Something Childish and Other Stories

by Katherine Mansfield

Collection short stories by Katherine Mansfield



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.

The stories are arranged in chronological order.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, 20th Century, British Literature

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Kathleen 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.

Reviews

[Ilse · Rating 5 out of 5]

If love was a red dress

Short story writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a perfect stranger to me until I got intrigued by a few sentences about her in Alexandra Harris’s short biography on Virginia Woolf, depicting her as a friend with whom Woolf had a thoroughly complicated and almost obsessive literary and personal relationship, mutually inspiring but also rivalrous. Woolf wrote in her diary about Mansfield: ‘I was jealous of her writing—the only writing I have ever been jealous of.’

Detecting this charming booklet in my favorite second-hand bookshop was obviously a golden opportunity to get acquainted with some of her stories. Something childish but very natural was published in 2007 as part of a Penguin Books series ‘Great Loves’, a series promising to ‘bring the most seductive, inspiring and surprising writing on love in all its infinite variety’. As love is definitely a theme one could never know enough about and admiring the awesome book cover design (by David Pearson, Victoria Sawdon and Claire Scully ) of most of the volumes in this series, I would collect them all, if it wasn’t that some of the delectable volumes happen to be just excerpts from major works (Virgil, Stendhal, Casanova) or translations from French originals.

This little collection, named after the ironic title of the first story, brings together eight short stories: Something Childish But Very Natural(1914); Feuille d’Album(1917); Mr and Mrs Dove(1921); Marriage à la Mode(1921); Bliss(1918); Honeymoon(1922); Dill Pickle(1917); and Widowed (1921).

As the stories which mention a location are all set in Europe (London, Paris, the South of France…), it was only by reading on Mansfield’s life it occurred to me she actually was a New Zealand writer – which made me aware Mansfield is only the second writer from New Zealand I have yet read (Keri Hulme (from the The Bone People) being the first, not that their work is by any means affiliated) and hang my head in shame for my petty Eurocentrism. Mansfield’s ambition was no less than putting New Zealand on the literary map, like her paragon Anton Chekhov did for Mother Russia.

Each of the eight stories conveys a subsequent stage love can pass through: from a coup de foudre, a tender infatuation, a proposal of marriage, a honeymoon, two scenes of conjugal life, an encounter with an old flame and widowhood.

In subtle hues Mansfield sensuously paints the complexity of emotions, mostly bittersweet moments of thorny innocence, fragile happiness sprouting from blissful immature ignorance or childish ingenuousness, vulnerability doomed to crumble under the reality of unrequitedness, marital cruelty, disillusionment or social conventions. Most the stories have an ambiguous or an open ending, leaving the reader wondering what will happen to the protagonist(s) now the curtain has fallen. The beauty of nature is largely present - spring, rain, flowers, a pear tree participate in the stories, enrapturing and whetting the senses:

At the far end, against the wall, there was a tall, slender pear tree in fullest, richest bloom; it stood perfect, as though becalmed against the jade-green sky. Bertha couldn’t help feeling, even from this distance, that it had not a single bud or a faded petal. Down below, in the garden beds, the red and yellow tulips, heavy with flowers, seemed to lean upon the dusk.

Mansfield’s stories are called ‘impressionistic’, modernist and inspired by Anton Chekhov, who she almost deified and strongly identified herself with – suffering both from the same illness and equally afflicted with a sense of frustrated urgency to write their innovative prose before their lives would be cut short. Her style and the nature of her stories, highlighting unexpected details and shifts in ordinary lives, reminded me of Alice Munro’s. Whatever categories apply to her writing however, to me this are quintessential short stories: within a few pages the reader gets a glimpse of a miniaturized universe, visually and psychologically suggestive, focalizing on the interior life of the protagonist, things unsaid leaving plenty of room for (multiple) interpretation.

All that happened seemed to fill again her brimming cup of bliss

Although, probably for reasons of recognizability, I was deeply touched by the last story of the collection, Widowed, a story on a woman ruminating on the moment she learned about her spouse’s sudden death, while breakfasting for the first time with her new suitor (the reminiscence of lost scent and touch powerfully captured in a few words about clothing: ’How pleasant it was to feel that rough man’s tweed again. She rubbed her hand against it, touched it with her cheek, sniffed the smell.’), my favorite story was Bliss - a sexually ambivalent story about a somewhat neurotic young upper class housewife hosting an arty-farty dinner party, rich with symbols ( the blossoming pear tree a phallic or bisexual symbol, honestly? Freudian interpretations can be such fun. with a stunning epiphanic denouement. Bliss was utterly disliked by Virginia Woolf, who dismissed it as ‘so hard, & so shallow & so sentimental’. Mansfield in return chillingly critiqued Woolf’s second novel Night and Day as containing ‘a lie in the soul’ because of disregarding the war.

“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.”



The portrait is by the American painter Anne Estelle Rice. In 1918 she painted her close friend dressed in the color both women loved, red, on a stay in Cornwall, where Katherine, suffering from tuberculosis, hoped to regain her health. She died in France in January 1923, 34 years old.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slim volume of short stories about personal relationships. Charming and relatable - though these stories were written a century ago they still feel contemporary.

I especially liked the title story. Teenage love blooms and progresses apace, but is she really into him? Who knows.

I wanna call her on the telephone,
Have her over cos I'm all alone,
I need excitement, oh I need it bad,
And its the best I've ever had

I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight
Get teenage kicks right through the night, all right

Worth a read

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something Childish But Very Natural - Henry meets Edna on the train; he works in an architect's office, she goes to a training college to be a secretary (4 stars)

Feuille d’Album - painter Ian French had never fallen in love when he observes a girl from his window (3 stars)

Mr. and Mrs. Dove - Reginald is returning to Rhodesia the next day so it's his last day in England; he hopes to see Anne (4 stars)

Marriage à la Mode - William feels that his wife Isabel is distancing herself from him, spending more time with her new set of friends (4 stars)

Bliss - Bertha Young has had a wonderful day and she still has her dinner party to look forward to (5 stars)

Honeymoon - George and Fanny are on their honeymoon on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean (4 stars)

Dill Pickle - after a six-year hiatus, a man and a woman who used to be close meet in a café (4 stars)

Widowed - Geraldine was just finished with breakfast and saying goodbye to her husband as he heads to work when the phone rings (4 stars)

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming collection of short stories themed around the subject of love, most of which feel light and flippant on the surface, with an element of humour; many of which, however, contain a certain darkness. The title story contains a pair of seventeen-year-olds who meet and fall for each other on a train journey, but their relationship is scuppered by their youth, inexperience and naivety. In 'Feuille d'Album', a painter who rejects the advances of numerous women becomes obsessed with a neighbour he watches from afar. 'Mr and Mrs Dove' is about a man whose feelings for the object of his affection are not returned as ardently as he might hope. 'Marriage à la Mode' is a funny and poignant tale in which a husband desperately tries to recapture the attention of his wife, who is more interested in having fun with a group of their friends. 'Bliss', which was my favourite of the stories in the book, also concerns a marriage; at a dinner party, the protagonist is overwhelmed first by what seems to be desire for a female guest, then by lust for her own husband, before the ending throws in a startling, sad twist. 'Honeymoon' illustrates the differing attitudes and dreams of a young couple on honeymoon - it reminded me of a few of the relationship-focused stories in Daphne du Maurier's The Doll. In 'A Dill Pickle', two former lovers meet in a café and reflect on their regrets, and the changes in their lives since they last met. Finally, in the very short scene depicted in 'Widowed', a woman remembers the moment she heard of her late husband's death.

The stories I enjoyed most were those that seemed the most fully realised: some felt like scenes torn from a longer piece, and several of the endings were too abrupt (as is often the case with stories of this length). As a whole, they provide a view of romantic relationships that is somewhat bleak, with the strength of one party's feelings rarely being returned in quite the same way. I liked this collection and it was interesting to analyse the stories' meanings, but I felt they were lacking in the depth and complexity I had been hoping for, having not read Mansfield before. I suppose I was anticipating more overt darkness and sadness rather than the subtle implication of it displayed here. I would read more by Mansfield, but having completed this I wouldn't say I am chomping at the bit to do so.

Many of Mansfield's stories can be read online for free, via the Katherine Mansfield Society and NZTEC.

[Steffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found enough time during this endless summer to continue my longterm project of bookworming my way through the wonderful and very highly recommended 20-book Penguin Books collection "Great Loves" ❤️

So: book 8/20 "Something Childish But Very Natural" by New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield, possibly the first Kiwi writer I've ever (knowingly) read. This is the best part about book collections of this kind: being introduced to so many new writers.

Trivia: Mansfield was friends turned enemies with Virginia Woolf who said about Mansfield that hers is the only prose of which she was jealous. Or so.

The book: Eight wonderful short stories, including the namesake one "Something Childish But Very Natural", about a very young love between Edna and Henry.
"You're perfect, perfect, perfect', said Henry.

But this may not even be the strongest of the short story (for me), I loved Feuille D'Album about a very intriguing good looking artist Ian French and his obsession with a stranger (obsession with a stranger seems a recurring theme).

Or the cruel story 'Mr. and Mrs. Dove' of Reginald's unrequited love set in colonial 'Rhodesia' and a gruesome marriage "Marriage a la mode" which left me perplexed, possibly a little hurt 😭

I've inhaled these short stories hoping the book would never end (like this summer). So I've ordered the whole collected works of Mansfield to get me through long winter nights to come - my own version of being obsessed with a stranger ❤️

[TinHouseBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emma Komlos-Hrobsky (Assistant Editor, Tin House Magazine): I’ve been reading Something Childish But Very Natural, a collection of Katherine Mansfield’s short writings lead by the story of the same name. “Something Childish…” is a weird little impressionistic gem of a story, much more complex than its giddy true-love-at-first-sight opening would have you think. When teenaged Edna and Henry meet on a train, I expected there’d be a long frustration of feelings before either Henry would grow a pair or Edna would part her much-hyped marigold-colored veil of hair to confess her attraction. Instead, by their second train ride together, they’ve both said that they’re in love. The story’s question becomes, then, not what the young couple feel or whether they can brave admitting it, but what to do next. Here’s where things get complicated, particularly for Edna, who fears what will happen should Henry touch her in any way at all. The ending of “Something Childish…” is something I guarantee you won’t see coming, and that I’m still trying to wrap my head around, but seems perfectly apt for the strange trajectory this takes. I’d say more but I don’t want to ruin it—and if you have read it, and you were also confused and satisfied both by that thing with the thing at the end, let’s talk.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

If poems were stories, this is what they would look like. Not, however, in an affected way; you'll find no struggles with tense or tediously overt wordplay here. If you've read Joyce and are familiar with his ephiphanies, you might see a similarity in Mansfield's abrupt poignancies and her inbetween-the-lines open endedness. Liquid, melodic, subtle and utterly unique, her writing employs all the senses. Themes revolve around human failings, misunderstandings, the transient nature of joy, and what happens in the space of the unsaid. Really, I feel each one is a different meditation on humanity, requiring a little pause to savour each. Do yourself a favour and try a few stories. They're quite short, so if she's not for you, you won't have invested too much. But there's always the chance you'll discover you'll discover one of your great literary loves.

[Zeynep Atakır · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok çok çok güzeldi ❤️

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was hard to rate because I had such diverse feelings and thoughts about the short stories in this collection. Yet, all gave me 'food for thought' and made me reflect on ideas and emotions in such a way that it definitely deserves a high rating!

There are eight stories in this collection and they all explore love in a variety of different forms and contexts. However, what they all share is strong characterisation, understated linguistic acrobatics and a relatability to a modern reader which was refreshing for an early 20th century publication. What this collection showed me, is the pure sameness on experience of emotions and human growth (specifically love, guilt and coming of age) and as such I found myself relating to the characters on the page (sometimes with sympathy, sometimes with maternity but often wincingly).

My personal favourites were:
- Marriage a la mode - The theme of friendships and care for social appearances is timeless, especially when juxtaposed with a husband who requires authenticity and misses the previous closeness of his family. It made me wince with sympathy and Mansfield cleverly presented all viewpoints of the situations; I felt (oftentimes unexpected) empathy for all.
- Honeymoon - This was short but had punch. An uncomfortable look at naive youth and unpleasant phenomena of feeling lucky and happy when faced with someone else's misfortune.
- A dill pickle - I loved this for its unforgiving awkward chatacters! Need I say more ...

All three of these stories are five stars!

This is the first title I've read from the short "Great Loves" collection from Penguin but I will definitely be reading more !

[Aleksandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first attempt at reading books by Katherine Mansfield. First of all i like her pure handwriting style. She can leave you in a complete suspense and she is strict at times. I really liked the first story about Henry and Edna, the way they recognised each other, the way they took possessions of each other's names in the pause. The frightening thought of having someone for the rest of your life. And knowing where you belong. And realising home can be a person. My favourite writer Woolf once said that Katherine was the only writer that she had been jealous of. And not forget to mention the walks in the narrow streets, the smell of lemons and hot coffee. Couldn't be happier. And knowing that if you long and wait for people, they just leave you. And you are desperately left in the distance that they left. Countless unsaid words.

[Danae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enamorarse es algo súper bonito, hacerle el quite no tiene sentido.
"You have only to say one word and I would know your voice among all other voices. I don't know what is it- I've often wondered - that makes your voice such a - haunting memory... Do you remember that first afternoon we spent together at Kew Gardens? You were so surprised because I did not know the names of any flowers. I am still just as ignorant for all your telling me. But whenever it is very fine and warm, and I see some bright colours - it's awfully strange - I hear you voice saying: "Geranium, marigold, and verbena." And I feel those three words are all I recall of some forgotten, heavenly language... You remember that afternoon?"

You remember that afternoon?

[Yoana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exquisite prose. More definitely modernist and more impressionist than her early attempts in "In a German Pension", these 23 stories and sketches show Mansfield's coming into her element. Can't wait for "Bliss and Other Stories".

2015 Reading Challenge: A book written by someone under 30

[MimbleWimble___ Elli Maria Moutsopoulou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Με εξαίρεση την πρώτη ιστορία -που οκ δε με απογοήτευσε- άλλωστε χρησίμευσε και στο κυκλικό σχήμα σύνδεσης των διηγημάτων συνολικά, οι υπόλοιπες με εξέπληξαν σε μεγάλο βαθμό!

Η ιστορία της συγγραφέως λειτούργησε παλινδρομικά υπέρ. Κρίμα που έφυγε τόσο νέα, κρίμα που ο δεύτερος σύζυγος έχωνε τη μύτη του, ίσως σήμερα να είχαμε μια σπουδαιότερη λογοτεχνική προίκα!

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicate nuance and simplicity makes this beautifully touching tale, one that is acutely perceptive and heartrending.

Capturing the innocence and naivety of that tender age between childhood and adulthood, you observe the transition with such emotive and poignant accuracy. That strongest of emotions can be often overwhelming, surprising and which dramatically shapes and defines the course of the future for all. Henry and Edna’s connection is reminiscent of when we glimpse our ‘first love’ or that individual, who incites such unfamiliar and overpowering emotions within. Beautifully captured on the page, this treasured classic is a wonderful book to behold and something that will have such a profound affect on its reader; as it speaks to the soul. Katherine Mansfield explores how such intense feelings can threaten a person’s innocence, and the choice that presents itself when one contemplates on whether to remain as such or to yield to this tremendous feeling within.

"Love is too strong a word to say it too early, but it has too beautiful a meaning to say it too late”
- Quote. Unknown.

When naïve Henry catches the eye of golden-haired Edna, he is stunned by such intensity and impassioned feelings that threaten to engulf his mind in confusion. As the passion and ardor between them increases, Edna must come to the realization that she is just too young to leave her childhood behind. Moved to tears, I felt as if my heart was being ripped out of my chest as I lost myself within this absorbing story wherein two people cope with inner struggles. Heroism is sought in the main protagonist, Edna, who takes that bold step in deciding to follow her head rather than her heart.

“When I saw you, I was afraid to meet you... When I met you, I was afraid to kiss you... When I kissed you, I was afraid to love you... Now that I love you, I'm afraid to lose you”
- Quote. Unknown.

Highly memorable, professing truism and authenticity to the core I would highly recommend this Penguin ‘Great Love’ to readers who enjoy romance and delight in meaningful prose.

[Punya Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My name is Edna."
"My name is Henry."
In the pause they took possession of each other's names and turned them over and put them away, a shade less frightened than that.
~ taken from the title story

Something Childish But Very Natural is a short story collection by Katherine Mansfield first published in 1914.

Mansfield's way of writing about young innocent love is so heart warming and beautiful that I want to go back and read more of what she has written.

[digbybare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good overall. Katherine Mansfield has a knack for capturing the little moments that define a certain point in a person's life. The opening story is very good of course. Written as a series of little vignettes, it perfectly captures that certain kind of ephemeral adolescent love, so potent but so fleeting. Other highlights are Bliss and A Dill Pickle.

[Noora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I before I started reading I really didn't know what to expect, but it happened that I liked the stories very much indeed. They are so intense, and the thoughts of the characters really come alive. And there was some kind of suspense that kept me reading, and it is a rare thing in a book.

[Chan Kin]

I just can't understand the lifestyle of the upper class. This book is rather boring.

[Sinem A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

özgün bir dili var. Küçük ve sıradan olayları farklı bir dille anlatıyor. Okuması keyifli...

[Elyzha · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. I guess the stories have hidden messages in them but yeah, it was ok. A 2.5

[Rahiya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I personally struggle with short stories but Mansfield really kept me engaged with a wild attention to detail and such lively language. I would be lying if I said this collection wasn’t already too familiar, purely because I actually close read a lot of Bliss for Celine’s diss (forgive my trauma), but nevertheless, reading Mansfield for myself has definitely been a rewarding experience!! A Dill Pickle!! Wow!!

[The Cozy Nook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda need to know what decade this was supposed to be because it feels so modern!

[Yoj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something Childish But Very Natural contains eight short love stories, all wonderfully written by Katherine Mansfield, from an era that was both old and modern: the early 1900's. Reading this book is like going back in time when life was not so fast-paced, people enjoyed riding trains, and the youth were not jaded as they are these days.

Collectively, the stories depict love in its raw, profound form, in the different times in life that the human heart beholds it: when it clashes with innocence, when it is rekindled after being forgotten through time, or right in the middle of sadness out of a love that is lost. My personal favorites are Bliss, Feuille d'Album, and the first story that carries the title of the book itself.

A must-read if you like meaningful, poignant, old-fashioned prose.

[Konrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mansfield covers a lot of ground here, from the darkly comic The Wrong House, to the slice-of-European-life vignettes, urban isolation in London (The Tiredness of Rosabel) and grim portraits of rural New Zealand frontier life (The Woman at the Store is my favourite among these.) Although this compilation was released posthumously by her partner and much of it, it seems, (possibly) published against the author's own wishes, the quality of the writing is exemplary, and despite the thematic variety and unevenness of the selection I was never under the impression that I was reading a bunch of odds and ends thrown together in order that someone could make an extra buck off her reputation. Rather, it seems as if this is the author at her prime.

[Roos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Katherine Mansfield's writing is not for me. I quit reading this mini-collection of her stories halfway through the third story and I'm glad I did. Mansfield definitely has a distinctive style and I can see how it could please other people. The endless vaguery of it, however, in no way appealed to me and only drove away any interest in the stories' content. I'm not opposed to abstract writing per se, but Mansfield's lyricism just feels forced and exaggerated. Her style totally broke my connection to her characters. I don't remember being this put off by her story 'the Garden Party', which I read for a Modernism class 3 years ago, but then again, I remember so little of what I've read.

[Emilie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cheesy at times and quite dated. Not bad over all, but certainly not my favourite book from this box set. To be fair, the story of the ex-lovers meeting randomly in a café 6 years after their affair struck home somewhat, and wasn't as clichéd as it looked like it was going to be. I liked that the stories did not really end happily, but I feel like it has a historical context out of which it cannot be read.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories: Something Childish But Very Natural, Feuille d'Album, Mr And Mrs Dove, Marriage á la Mode, Bliss, Honeymoon, A Dill Pickle, Widow.

The stories were nice but overall I just felt something was lacking.

[Susann · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the love continuum, this slim collection of Mansfield's stories falls in the bittersweet to sad range. With plenty of irony sprinkled about.
Bought at Daunt Books in London last May.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katherine Mansfield's evocation of innocent young love is heartwarming and very touching.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this so much, but now it's a couple of weeks later and I don't remember any of the stories other than the first one.