parle Pas Francais', or the Monet-esque descriptions of moon-light;
"As they stood on the steps, the high grassy bank on which the aloe rested rose up like a wave, and the aloe seemed to ride upon it like a ship with the oars lifted. Bright moon-light hung upon the lifted oars like water, and the green waves glittered in the due."
It is not just the impressionist obsessions with light which Mansfield was influenced by, but also some their social and psychological insights; her intimate and sensual descriptions of the female characters are reminiscent of Renoir, once can also spot the influences of French literature and poetry in some of the melancholic descriptions;
"The far-away sky, a bright, pure blue-was reflected in the puddles and the drops , swimming along the telegraph poles, flashed into points of light. Now the leaping, glittering sea was so bright it made one's eyes ache to look at it."
The other major influences in Mansfield-as with most modern story writers, is of course Chekhov, who Mansfield pastiches and often even plagiarises and whose concern with the down-trodden and pathetic is echoed in Mansfield's work. Yet, despite these obvious influences, Mansfield's art is wholly her original, her themes and style thoroughly post-modern, in which character motives and actions are rarely explained and left ambiguous and her shifts in narrative mean that Mansfield pioneered the post-modern concept of the writer no longer explaining everything to the reader, of engaging them by actively involving them in the art of story-telling and challenging their capacities. Indeed Mansfield's prose could be summed up in the following passage of self-reflection by a character;
"Yet everything had come down the tiniest, minutest particle and she did not feel her bed, she floated, held up in the air. Only she seemed to be listening with her wide open watchful eyes, waiting for someone who just did not come, watching for something to happen than just did not happen."
The Burnell family are one of the mainstays in Mansfield's stories, with 'Prelude' dealing with their recent move to the country-the story is dominated by light and its resplendence;
"Long pencil rays of sunlight shone through and the wavy shadow of a bush outside danced on the golden lines. Now it was still, now it began to flutter again, and now it came as far as her feet."
"Everything looked different-the painted wooden houses far smaller than they did by day, the gardens far bigger and wilder. Bright stars speckled the sky and the moon hung over the harbour dabbling the waves with gold."
Light is largely symbolic of the story itself, the Burnell's are making a fresh start, of life away form the hustle of the town and into the comparative freedom of the country, yet beneath Mansfield's picaresque prose, there likes a sense of apprehension, from the childish nervousness of Kezia and Lottie to Linda's baleful boredom with her at times fatuous husband husband or Beryl's uncertainty about finding an unsuitable (rich) partner in the country. Few writers explored the inner lives of their female characters with as much depth and subtlety as Mansfield-sometimes, in the case of Beryl's soliloquies on her beauty, the reader becomes more sympathetic than expected, or in the case of Linda's outwardly boorish husband, Mansfield is able to late confound her initial characterisation-and reader expectations, by revealing that beneath the macho posturing he can be a kind and sensitive man, such as when he spends the whole day fretting about not saying goodbye to his wife Linda.
Mansfield's painterly vignettes frequently evoke impressionism and it's obsession with light and natures as Mansfield describes the various textures of the natural world, from her Cezanne like description of a bowl of fruit in 'Je Ne Parle Pas Francais', or the Monet-esque descriptions of moon-light;
"As they stood on the steps, the high grassy bank on which the aloe rested rose up like a wave, and the aloe seemed to ride upon it like a ship with the oars lifted. Bright moon-light hung upon the lifted oars like water, and the green waves glittered in the due."
It is not just the impressionist obsessions with light which Mansfield was influenced by, but also some their social and psychological insights; her intimate and sensual descriptions of the female characters are reminiscent of Renoir, once can also spot the influences of French literature and poetry in some of the melancholic descriptions;
"The far-away sky, a bright, pure blue-was reflected in the puddles and the drops , swimming along the telegraph poles, flashed into points of light. Now the leaping, glittering sea was so bright it made one's eyes ache to look at it."
The other major influences in Mansfield-as with most modern story writers, is of course Chekhov, who Mansfield pastiches and often even plagiarises and whose concern with the down-trodden and pathetic is echoed in Mansfield's work. Yet, despite these obvious influences, Mansfield's art is wholly her original, her themes and style thoroughly post-modern, in which character motives and actions are rarely explained and left ambiguous and her shifts in narrative mean that Mansfield pioneered the post-modern concept of the writer no longer explaining everything to the reader, of engaging them by actively involving them in the art of story-telling and challenging their capacities. Indeed Mansfield's prose could be summed up in the following passage of self-reflection by a character;
"Yet everything had come down the tiniest, minutest particle and she did not feel her bed, she floated, held up in the air. Only she seemed to be listening with her wide open watchful eyes, waiting for someone who just did not come, watching for something to happen than just did not happen."
November 25, 2024
Mansfield is one of my favourite authors. I first discovered a battered paperback pirate edition of Journal of Katherine Mansfield in a second-hand shop, and read it literally to pieces before it ocurred to me to look for her short stories. Her writing makes fine end-of-the-day reading; not to sit and read straight through, justlikethat, but to sip and savour. Short story is not usually my favourite genre, but then KM's short stories are completely unorthodox. She herself said that the more she wrote, the more she became aware that "what I am doing has no form!" Or at least no recognisable, codified form for the time.
At last, for the first time, the reader has access to all her stories in one place. Those who have read her Journal in either the short form or the larger, exhaustive Katherine Mansfield Notebooks: Complete Edition will recognise jottings that were later expanded and completed. Even the fragments of scenes collated and published as The Dove's Nest And Other Stories have a finished air about them; some of them shine like jewels. One of my favourites is "The Canary" (1923), a deceptively simple monologue by an older woman. There's "nothing to it"--but there's so much in it!
I wish Penguin had placed the stories and fragments in the order in which they were written, or at least published, so that it would be easier to see the progression in her craftmanship as a writer. As it is, the first collection, In a German Pension: 13 Stories comes at the very end of this edition. I guess you could say it provides a stark contrast with her more mature work; I have to admit I didn't like it much. I don't know whether she was consciously trying to be cynical and blasé, playing to an English audience of the time, or whether she simply disliked Germany, the Germans, and (particularly) their food and conversational habits, and used these stories as an exercise in payback! The influence of other authors is more pronounced in "Pension", particularly Chekov whom Mansfield so admired, in the final story, "A Blaze." If Elsa wasn't inspired by Professor Sebrekov's wife Elena from Uncle Vanya, I'd like very much to know where she came from. Another "German" story, "The Child Who Was Tired", resonates heavily with an older French short story (the name of its author escapes me), also about a child-nursemaid who strangles a baby just so she can get some sleep.
This is one of those books I will return to again and again. Thank you, Kathy.
ETA: The short story that Mansfield copied was by Anton Chekov and one of the English titles for it is "Sleepy." Mansfield was instrumental in translating many of Chekov's works, but in this case admiration spilled over into rank plagiarism. Perhaps she knew few people of the day had or would read it. Not nice at all, Kathy.
At last, for the first time, the reader has access to all her stories in one place. Those who have read her Journal in either the short form or the larger, exhaustive Katherine Mansfield Notebooks: Complete Edition will recognise jottings that were later expanded and completed. Even the fragments of scenes collated and published as The Dove's Nest And Other Stories have a finished air about them; some of them shine like jewels. One of my favourites is "The Canary" (1923), a deceptively simple monologue by an older woman. There's "nothing to it"--but there's so much in it!
I wish Penguin had placed the stories and fragments in the order in which they were written, or at least published, so that it would be easier to see the progression in her craftmanship as a writer. As it is, the first collection, In a German Pension: 13 Stories comes at the very end of this edition. I guess you could say it provides a stark contrast with her more mature work; I have to admit I didn't like it much. I don't know whether she was consciously trying to be cynical and blasé, playing to an English audience of the time, or whether she simply disliked Germany, the Germans, and (particularly) their food and conversational habits, and used these stories as an exercise in payback! The influence of other authors is more pronounced in "Pension", particularly Chekov whom Mansfield so admired, in the final story, "A Blaze." If Elsa wasn't inspired by Professor Sebrekov's wife Elena from Uncle Vanya, I'd like very much to know where she came from. Another "German" story, "The Child Who Was Tired", resonates heavily with an older French short story (the name of its author escapes me), also about a child-nursemaid who strangles a baby just so she can get some sleep.
This is one of those books I will return to again and again. Thank you, Kathy.
ETA: The short story that Mansfield copied was by Anton Chekov and one of the English titles for it is "Sleepy." Mansfield was instrumental in translating many of Chekov's works, but in this case admiration spilled over into rank plagiarism. Perhaps she knew few people of the day had or would read it. Not nice at all, Kathy.
October 8, 2020
Mansfield once wrote: "My deepest desire is to be a writer, to have 'a body of work' done.." - a desire of hers she genuinely devoted to and indisputably fulfilled.
The stories discuss themes such as: the profound impact of childhood upon the development of a person's life, interpersonal relationships, insecurities found within family and marriage, but also isolation, loneliness, escapism, struggle and hardship. Moreover, she touches upon themes like fear of intimacy, fear of losing oneself/one's identity into a relationship, and probes deeply into the second self - more often than not (as seen from the stories) hidden from others.
The stories are written in a highly aesthetic manner and are rich with depth. Mansfield's stories will allow you to journey through Europe and New Zealand, make you feel like you live by the sea, inhale the sea air, or walk the lemon-scented streets of Paris. Personally, the strikingly rich and artistic imagery coincided with some beloved memories of mine: scratching my cat's head, receving a postcard, listening to jazz on a rainy day, eating ice cream on a hot summer afternoon.
The stories burst with fun-loving children, aspiring artists, quarreling adults, wistful romantics, but ultimately lovable and relatable characters. Moreover, many of the characters don't live up to the society's "expected" role of them, but instead cultivate their own authentic self. Mansfield's masterful creations of emotionally raw and intelectually open characters result in providing the reader just enough time to form a personal bond with the character.
In order to set the intimate and serene mood, she embraces meditative elaborations on nature. The sudden revelations of the characters and the emotional subtlety are delivered by the shifts in setting. In terms of language, the stories are rich with vocabulary, endowed with floral metaphors and witty comebacks. The tone of the dialogues between the children is comic and a bit more satirical between the adults. The stories brim with the epiphanies, ideas, thoughts, feelings and daydreams of the characters. Simply taken aback by how briskly Mansfielf travels in and out of the character's mind!
It's a great pity she died so young, since one of her main aims was to celebrate humanity throughout her lifetime. In the speech of Mansfield herself, her stories: "enchant the eye, inspire the soul and fill the mind with the great beauty of contemplation". All considered, Mansfield doubtlessly possessed a beyond extraordinary talent for writing, sharp focus and exquisite observational skills. Warmly recommend!
The stories discuss themes such as: the profound impact of childhood upon the development of a person's life, interpersonal relationships, insecurities found within family and marriage, but also isolation, loneliness, escapism, struggle and hardship. Moreover, she touches upon themes like fear of intimacy, fear of losing oneself/one's identity into a relationship, and probes deeply into the second self - more often than not (as seen from the stories) hidden from others.
The stories are written in a highly aesthetic manner and are rich with depth. Mansfield's stories will allow you to journey through Europe and New Zealand, make you feel like you live by the sea, inhale the sea air, or walk the lemon-scented streets of Paris. Personally, the strikingly rich and artistic imagery coincided with some beloved memories of mine: scratching my cat's head, receving a postcard, listening to jazz on a rainy day, eating ice cream on a hot summer afternoon.
The stories burst with fun-loving children, aspiring artists, quarreling adults, wistful romantics, but ultimately lovable and relatable characters. Moreover, many of the characters don't live up to the society's "expected" role of them, but instead cultivate their own authentic self. Mansfield's masterful creations of emotionally raw and intelectually open characters result in providing the reader just enough time to form a personal bond with the character.
In order to set the intimate and serene mood, she embraces meditative elaborations on nature. The sudden revelations of the characters and the emotional subtlety are delivered by the shifts in setting. In terms of language, the stories are rich with vocabulary, endowed with floral metaphors and witty comebacks. The tone of the dialogues between the children is comic and a bit more satirical between the adults. The stories brim with the epiphanies, ideas, thoughts, feelings and daydreams of the characters. Simply taken aback by how briskly Mansfielf travels in and out of the character's mind!
It's a great pity she died so young, since one of her main aims was to celebrate humanity throughout her lifetime. In the speech of Mansfield herself, her stories: "enchant the eye, inspire the soul and fill the mind with the great beauty of contemplation". All considered, Mansfield doubtlessly possessed a beyond extraordinary talent for writing, sharp focus and exquisite observational skills. Warmly recommend!
January 12, 2010
Mansfield glimmers and sparkles like a Monet painting, and prismatically collects poignant little images and pieces of life. Her short stories thrill me, and whenever I need a new taste of life, I seek her out. Some of her images have captured me for years, and have become private jokes. When the woman meets a man she once loved in Dill Pickle and “the tiger which had slumbered peacefully roused and woke himself”- and the girl in Garden Party, whose entire life of luxury is shattered when she comes upon a cottage in which the father of the household has just died, the “inward expression when one has swallowed cream.” Beautiful, unique writer.
February 17, 2018
Maybe I should have bought the selected stories rather than the collected stories. I read a story every couple of days for the last few months before going to sleep. All the stories are interesting little vignettes and many stay with you long after you close the book, but the old favorites really stand out, 'The Garden Party, 'Bliss', and , of course, one of my favorite stories of all time - 'The Doll's House'. It is one of those stories that I can read over and over again and find more in it.
September 27, 2009
The only short-story writer that comes close to Chekhov. Brilliant.
December 12, 2023
Muy desigual. Como todos las recopilaciones de cuentos completos la mayoría son prescindibles.
Menos mal que hay otros que son magníficos.
Menos mal que hay otros que son magníficos.
January 1, 2016
I have finally emerged from the murky literary pit that is the Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield. As is natural with entire compendiums of an author’s work, the reader really has to sift for the strands of gold that lie among the mud. The vast majority of this volume is comprised of fumbling attempts at crafting another The Garden Party or Miss Brill, for instance. Hundreds of scenarios there may be, but the general theme is largely the same throughout, rendering the collection as something of a grey cloud of banal social commentary.
Mansfield’s writing is humorous, ironic, and bittersweet. It unfalteringly takes the post of surveying middle to upper class English people, with very much a judgmental and cynical gaze, yet somewhat sadly, grounded in a familiar and knowing tone. Certainly, one would not write so eruditely and accurately about a specific people without having immediate experience living as, or at least in the company of, those brittle individuals themselves.
Commendation should be given to the writing style portrayed throughout these writings; this is a good and probably much-imitated example of the Modernist mode in that stories begin and end abruptly, change focus, and shift perspective on a whim. If the tired recurring plot devices and settings become laborious to get through, at least the crafting of the stories themselves can be observed and inspected, providing some form of academic inspiration.
Best taken in small doses, lest the reader particularly enjoys an extended reading experience taken under the grey London sky, with a mouthful of ash and honey.
Mansfield’s writing is humorous, ironic, and bittersweet. It unfalteringly takes the post of surveying middle to upper class English people, with very much a judgmental and cynical gaze, yet somewhat sadly, grounded in a familiar and knowing tone. Certainly, one would not write so eruditely and accurately about a specific people without having immediate experience living as, or at least in the company of, those brittle individuals themselves.
Commendation should be given to the writing style portrayed throughout these writings; this is a good and probably much-imitated example of the Modernist mode in that stories begin and end abruptly, change focus, and shift perspective on a whim. If the tired recurring plot devices and settings become laborious to get through, at least the crafting of the stories themselves can be observed and inspected, providing some form of academic inspiration.
Best taken in small doses, lest the reader particularly enjoys an extended reading experience taken under the grey London sky, with a mouthful of ash and honey.
Read
January 29, 2023very strange collection, not an off-putting strange more of a "double life of veronique" strange. maybe my feelings are coloured by the warmth of the cover art, the fact that everything in my life was orange black the week i read this, or Tomalin saying the book is of a world that does not exist anymore, but every story was perfect for a winter evening, even the one's that took place on a hot day in the new zealand outback. mansfield is an expert at showcasing the rich and tumultuous inner lives of women and so many stories have a quiet glow to them.
favourites: the tiredness of rosabel, the swing of the pendulum, bliss, the daughters of the late colonel 💛
favourites: the tiredness of rosabel, the swing of the pendulum, bliss, the daughters of the late colonel 💛
June 1, 2024
What excellent vignettes. Her writing has a maturity that’s compelling, even though she died of tuberculosis at 35–I would give a lot to read the book she would have written decades later. As it is, the playful and intelligent voice sometimes gets swallowed in the overdramatic existentialism that’s a bit inevitable when you’re, you know, dying of tuberculosis in your twenties.
I know she’s mostly known now because Virginia Woolf said Mansfield is the only writer whose work she was jealous of—a pity, because their mutual Bloomsbury group membership is clear, but Katherine’s writing really is just better.
I know she’s mostly known now because Virginia Woolf said Mansfield is the only writer whose work she was jealous of—a pity, because their mutual Bloomsbury group membership is clear, but Katherine’s writing really is just better.
November 3, 2015
These stories were written around the time of WW1 and yet they are so fresh and the acute observations of human interaction resonate 100 years on. I particularly enjoyed the stories set in New Zealand - a window on a genteel life not quite English. This whole collection is just a feast.
Want to read
September 20, 2024
October 11, 2017
Reading amassed short story collection(s), in this case 5 books comprised of 88 stories can be a slog or as here, a gliding motion of heart/soul bearing the reader on a time and place tableau ticker where social history comes to life, mindful prose built with gusto vision. It's no wonder her artistic peer Virginia Woolf both admired and begrudged KM's talent. She lived a short, emphatic and tempestuous life where her writing kept her through the choppy surf of fulfillment. Her stories show how well her eye/ear took in her time's engagements - she unflinchingly lays out unflattering looks at quotidian life in its raw and dirty state. Her patrician characterizations would today draw ire from the PC crowd but that's part of the fascinating charm of reading dated texts whose work in contrast/context stands up to the currency of todays more blitzy prose. Very good reading!
November 15, 2017
This was my first reading of Mansfield's work and I didn't realize she was such a Modernist writer. There were some interesting stories here, some stories that I frankly found boring, and some that were really fascinating and that I could see as expanded into complex novels, had Mansfield been so inclined. There were a few stories that seemed a little on the shallower side but many of the stories had a lot of subtle psychological angles to them. If you're the kind of reader who likes stories that have clear themes and clear beginning, middle, and ends, you might not enjoy Mansfield's work. Many of her stories sort of drop you in the middle of things without a real context. I found myself having to reread the last page of a story that I had left for a few days when I went back to it because trying to read forward was confusing until I had situated myself back to where I had left off in the story (if that makes sense...). I personally like a writing style that is that subtle and doesn't spell everything out (I'm a writer who writes like that also) but I know many readers prefer a more direct storytelling.
I also had some issues with how this particular collection was organized. There were no dates on the stories so there is no way of telling when each was written and the editor seemed to have just thrown them together with no particular order. One characteristic of Mansfield's stories is that she sometimes brought back certain characters and wrote different stories using them - not continuations of a previous story but just used the same characters. It would have really helped to have those stories with reoccurring characters come one after the other rather than all spread out because of Mansfield's lack of contextualization for her stories. As a reader, I had to figure out for myself that "hmmm, haven't I seen these characters before?" and I found that annoying (it's never good when a reader has to work to hard to figure out something organizational in a book, is it?)
I do recommend these stories to those who are interested in Modernist literature.
I also had some issues with how this particular collection was organized. There were no dates on the stories so there is no way of telling when each was written and the editor seemed to have just thrown them together with no particular order. One characteristic of Mansfield's stories is that she sometimes brought back certain characters and wrote different stories using them - not continuations of a previous story but just used the same characters. It would have really helped to have those stories with reoccurring characters come one after the other rather than all spread out because of Mansfield's lack of contextualization for her stories. As a reader, I had to figure out for myself that "hmmm, haven't I seen these characters before?" and I found that annoying (it's never good when a reader has to work to hard to figure out something organizational in a book, is it?)
I do recommend these stories to those who are interested in Modernist literature.
December 31, 2014
Introduction and Notes
Selected Further Reading
Bliss
--Prelude
--Je ne Parle pas Français
--Bliss
--The Wind Blows
--Psychology
--Pictures
--The Man Without a Temperament
--Mr. Reginald Peacock's Day
--Sun and Moon
--Feuille d'Album
--A Dill Pickle
--The Little Governess
--Revelations
--The Escape
The Garden-Party
--At the Bay
--The Garden-Party
--The Daughters of the Late Colonel
--Mr. and Mrs. Dove
--The Young Girl
--Life of Ma Parker
--Marriage à la Mode
--The Voyage
--Miss Brill
--Her First Ball
--The Singing Lesson
--The Stranger
--Bank Holiday
--An Ideal Family
--The Lady's Maid
The Doves' Nest
--The Doll's House
--Honeymoon
--A Cup of Tea
--Taking the Veil
--The Fly
--The Canary
Unfinished Stories
--A Married Man's Story
--The Doves' Nest
--Six Years After
--Daphne
--Father and the Girls
--All Serene!
--A Bad Idea
--A Man and His Dog
--Such a Sweet Old Lady
--Honesty
--Susannah
--Second Violin
--Mr. and Mrs. Williams
--Weak Heart
--Widowed
Something Childish
--The Tiredness of Rosabel
--How Pearl Button was Kidnapped
--The Journey to Bruges
--A Truthful Adventure
--New Dresses
--The Woman at the Store
--Ole Underwood
--The Little Girl
--Millie
--Pension Séguin
--Violet
--Bains Turcs
--Something Childish but very Natural
--An Indiscreet Journey
--Spring Pictures
--Late at Night
--Two Tuppenny Ones, Please
--The Black Cap
--A Suburban Fairy Tale
--Carnation
--See-Saw
--This Flower
--The Wrong House
--Sixpence
--Poison
In a German Pension
--Germans at Meat
--The Baron
--The Sister of the Baroness
--Frau Fischer
--Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding
--The Modern Soul
--At Lehmann's
--The Luft Bad
--A Birthday
--The Child-Who-Was-Tired
--The Advanced Lady
--The Swing of the Pendulum
--A Blaze
Selected Further Reading
Bliss
--Prelude
--Je ne Parle pas Français
--Bliss
--The Wind Blows
--Psychology
--Pictures
--The Man Without a Temperament
--Mr. Reginald Peacock's Day
--Sun and Moon
--Feuille d'Album
--A Dill Pickle
--The Little Governess
--Revelations
--The Escape
The Garden-Party
--At the Bay
--The Garden-Party
--The Daughters of the Late Colonel
--Mr. and Mrs. Dove
--The Young Girl
--Life of Ma Parker
--Marriage à la Mode
--The Voyage
--Miss Brill
--Her First Ball
--The Singing Lesson
--The Stranger
--Bank Holiday
--An Ideal Family
--The Lady's Maid
The Doves' Nest
--The Doll's House
--Honeymoon
--A Cup of Tea
--Taking the Veil
--The Fly
--The Canary
Unfinished Stories
--A Married Man's Story
--The Doves' Nest
--Six Years After
--Daphne
--Father and the Girls
--All Serene!
--A Bad Idea
--A Man and His Dog
--Such a Sweet Old Lady
--Honesty
--Susannah
--Second Violin
--Mr. and Mrs. Williams
--Weak Heart
--Widowed
Something Childish
--The Tiredness of Rosabel
--How Pearl Button was Kidnapped
--The Journey to Bruges
--A Truthful Adventure
--New Dresses
--The Woman at the Store
--Ole Underwood
--The Little Girl
--Millie
--Pension Séguin
--Violet
--Bains Turcs
--Something Childish but very Natural
--An Indiscreet Journey
--Spring Pictures
--Late at Night
--Two Tuppenny Ones, Please
--The Black Cap
--A Suburban Fairy Tale
--Carnation
--See-Saw
--This Flower
--The Wrong House
--Sixpence
--Poison
In a German Pension
--Germans at Meat
--The Baron
--The Sister of the Baroness
--Frau Fischer
--Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding
--The Modern Soul
--At Lehmann's
--The Luft Bad
--A Birthday
--The Child-Who-Was-Tired
--The Advanced Lady
--The Swing of the Pendulum
--A Blaze
September 1, 2020
Si tratta si storie brevi che ritraggono scene ed istanti di vita famigliare negli anni a cavallo tra la fine dell'Ottocento ed i primi del Novecento. Paiono spesso istanti rubati, come spiati o origliati da qualcuno in un luogo pubblico - cosa che gli stessi protagonisti dei racconti sono spesso sono intenti a fare.
Tanto spazio è dedicato all'introspezione, all'effetto che una morte o un lutto lascia dietro di sé, alla distanza tra le persone che appare incolmabile anche nei legami d'amore ed affettivi più stretti (amanti, novelli sposi, coppie rodate, fratelli, genitori e figli).
Le descrizioni dei fiori e della natura più in generale si inseriscono spesso come metafore di quello che la scrittrice non può dire e che, quando sono più criptiche di un signorotto che si dice invidioso della grossa pianta di pisello odoroso del vicino, sono composte in maniera così poetica da risultare dolcissime anche a chi magari, come me, non ne coglie il vero significato (mi sarebbe piaciuto avere delle note a riguardo).
A mio avviso c'è da fare una nota di biasimo alla traduttrice (Franca Cavagnoli e la sua classe di traduzione dell'Università di Milano) perché capisco magari la fedeltà al testo (la ipotizzo) ma nel 2014 i personaggi neri non possono parlare così: "Berchè non mi lascia le bambine (...) botrebbero venire stasera (...) bisogna bortare via anche quelle cose dal vialetto, vero?" né si può tradurre il parlottare di persone cinesi (chiamate "musi gialli" senza che vi sia un intento realmente denigratorio nella storia) ripetendo degli Ya-ya.
Le mie storie preferite sono Immagini, La festa in giardino, Le figlie del defunto colonnello, Vita di Ma'Parker, La mosca, La bambina e Millie.
Tanto spazio è dedicato all'introspezione, all'effetto che una morte o un lutto lascia dietro di sé, alla distanza tra le persone che appare incolmabile anche nei legami d'amore ed affettivi più stretti (amanti, novelli sposi, coppie rodate, fratelli, genitori e figli).
Le descrizioni dei fiori e della natura più in generale si inseriscono spesso come metafore di quello che la scrittrice non può dire e che, quando sono più criptiche di un signorotto che si dice invidioso della grossa pianta di pisello odoroso del vicino, sono composte in maniera così poetica da risultare dolcissime anche a chi magari, come me, non ne coglie il vero significato (mi sarebbe piaciuto avere delle note a riguardo).
A mio avviso c'è da fare una nota di biasimo alla traduttrice (Franca Cavagnoli e la sua classe di traduzione dell'Università di Milano) perché capisco magari la fedeltà al testo (la ipotizzo) ma nel 2014 i personaggi neri non possono parlare così: "Berchè non mi lascia le bambine (...) botrebbero venire stasera (...) bisogna bortare via anche quelle cose dal vialetto, vero?" né si può tradurre il parlottare di persone cinesi (chiamate "musi gialli" senza che vi sia un intento realmente denigratorio nella storia) ripetendo degli Ya-ya.
Le mie storie preferite sono Immagini, La festa in giardino, Le figlie del defunto colonnello, Vita di Ma'Parker, La mosca, La bambina e Millie.
June 25, 2013
Ho usato per insegnare a Mansfield in inglese o di Naipaul "Miguel Street" o di Hemingway "Kilimanjaro". Esilarante satira su buone maniere, dove i tedeschi sono come gli americani, sulle funzioni corporee franche. "I tedeschi a base di carne" satira subordinazione delle mogli tedesche, i loro mariti alimentazione. "Il Barone" satira l'ossessione tedesca con il cibo che porta all'obesità, a cui noi americani oggi li superano. Ho ricevuto alcune buone carte da universitari matricole donne soprattutto.
on-hand
August 7, 202329 Aug 2020: "The Garden Party" was my first read by Katherine Mansfield. I liked how she was able to convey the excitement of the family as they readied for the party. Also well drawn was the contrast between this well-to-do family and those who lived in the "cottages" at the bottom of the hill. Definitely look forward to more of these stories, which I'll read scattered among other longer reads.
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