The Garden Party

by Katherine Mansfield

Laura Sheridan finds her perspective of life altered when, following her family’s garden party, she visits the Sheridan’s neighbors to give her condolences on the passing of Mr. Scott. Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” captures the fleeting nature of youth and the unforeseen turns that life can take.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, School, 20th Century, Audiobook, Literature

25 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 29, 2014

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

[Gaurav Sagar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Human life is perhaps not so simple and uncomplicated as it may appear to be, at the outset. We have come a long way from the initial steps, at the dawn of civilization, to modern complex life, however, the enigma of life still intrigues us. We define and devise our lives as per our own convictions, theories, and our upbringings, cultures, social status, class, and various other factors quintessential to humanity play vital roles in the same. We have been conditioning our minds over the years to parenthesize our lives into (myopic) compartments of binaries, and invariably we fail to look beyond our circle of influence and our seemingly (mis)understanding of life by ending up in just our pigeonholes.


The attitude of people belonging to the different spheres of life may be different towards it, depending upon the views they hold of it. However, there are certain virtues, peculiar to humanity, which make us connected to each other despite our obvious differences arising out of our faith systems, families, beliefs, dogmas, social strata, classes, races, ethnicities etc. Perhaps these attributes define who we are and make us feel connected at the species level. We have learned through acute study of humanity over the years that these virtues and merits could be altruistic in nature, to the highest degree of benevolence, such as sympathy, empathy, compassion, and love. The above-mentioned features define our social intelligence which underlines our ability to understand the relationship with other people. But, at times, could our differences, arising out of social distinctions, give rise to the utter indifference which may blind us to the virtues of connectedness often associated with humanity?




link: source


The puzzle raised in the previous paragraph poses an intriguing character study of humanity, which gives us opportunity through the deft and astute pen of Katherine Mansfield, to look at the humanity by rising above its noble virtues. The tale- The Garden Story makes us question our nonchalance towards the vagaries of humanity which is generally veneered under the grand and beautiful narratives of generosity and magnanimity. The sheer indifference of upper class towards the struggles, pains of the lower gives rise to distressing tensions among various classes which sets the tone of the story by making it appear to be central theme of the story, at the outset but with an author of the calibre of Mansfield you expect a deep and engaging experience, and seldom she disappoints. Nonetheless, the Sheridan family carries on the extravagant and grandiose preparations to organize what could be the best garden party ever, totally oblivious to the life shattering incident happens in the bleak and gloomy neighbourhood of Scott family.


We may say that one has every right to celebrate as one may desire, after all it is in one’s personal capacity to do as one may please. However, the tale makes us ponder upon the stark difference between the lives of upper and lower classes- the wasteful expenses of upper class for the garden party while those who belong to the lower-class struggle to earn the basic amenities of life. Moreover, it further questions the Sheridan family’s party which shows their elaborate and excessive life wherein they quibble about trivial issues like how exhausting it may be to organize the party while another the other hand the Scott family struggles to carry on life amidst the serious and consequential incident of misfortune happened to its only probable breadwinner. The turnout of these events perhaps points towards indifference, arrogance, insensitivity, hatred, antipathy, and various other such traits which probably contribute as significantly as the generally accepted virtues of humanity do, towards its development.




link: source


Laura, one of the members of Sheridan family rises from dungeons of oblivion and ignorance and positions her sensitive ears to the cries of human ignorance of Scott family, a dash of sympathy takes birth from her compassionate heart and forces her to question the veracity of such grandeur party amidst the news of misfortune from the neighbourhood. She finds it hard to digest that they can organize such a lavish celebration by turning their ears deaf and eyes blind to the plight of poor family from the neighbourhood but to her utter dismay, no one in the family echoes her sentiments, forcing her to come out of her idealistic illusion towards the reality, however strange it may sound. Since her empathetic arguments could not dislodge others to change their opinion so she continues with the arrangements of the garden party by carrying the subdued hopes of compassion in her heavy heart.


The wealthy family of Sheridan pay no regards to the emotions of Scott family, in fact, crushes their very existence under the feet of ignorance and egomaniac attitude. The Sheridan family behaves as if the people from the lower stratum do not exist as these humans and their beings cry from the hell of nothingness since they fail to draw the attention of people from the wealthy neighbourhood as if the humanity resides at a distance which, to them, is insurmountable to overcome. The Sheridan family tries to put things back to the normalcy by taking an ignominious consideration towards the destitute neighbours thinking that they could restore the status of their neighbours as human beings through this act which reflects their sheer arrogance, insensitivity, prejudice, and utter incomprehension of the bond we share as a species, in way that people don’t always long for materialistic things. Laura abandons her benevolent empathy towards Scott family, she feels in her pure heart, due to insistence of her family, only to realize that the symbols of seemingly harmony and commiseration imposed by her family, are actually that of prejudice, pomposity and inhumanity.


The Garden Party poses intriguing questions which forces us to contemplate upon the very subject of human existence as to what is to be human, through a language which appears to be simple with satirical undertones. The story goes beyond the normal tensions of detached coldness prevail among various social classes of man towards the question of life itself, to make us recognize how beautiful life could be, amidst the profound and eventual reality of death. The characteristic third-person narrative of Mansfield, with constrained space for the narrator for expressing her(him)self, by interspersing internal dialogues of the characters could also be felt in the story which has been told mainly from Laura’s perspective (however, the lack of male perspective is notable and significant), allowing readers access to the insides of her mind and perhaps in turn to that of author’s mind too.




link: source

The author writes with finesse of a painter of highest grade wherein each brush is stroked with delicate and sensitive understanding of humanity, and each shade has been painted with subtlety to capture various emotions of human beings. The prose of the tale is engrossing to the extent that it fully immerses the reader in it through the subtly infused elements of symbolisms. Reading Mansfield is like flowing with a stream of water, so pure that you could see all its colours and ingredients clearly, however, you always remain just on the surface by carefully traversing with the waves and ripples of the water so as not to impure it, by enjoying the ride from a sacred distance.


The genius of Mansfield lies in taking the short story beyond the themes of obvious elements to make one realize the relativity of human life, that life does not go on in binaries, such as brightness can’t exist without darkness, good exists with evil, pleasure with suffering so people from various classes, strata and other such differentiations exist with each other. The tale underlines the concept of humanitarianism by making its readers appreciate ‘death’ as an universal phenomenon which is inevitable in nature and perhaps that makes us accept the grace of death, as if it is perhaps the most beautiful and most sound sleep, which in turn helps us to rise up from the trivialities of life to comprehend and perceive its beauty, that life and death coexist and are inseparable, in other words happen all at once.

[Adina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am lucky to have discovered yet another wonderful short story writer thanks to the Short Story Club. Katherine Mansfield is her name and her talent lies in making the reader care for the characters or to feel exactly the mood she wants to convey. She takes simple moments from people lives and turns them into something important, a social commentary or a statement about love, loss, cruelty etc.

In this another brilliant short story by Mansfield, two events are juxtaposed in order to lead to a social commentary about the inequality, superficiality and egotism. While a rich family is organising an elaborate Garden Party, a poor family is mourning the death of the man of the house. The man falls victim of an accident right after he helped with the organising of the big event. The only person who cares about the death is a young woman who decides to visit the bereaved family.

[Andy Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really excellent short story that manages to pack quite a punch through its study of rich and poor, life and death, selflessness and egotism, and a good many other aspects of the human condition.

[Kalliope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garden parties of extreme sophistication juxtaposed to a cruel accident that beheads a family. This could seem a brutal criticism of social differences.

But the ruthless portrayal is refined by Mansfield’s sublime writing, which makes the critique so much more discerning.

There is a difference, subtle, but determinant, between the canna lilies, that Mrs Sheridan in her extravagance orders from the florist, and the ready-to-pick arum lilies that abound in the garden and that working class people, with their simpler taste, will surely appreciate. People of that class are so impressed by arum lilies.

For this level of perception one needs to read Mansfield.

[PattyMacDotComma · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★
Run down just as you are. No, wait, take the arum lilies too. People of that class are so impressed by arum lilies."

Mansfield just doesn't miss a beat in her stinging portrayal of the wealthy family up the hill enjoying a festive, elegant garden party the day after the young father of a poor family at the bottom of the hill was killed in an accident.

Young Laura, who has enjoyed flirting with all the wonderfully natural tradesmen setting up the party, is disturbed when they hear the news and thinks it's wrong to go ahead. Mother has her own views.

"If someone had died there normally - and I can't understand how they keep alive in those poky little holes - we should still be having our party, shouldn't we?"

Later, when Laura's told to go "just as you are" with a basket of leftovers and calls in on the family down the hill, she feels embarrassed by her sparkling party frock and gorgeous big hat with ribbons, of which she'd been so proud.

The language, the dialogue, the attitudes are perfect. Laura is a mercurial flibbertigibbet whose thoughts jump from one position to another. When conflicting thoughts are uncomfortable, she's like Scarlett O'Hara with her "I'll think about it tomorrow" attitude. Her mother is more of a Marie Antoinette with "Let them eat cake".

Sister Laura and her dear brother Laurie talk before and after, and Laura's final conclusion of what it all means is certainly not what I expected. Of course, final and conclusion are the wrong words because her opinion is about as firm as skywriting.

I got the impression Laura decided that death isn't at all unpleasant because it's just like being asleep. After all, that's what the man's body looked like when the family took her in to view him where he was laid out. When she arrived (embarrassed by her clothes), she was first moved by the sadness in the family. But then she seemed to discount that because the dead man was so obviously happy and peaceful. When her brother asks later if it was awful, she says no, "it was simply marvellous". But she couldn't articulate anything more about Life.

It's nearly a hundred years old and still a good classic read, especially considering the widening divide between haves and have-nots.

I'm unsuccessfully biting my tongue to avoid saying that too many of today's politicians share Laura's flimsy hold on reality. (Let them eat cake in tents in the desert . . . if they don't drown at sea first, silly-billies. People of that class just love tents.)

It's available free online, with an introductory comment here by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. You will find some other stories, too. http://www.centerforfiction.org/forwr...

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, this story is so deceptive. Halfway in you’re thinking it’s all fluff, but read on.

The Sheridan family is expecting guests. It’s a garden party, and there is so much to do. We primarily follow the daughter Laura, as she helps her mother with the extravagant preparations, but we see other family members too, and their reactions before, during, and after.

We get insights from within the party:
“Jose and Laura were licking their fingers with that absorbed inner look that only comes from whipped cream.”
and without:
"The very smoke coming out of their chimneys was poverty-stricken. Little rags and shreds of smoke, so unlike the great silvery plumes that uncurled from the Sheridan’s chimneys."

If you were to look up the word “incisive” in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of Katherine Mansfield. She has a way of taking you somewhere and not just showing you something, but making you see, and somehow making you feel it’s what you would have seen had you been there.

Read it here: https://www.washoeschools.net/cms/lib...

[Hodove · Rating 5 out of 5]

مجموعه من مال نشر ماهی هه،
و گویا مفصل تر از مجموعه های قبلیه
۲۱۰ صفحه ست.با ترجمه خیلی خوب خانم انتخابی.
یه مجموعه داستان کوتاه فوق العاده ،شاید به جرات بگم همه داستاناشو دوست داشتم.
اگر داستان کوتاه های چخوف رو دوست دارین احتمالا این کارو هم دوست داشته باشین:)

[Mark André · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool story. It started slow but ended with a bang. Good tension. Good storytelling. Brilliant finish with a run of one and two line paragraphs. Recommended for all audiences.

[Connie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sheridans, a wealthy family, are hosting a garden party on a perfect warm day with lavish flowers, a bounty of food, and a band. A delivery man tells them that a poor young man, who lived in a small cottage down the hill, was killed in an accident. This sets off a series of events which show the class division between the rich and the poor. Images are light and beautiful when the preparations for the Sheridan's party are described. In contrast, dark and dreary images describe the grieving people at the Scott's small brown cottage on a gloomy lane.

Daughter Laura Sheridan is a young woman who has some sensitivity regarding the situation, but this is her first encounter with death. She concentrates on the beauty of the young man sleeping the sleep of death, rather than the grief and hardship that the working class mourners are experiencing. Laura is coming of age, and still learning about life and death. Her wealthy upbringing allows her to retain some of her dream-like illusions about both life and death. Katherine Mansfield's writing is lovely in her wonderful collection The Garden Party and Other Stories. I enjoyed reading "The Garden Party" again with the Short Story Club.

[صان · Rating 4 out of 5]

خیلی خوب بود.
چه چاپ قدیمی خوبی داشت.
یک داستان قوی، پرسرعت، و چفت و بست‌دار با پایانی خوب.

(خوب از لحاظ داستانی، نه هپی اندینگ؛ طبعا)
:)))

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, how extraordinarily nice workmen were, she thought. Why couldn't she have workmen for her friends rather than the silly boys she danced with and who came to Sunday night supper? She would get on much better with men like these.

Laura is quite drawn to these friendly workmen, and to the idea of workmen, and is very sympathetic . . . even to the point of being considered "extravagant." Her extravagance however has its limits.

Years ago I read Mansfield's most famous collection The Garden Party and Other Stories but did not recall the developments of the title story. My recent forays into the short stories of Katherine Mansfield have been most rewarding, and this story in particular (without a hint of exaggeration) has one of the best endings in the history of short fiction.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second short story I have read by Katherine Mansfield, and it was every bit as enjoyable as the first.

She seems to take ordinary events, albeit this was a lavish garden party thrown by a upper class family of privilege (but still I’d imagine it is an ordinary event to them), and describes them as in such a way that challenges the morality of the characters.

However, in doing so, she leaves room for you to interpret their activities, voices, actions, and even the outcome with varying purpose and intent.

In this particular story young Laura is left in charge of planning the party, and seems to mature before our eyes. Yet she struggles with her position of privilege and a more generous, approachable and accommodating demeanor of perhaps a member of the more common society.

Upon hearing of the accidental death of a neighbor she questions the party at all, which of course a member of the privileged society wouldn’t think twice of changing. She questions much of what her family believes. And, the entire thought of life and death is all new to her as well, and weighs heavily as she proceeds with the festivities, and the aftermath.

All of this making for great study and discussion, always open to interpretation.

[Mahdia · Rating 4 out of 5]

صورتش قرمز تر از همیشه شده بود ، اما نگاهی جدی به دختر انداخت و با لحنی بفهمی نفهمی عصبانی گفت : ببخشید مادموزل، این از دستتان افتاد.
و یک تخم مرغ داد دست دختر.

this is the cutest shit i've ever read.

[_PARNIAN_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

این گاردن پارتی‌یی که تو گودریدزه، فقط یک داستان از مجموعه داستان گاردن پارتی‌ییه که من خوندم. چطوری میتونم به گودریدز کتاب اضافه کنم؟ این اپلیکیشن به درد نخور گوشیش به هیچ دردی نمی خوره :|
اگر اپ گودریدزو پاک کنم و بخوام با سایت از این به بعد وارد بشم، اکانتم پاک میشه؟

[Cecily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've reviewed this story (and some others from the collection), here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Inder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent short story; I read it and could see immediately that some of my favorite contemporary novelists and short story authors have benefited (whether directly or indirectly) from this short story. In particular, I was struck by some similarities to Alice Munro. Both authors write about moral ambiguity and class issues and social hierarchies, from a female perspective and with a similar realism. This story is character-rich, a bit dark, and deeply ambiguous. I can't wait to read more by Ms. Mansfield!

[نوشیار خلیلی · Rating 4 out of 5]

داستان های خیلی کوتاه از وقایع کاملا روزمره و معمولی با توصیف بی نظیر جزئیات.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was quite an interesting short story, but it didn't really do a lot for me. However, that might come with more discussion. I must admit, though, that the fact that it is modernist already made me more excited about it and looking at it from a modernist perspective is really interesting to me.

[Iona Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Mansfield’s most well-known story; I’d heard of it, of course, but had not previously read it.

The wealthy Sheridan family are holding a garden party today. The mother has left it up to her three daughters, Meg, Laura and Jose, to arrange everything.

Laur goes to supervise where the marquee is to be placed, but it turns out that the four men who come with it themselves know best where it should stand.

(This is the first instance of a comparison between the upper class and the working class, and here it is shown that the working class knows best.)

Though the men are workmen, Laura feels that they are very nice, “easy” and friendly.

One of the men, who is tall with nice eyes, pinches a sprig of lavender and snuffs up the scent. Laura realizes that even a workman can appreciate the scent of lavender. She thinks workmen seem so much better than the “silly boys” she dances with, and who come to supper.

She thinks that class distinctions are absurd, “She felt just like a work-girl.”

Cook has made fifteen kinds of sandwiches for the guests.

Golber’s man tells them that there has been a horrible accident and a man was killed. He was a carter called Scott who had lived in one of the little cottages just below. He left a wife and five little children.

Laura is horrified and feels they must stop the party, because how can they hold a big party when a neighbour has been killed.

Actually, the houses “had no right to be in that neighbourhood at all”. They were “little mean dwellings”. “The very smoke coming out of their chimneys was poverty-stricken.”

When the Sheridan children were small, they were forbidden to set foot there because of the “revolting language” used and of what they might catch.

But Jose says of course they can’t stop the party.

Mother is just relieved the man wasn’t killed in their garden. She says it’s only by accident they heard of the death, and by the way she couldn’t understand how they kept alive in “those poky little holes”.

Laura feels it is heartless of them, because how would the band sound to the poor wife?

Mother says “People like that don’t expect sacrifices from us”.

People begin to arrive and the bank strikes up. “Ah, what happiness it is to be with people who all are happy.”

When it is all over, they still have lots of sandwiches and cakes left over, all going to be wasted.

Mrs Sheridan gets the idea of putting all the food into a basket and taking it to the bereaved womn and her children.

Mrs Sheridan says Laura also should take the lilies she had ordered for the party since “people of that class” are so impressed by arum lilies.”

Laura departs with the basket to the little cottages; all that is in her head are the “kisses, voices, laughter” and so on from the party. “She had no room for anything else.” The party has been most successful.

What she is going to is quite opposite from the party. The lane is smoky and dark.

She arrives at the house. “A dark knot of people stood outside.”

A little woman in black asks her to step in.

She is in a “wretched little” kitchen. The wife is sitting by the fire with a puffed up face, swollen eyes and swollen lips.

Laura just wants to get out, but by chance ends in the bedroom where the deceased man is lying.

He is a young man, “sleeping … soundly... so remote, so peaceful”.

”He was wonderful, beautiful.”

While they were laughing and the band was playing, “this marvel had come to the lane. “Happy ... Happy … All is well, said that sleeping face. … I am content.

So both the Sheridan family and the party guests and the de)ad man are happy, happy.

It seems like Mansfield is saying ”Death is ok, it is peaceful.”

(It may be of significance that Mansfield was seriously ill when she wrote the story and dies two years later.)

Laura gets out of the house, “past … those dark people”.

Her brother Laurie comes to meet her. She is crying. He asks if it was awful. She says no, “it was simply marvellous”.

She tries to ask Laurie “Isn’t life” “isn’t life” but can’t explain what she means.

Does she mean “”contradictory”, “enigmatic” or “wonderful”? Or what?

She was expecting a negative experience, but to see the dead man was marvellous.

The story deals with class differences, and the mother, Mrs Sheridan’s, constant awareness of these.

I don’t quite understand the scene where Laura sees the peaceful, happy, dead man or why Mansfield uses the term “marvel”.

But at the end it seems that the two classes are reconciled.

Laura’s experience of seeing the dead man , which she terms as being marvellous, seems to be more a spiritual experience than anything else.

Mansfield herself must have had a similar experience.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated Katherine Mansfield's quieter stories of daily life within The Garden Party the most.

These would be the stories without the quiet grief resulting from lost family members or the unspoken desperation of unrequited possibilities, such as romance, career, marriage, or social class.

3.49 stars rounded down to 3.

[Larrry G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially, a societal slice of life sans strife, wherein adolescents wrangle with a preponderance of specious albeit prosaic parodies, whereas their matron dithers between blithe oversight and sheer bungling. Mansfield manages to convey an aura of artistry in the process of depicting this manor minor mayhem. Help operates strictly within the realms of the regalement régimes. Preorder dictates the place for the lot. Alas, lass Laura is inadvertently inversely confined by class struggle, comically, as she struggles with classical lower caste considerations, lest the workers lose their good humor with her. If only the karaka trees were free for all to view, under the skyward marquee of universal mankind, a natural order of magnificence and magnanimity.
But fateful moves are underway, illuminating anew and prescient echoes of imminent emanating news. A practice dirge predicates providence disquietly. Ignoble banter batters Laura’s susceptible sensibilities. A cool hat trumps cold logic in putting a lid on problematic perspectives. Death waits for no man, but father rekindles the consternation. No mere hat trick will suffice this time. Mother conjures a basket of good will, repurposed finger foods already flagged in poor taste verdicts. No deliverance for the allotted deliverer. Upscale and downtrodden meet. Witness hope grows weary for the living, but the death repose in apparent peace. Not to give too much away, but on any account, she didn’t, and isn’t that the way of life.

[Leena Arul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story reminds me of two other stories, that by Chekhov (Party) and another by Louisa May Alcott (Little Women) the former for the party outdoors and the latter for the benevolence towards one's poor neighbours.

This however, evoked different feelings. Class difference is what is highlighted here. The upper class in their own little universe are heedless to the happenings of the world outside even if it happens to be a death of a poor neighbour right outside the gate. But this plays out almost everyday in our lives. News of death, war and destruction afflict us everyday, yet we go about life, conforming to Voltair's dictum, 'one must cultivate one's own garden'. Our life goes about normally shutting out noise from around. We even make those weak noises registering our protests just as young Laura who eagerly takes the leftover goodies to bestow on the poor have-nots. Laura's sensitive heart registers the death and suffering, feels bad about it and feels sensitive enough to want to cancel the party, feels embarassed at having made the mistake of dressing inappropriately in her showy dress to meet the bereaved.

Yet that is all that she could do. Perhaps her exposure to the other world has had an impact on her, enough to move her to tears. She perhaps also understands the peace of the dead man, her own unaffected happiness, confused as she is with her ambivalence, she feels Life must be wonderful.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for school - it was so wonderful!

[Tintarella]

چه خوبست آدم دستاویزی برای غذاخوردن در هوای آزاد پیدا کند :)

[Schin · Rating 2 out of 5]

La vie.

[anem · Rating 5 out of 5]

After finishing it, I realised that it was queer, quirky and absolutely astute. While reading it, I thought it was a mere social critique, very insightful indeed, but no enough.

The ear-biting, the male gaze she borrowed to give it to Laura—the main protagonist— that regards men as creatures to behold and never hold, to see from the eyes and not from the head or heart. She is attaching some sort of inverted figures to the text, quite a genius to me.

Also, very unlikely told but it is 100% sapphic. Laura is literally a woman that has no attraction towards any man. She has love for everything that is commonly attributed to women, such as the tenderness of a mother, the flowers, etc…

After reading this 12 pages long short story, how can I ever read without double checking the lines I’m reading. So many clues displayed before me and it took me some time to realise how deep it was.

I named Laura the queerest marxist that ever existed, with the sympathy of a man towards man, the same contempt they have for women she had for men. I love seeing women in men’s field (Mansfield).

[elin ୨୧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great themes and social commentary packed into so few pages.

[solaris khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

i had to read this for a test and it was pretty nice. i failed though ☺️ /hj

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Isn't life," she stammered, "isn't life—" But what life was she couldn't explain. No matter. He quite understood.
"Isn't it, darling?" said Laurie.

It's been a while since I've read, but I've been obsessed with modernist writing recently and where better to start than the writer who made the Virginia Woolf jealous? This was a fantastic insight into the class divides of early 20th century England, and brought me back to my GCSE studies of An Inspector Calls. I can't put it better than "I really enjoyed it", because I did.

[Anna Auzāne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Latvijā Jaunzēlandes rakstniece Mansfīlda(-e)/Mensfīlda(-e) ir tikpat kā nepazīstama (daži teksti periodikā un Mirdzas Ķempes tulkotā "Laime"), skolās par viņu nestāsta, un jāsaka: žēl, ka tā. Virdžīnija Vulfa savulaik ir izteikusies, ka no visiem pasaules rakstniekiem apskauž vienīgi Mansfīldu, un tas vien jau kaut ko nozīmē. Lasot "Laimi", bija ļoti labi.