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Bliss and Other Stories
One of Katherine Mansfields finest short stories, Bliss, introduces us to Bertha, who experiences a sense of rapture as she reflects on her life. On her walk home one day, she is overwhelmed by a sense of bliss and contentment. However, her joy later turns to disappointment as she discovers her husband is having an affair with her new friend Pearl. Katherine Mansfield became well-known for her focus on psychological conflicts and complex characters; and Bliss displays these qualities brilliantly, exploring themes of marriage, adultery and duplicity. This set also contains five other short stories by Katherine Mansfield - Mr Reginald Peacock's Day, Pictures, The Little Governess, Feuille D'Album and A Dill Pickle.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1920
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2708 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Mansfield
974 books1,204 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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June 20, 2023
Their secret selves whispered
On re-reading this as part of a project alongside Woolf I've re-rated this as 5-stars (initially 4).
Mansfield generally has a bit more story than Woolf's short fiction, is less abstract, less about experimenting what writing alone can achieve though her explorations of inner lives and how to express that movement textually certainly speaks to Woolf and other modernists.
Above all, what struck me so forcibly on this reading is that idea of 'secret selves': whether that's the connections they might make as recalled, momentarily, in 'A Dill Pickle', the dissolutions that public selves conceal as shown in 'The Escape', or the disconnections and essential agony of loneliness that is life as depicted in 'Revelations'.
Mansfield is addictive.
-----------------------------------------------
"Oh, what is going to happen now?" she cried.
If you're the kind of reader who wants to be told what happens next or, even, what happened before then these stories might not be for you. There's almost no history in KM's tales though the pasts of characters may well be important. What she captures so vividly is moments: sometimes through thoughts, sometimes through glorious images ('for the dark table seemed to melt into the dusky light and the glass dish and the blue bowl to float in the air' (Bliss)). Colours are important: a silvery pear tree in the moonlight conflated with a woman's silver dress, purple grapes, green shoots of daffodils, women's flesh emerging out of dark clothes or settings.
But these are not effete little stories of lovely things - they're awash with pain; with the distances that open up between people; with misunderstandings and lack of comprehension. More than the later The Garden Party and Other Stories (or, at least, as it exists in my memory), this collection shows KM in crueler, even spiteful mode ('Pictures', for example, featuring Miss Ada Moss, adrift and penniless; or 'Mr Reginald Peacock's Day' where the cruelty implicates the reader). 'The Little Governess' even feels at home in our #MeToo climate as a woman who may be naive and a bit foolish pays too high a price for her misplaced imprudence, even as it's shaded by class assumptions and fantasy.
Mansfield's writing is lovely, even thrilling in places (that scene in 'Bliss' when Bertha sees her husband in the hall...) and while the alignments to Woolf are clear, the style is also reminiscent at times of Colette and look forward to Jean Rhys. Observant, perceptive, capturing moments of subjectivity and interiority in motion, attentive to gender and gendered (mis)understandings, sometimes wickedly witty ("It begins with an incredibly beautiful line: 'Why Must It Always Be Tomato Soup?'") these are little moments of life being lived, not always happily, but captured indelibly.
February 26, 2023
I do not know what possessed me to read this short story collection. I had it in one of my bookcases and I had run out of my library books to read. I really need to read more of the books that I have. 😐 😑 😬
I also have a nice copy of “The Garden Party and Other Stories” by this author. She died at a relatively early age of tuberculosis. She wrote some short stories shortly before her death to help pay for her medical care (I learned this through reading about another short story collection called The Montana Stories, published by Persephone Books.)
Overall, I enjoyed these stories. I think I will read the rest of her oeuvre. She wrote no novels in her lifetime, only short stories (what she is known for) and poetry and letters.
OMG… I just found this out: Her extended family included the author Countess Elizabeth von Arnim. Elizabeth von Arnim is one of my fave authors!!! 😊 From Wikipedia: Von Arnim was the first cousin of Mansfield's father. …They got on well, although Mansfield considered her wealthier cousin--who had in 1919 separated from her second husband Frank Russell, the elder brother of Bertrand Russell--to be rather patronizing. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katheri...)
1. Prelude (1918)— 4 stars
• This is a long short story — 51 pages.
2. Je ne parle pas Francais (1917) —3 stars
• Long-ish, 31 pages
3. Bliss (1918) —4 stars
•
4. The Wind Blows (1920)—2 stars
5. Psychology — (1920) 3 stars
•
6. Pictures — (1917) 3.5 stars
•
7. The Man Without a Temperament (1920) — 2.5 stars
•
8. Mr. Reginald Peacock’s Day (1920)— 4 stars
•
9. Sun and Moon (1920) — 3 stars
10. Feuille d’Album (1917) — 3.5 stars
•
11. A Dill Pickle (1917) — 5 stars
•
12. The Little Governess (1915) — 4 stars
•
13. Revelations — (1920) 3.5 stars
•
14. The Escape — (1920) 2.5 stars
Review
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2012/...
I also have a nice copy of “The Garden Party and Other Stories” by this author. She died at a relatively early age of tuberculosis. She wrote some short stories shortly before her death to help pay for her medical care (I learned this through reading about another short story collection called The Montana Stories, published by Persephone Books.)
Overall, I enjoyed these stories. I think I will read the rest of her oeuvre. She wrote no novels in her lifetime, only short stories (what she is known for) and poetry and letters.
OMG… I just found this out: Her extended family included the author Countess Elizabeth von Arnim. Elizabeth von Arnim is one of my fave authors!!! 😊 From Wikipedia: Von Arnim was the first cousin of Mansfield's father. …They got on well, although Mansfield considered her wealthier cousin--who had in 1919 separated from her second husband Frank Russell, the elder brother of Bertrand Russell--to be rather patronizing. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katheri...)
1. Prelude (1918)— 4 stars
• This is a long short story — 51 pages.
2. Je ne parle pas Francais (1917) —3 stars
• Long-ish, 31 pages
3. Bliss (1918) —4 stars
•
4. The Wind Blows (1920)—2 stars
5. Psychology — (1920) 3 stars
•
6. Pictures — (1917) 3.5 stars
•
7. The Man Without a Temperament (1920) — 2.5 stars
•
8. Mr. Reginald Peacock’s Day (1920)— 4 stars
•
9. Sun and Moon (1920) — 3 stars
10. Feuille d’Album (1917) — 3.5 stars
•
11. A Dill Pickle (1917) — 5 stars
•
12. The Little Governess (1915) — 4 stars
•
13. Revelations — (1920) 3.5 stars
•
14. The Escape — (1920) 2.5 stars
Review
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2012/...
May 8, 2022
Esta autora fue contemporánea y amiga de Virginia Woolf y tuvo una existencia breve y tormentosa, pero llena de una pasión que se puede encontrar en sus relatos. La mayoría son retratos costumbristas de la vida de las clases medias de su época, escenas familiares donde no pasa gran cosa, hasta que afloran sentimientos y pasiones escondidas.
En general me han gustado todos estos cuentos, llenos de pequeños detalles, con alegorías modernistas, que son como chispas que los iluminan. Mis preferidos son:
Felicidad Con un estilo que recuerda a Mrs Dalloway de Virginia Woolf, trata temas como el matrimonio y el adulterio o los nuevos roles de la mujer en el mundo cambiante de la Inglaterra de 1918. El tono es ligero pero hay muchas ideas y símbolos en el aire.
La mosca Relato muy perturbador, ligado a los horrores de la guerra mundial y que muestra una gran desconfianza en la naturaleza humana.
La casa de muñecas Aquí la casa de muñecas es un juguete que funciona como instrumento de exclusión para las niñas de clase desfavorecida. Centrada en la dinámica que se da entre las niñas y en cómo la mayoría reproduce los esquemas sociales que se les inculcan.
La fiesta en el jardín De nuevo aquí se retrata el orden social y cómo un accidente en las casas obreras vecinas perturba una fiesta de una familia acomodada. Laura es la hija encargada de organizar la fiesta e intenta tender puentes entre los dos mundos.
La lección de canto Como en la mayoría de estos relatos, la perspectiva es enteramente femenina: todo se desarrolla en la mente de esta profesora que, mientras da la clase, recibe noticias de su prometido. Asistimos a una tormenta de emociones detrás de la fachada victoriana e impasible de esta mujer.
En general me han gustado todos estos cuentos, llenos de pequeños detalles, con alegorías modernistas, que son como chispas que los iluminan. Mis preferidos son:
Felicidad Con un estilo que recuerda a Mrs Dalloway de Virginia Woolf, trata temas como el matrimonio y el adulterio o los nuevos roles de la mujer en el mundo cambiante de la Inglaterra de 1918. El tono es ligero pero hay muchas ideas y símbolos en el aire.
La mosca Relato muy perturbador, ligado a los horrores de la guerra mundial y que muestra una gran desconfianza en la naturaleza humana.
La casa de muñecas Aquí la casa de muñecas es un juguete que funciona como instrumento de exclusión para las niñas de clase desfavorecida. Centrada en la dinámica que se da entre las niñas y en cómo la mayoría reproduce los esquemas sociales que se les inculcan.
La fiesta en el jardín De nuevo aquí se retrata el orden social y cómo un accidente en las casas obreras vecinas perturba una fiesta de una familia acomodada. Laura es la hija encargada de organizar la fiesta e intenta tender puentes entre los dos mundos.
La lección de canto Como en la mayoría de estos relatos, la perspectiva es enteramente femenina: todo se desarrolla en la mente de esta profesora que, mientras da la clase, recibe noticias de su prometido. Asistimos a una tormenta de emociones detrás de la fachada victoriana e impasible de esta mujer.
November 14, 2017
Il piacere delle piccole cose
Ho iniziato a leggere (in realtà ad ascoltare, trattandosi di un audiolibro) questo libro di Katherine Mansfield assolutamente per caso, non guidato da recensioni o commenti. Pur non essendo un grande estimatore di racconti, questi brevi quadri mi hanno subito colpito, rilassato, emozionato e incantato.
Non vogliono necessariamente arrivare da nessuna parte ma si limitano a trasmettere con pochissime parole sensazioni vivide; parole che si trasformano rapidamente in immagini.
"Che cosa ci volete fare se avete trent'anni e, voltando l'angolo della strada, vi sentite sopraffatti, all'improvviso, da un senso di felicità, di assoluta felicità, come se aveste d'un tratto inghiottito un pezzo lucente di quel tardo sole pomeridiano che vi bruciasse dentro, spandendo una pioggerella di scintille in ogni intima fibra, in ogni dito delle mani e dei piedi?"
Una scrittura precisa e con un grande potere evocativo. Dettagli, luci, odori, ombre, l'intimità della casa, gesti, piccole cose contribuiscono a creare atmosfere rarefatte e quasi sospese nel tempo; una scoperta piacevolissima che mi porterà certamente ad approfondire altri racconti della scrittrice.
Aggiungo un plauso alla audiolettura di Rita Savagnone, semplicemente splendida nell'interpretazione e in grado di valorizzare al massimo queste bellissime pagine.
Forse l'accostamento dei racconti in questa edizione potrebbe essere a mio parere migliorato; ma è solo una sfumatura.
March 7, 2023
Read via the Audrey reading experience app.
I really enjoyed these short stories.
Audrey gives an immersive reading experience, with the book narrated superbly by Juliet Stevenson, and the extra information adds new fascinating elements from the Guide, Sophie.
After each story, we are able to gain further understanding behind the time they were written and the language Mansfield used.
Juliet Stevenson is perfect for the narration, the emotion and passion in the story just wonderfully portrayed.
I would have liked the voice notes from Sophie woven into the book to add more seamless playing after each story as I found it a little clunky to go between the book and the extra information.
Nonetheless, the stories are wonderful and I can't wait to listen to another book with Audrey.
I really enjoyed these short stories.
Audrey gives an immersive reading experience, with the book narrated superbly by Juliet Stevenson, and the extra information adds new fascinating elements from the Guide, Sophie.
After each story, we are able to gain further understanding behind the time they were written and the language Mansfield used.
Juliet Stevenson is perfect for the narration, the emotion and passion in the story just wonderfully portrayed.
I would have liked the voice notes from Sophie woven into the book to add more seamless playing after each story as I found it a little clunky to go between the book and the extra information.
Nonetheless, the stories are wonderful and I can't wait to listen to another book with Audrey.
March 19, 2022
Cuentos perfectos. Narran hechos de la vida cotidiana que, aun cien años después, tienen una belleza que duele. En varios aparece el tema de las diferencias sociales y todos transmiten tristeza y soledad.
Los primeros del libro me fascinaron: “Felicidad”, “La mosca” y “La casa de muñecas”.
Será mejor describirlos con palabras de Cortázar: “los cuentos de Katherine Mansfield, de Chéjov, son significativos, algo estalla en ellos mientras los leemos y nos proponen una especie de ruptura de lo cotidiano que va mucho más allá de la anécdota reseñada”.
Los primeros del libro me fascinaron: “Felicidad”, “La mosca” y “La casa de muñecas”.
Será mejor describirlos con palabras de Cortázar: “los cuentos de Katherine Mansfield, de Chéjov, son significativos, algo estalla en ellos mientras los leemos y nos proponen una especie de ruptura de lo cotidiano que va mucho más allá de la anécdota reseñada”.
August 24, 2015
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0671h1qRe-visiting just this one story, Mr Reginald Peacock's Day from the collection, via R4x: A singing teacher ponders the mundane nature of his married life, compared to the passion of his profession. Read by Brian Gear.
August 27, 2023
I took my time reading these.
The 14 short stories in this collection show relationships in various degrees of imperfection, let downs and disappointments.
They all have some sorrow or a hint of it, and are unsettling in their reality, but at the same time reassuring.
The 14 short stories in this collection show relationships in various degrees of imperfection, let downs and disappointments.
They all have some sorrow or a hint of it, and are unsettling in their reality, but at the same time reassuring.
August 19, 2012
It is possibly surprising that I had not read any Katherine Mansfield before now, but I am fairly sure that I hadn’t. I downloaded this collection to my kindle free – there are so many amazing free books to be found out there! I must say that I always find it quite difficult to review collections of short stories, but anyway here goes.
There are fourteen stories in this collection, and while there were a couple I couldn’t quite see the point of – the majority I found to be wonderful. The writing is really very beautiful, and the characterisation surprisingly deft considering how short some of these pieces are. The stories concern small incidents in the lives of the characters – highlighting their disappointments, naiveties and quiet angers.
Two of my favourite stories were the first story Prelude, and the title story Bliss. In Prelude a family move from town to a large house in the country - there are four adults and three children, nothing very much happens – but the setting and characterisation are just glorious. In the title story Bliss – a young woman is about to get a rude awakening from her perfect life. Then the way Mansfield ends this sharp little piece is just masterly, in complete contrast to the start.
“Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at - nothing - at nothing, simply.
What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly by a feeling of bliss - absolute bliss! - as though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and toe?”
The little governess is another of the stories that will stay with me – an innocent young woman journeys by train to her new appointment, and meets a grandfatherly type of man who she naively fails to realise has other interests in her. I also rather loved the story Pictures, a sad little tale about a young woman contralto who can’t pay her rent and is trying to get a job as a singer or an actress. She and others like her dreaming of the big time, the realities of life coming much sharper.
This collection has really piqued my interest in Katherine Mansfield – so I’m sure that I will be reading more of her work at some point.
There are fourteen stories in this collection, and while there were a couple I couldn’t quite see the point of – the majority I found to be wonderful. The writing is really very beautiful, and the characterisation surprisingly deft considering how short some of these pieces are. The stories concern small incidents in the lives of the characters – highlighting their disappointments, naiveties and quiet angers.
Two of my favourite stories were the first story Prelude, and the title story Bliss. In Prelude a family move from town to a large house in the country - there are four adults and three children, nothing very much happens – but the setting and characterisation are just glorious. In the title story Bliss – a young woman is about to get a rude awakening from her perfect life. Then the way Mansfield ends this sharp little piece is just masterly, in complete contrast to the start.
“Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at - nothing - at nothing, simply.
What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly by a feeling of bliss - absolute bliss! - as though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and toe?”
The little governess is another of the stories that will stay with me – an innocent young woman journeys by train to her new appointment, and meets a grandfatherly type of man who she naively fails to realise has other interests in her. I also rather loved the story Pictures, a sad little tale about a young woman contralto who can’t pay her rent and is trying to get a job as a singer or an actress. She and others like her dreaming of the big time, the realities of life coming much sharper.
This collection has really piqued my interest in Katherine Mansfield – so I’m sure that I will be reading more of her work at some point.
June 16, 2021
"Oh is there no way you can express it without being 'drunk and disorderly'? How idiotic civilization is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?" - This is an excerpt from the most famous short story in this collection - Bliss.
The excerpt is a great example of Mansfield's writing. It is expressive and immediately creates a picture in the reader's mind. Her writing reflects her sharp observations of societal norms.
I bought this book randomly from a second hand bookshop. The lovely thing about going to second hand bookshops is that you never know what you'll find. I had never read Katherine Mansfield before and thought it's never a bad time to discover a new author. And I'm glad I picked this up. The stories here are funny, irreverent and sensitive all at once.
I find that her writing style is quite unique. She doesn't build back stories. And it feels intentional. She writes about moments. Important moments that her characters experience. And it is that anecdote she is elaborating on in her short story - not what happened before nor where things are headed. It is the present that she focuses on, suspended in space and captured in moments.
The excerpt is a great example of Mansfield's writing. It is expressive and immediately creates a picture in the reader's mind. Her writing reflects her sharp observations of societal norms.
I bought this book randomly from a second hand bookshop. The lovely thing about going to second hand bookshops is that you never know what you'll find. I had never read Katherine Mansfield before and thought it's never a bad time to discover a new author. And I'm glad I picked this up. The stories here are funny, irreverent and sensitive all at once.
I find that her writing style is quite unique. She doesn't build back stories. And it feels intentional. She writes about moments. Important moments that her characters experience. And it is that anecdote she is elaborating on in her short story - not what happened before nor where things are headed. It is the present that she focuses on, suspended in space and captured in moments.
February 27, 2023
I find all Katherine’s work amazing, storyline and writing style. I recommend dipping into all her short fiction.
February 4, 2019
Perhaps I didn’t absolutely love or even understand the subtleties of every single story in this collection, but no matter: when we click, I feel Katherine Mansfield speaks directly to my soul. She certainly speaks to my mercurial self, who knows all too well the extremes of Utter Bliss and of Complete Despair.
Definitely the kinds of short stories that are worth taking in slowly, one by one, and letting linger as I did, so I’m glad I took my time to finish this tiny and beautiful Bloomsbury Classics publication, one of several I’ve managed to collect. Now all that remains to do is to read everything she’s ever written in her abbreviated life, and everything everyone else has written about her that is worth reading. I’d put that in the long term projects category. One doesn’t like to rush such things.
Definitely the kinds of short stories that are worth taking in slowly, one by one, and letting linger as I did, so I’m glad I took my time to finish this tiny and beautiful Bloomsbury Classics publication, one of several I’ve managed to collect. Now all that remains to do is to read everything she’s ever written in her abbreviated life, and everything everyone else has written about her that is worth reading. I’d put that in the long term projects category. One doesn’t like to rush such things.
October 2, 2020
Cuentos crueles. Mi preferido "La Mosca" y el conocido "Fiesta en el jardín"
November 26, 2017
"Bliss" is the second short story by Katherine Mansfield that I have read. Her creative writing is top-notch and her power of observation is superb. I truly wonder about some writers whether they have an amazing memory to recall everything that has happened or they have seen. Or whether they keep a notebook and jot things down that would later become a part of their short story or novel.
Miss Mansfield's opening two paragraphs are absolutely delightful. Read on:
"ALTHOUGH Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at – nothing -- at nothing, simply.
"What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly by a feeling of bliss, absolute bliss! as though you had swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and toe? . . ."
Coincidentally I happened to be just like this during my early thirties. I would croon jovially while walking on the footpath of a road. Sometimes I would clap my hands on the main road while waiting for a rickshaw. Then almost everybody loves singing in the bathroom, some at full volume. It is my favourite place for singing. It is another matter altogether that if you hear me do so, you would either plug your ears or start running at full speed out of the range of my voice. Sometimes my Mom asks my wife: "What is Mohsin shouting about in the shower?" The latter replies: "Oh! He is singing an Indian film song." At other times she says, "He is trying to emulate Robert Plant by warbling "Whole Lotta Love."
A scene from the film "Bliss -- the beginning of Katharine Mansfield".
Later Miss Mansfield writes: "There were tangerines and apples stained with strawberry pink. Some yellow pears, smooth as silk, some white grapes covered with a silver bloom and a big cluster of purple ones. These last she had bought to tone in with the new dining-room carpet. Yes, that did sound rather far-fetched and absurd, but it was really why she had bought them. She had thought in the shop: 'I must have some purple ones to bring the carpet up to the table.' And it had seemed quite sense at the time.
"When she had finished with them and had made two pyramids of these bright round shapes, she stood away from the table to get the effect – and it really was most curious. For the dark table seemed to melt into the dusky light and the glass dish and the blue bowl to float in the air. This, of course, in her present mood, was so incredibly beautiful. . . . She began to laugh."
Just imagine the protagonist buying "purple grapes" to match them with the the new dining-room carpet. How ridiculous can people be at times! Later she makes two pyramids of the grapes. She truly has money, time and energy to waste.
Pair painting. Hosui Asian Pear Tree 10 by Lanjee Chee. The pear tree in "Bliss" is considered to be a phallic symbol.
I loved Mansfield's power of observation when she writes about Bertha feeding her baby. I couldn't help smiling when I read the following:
"She ate delightfully, holding up her lips for the spoon and then waving her hands. Sometimes she wouldn't let the spoon go; and sometimes, just as Bertha had filled it, she waved it away to the four winds." Don't babies do exactly like this while being fed!? A mother truly has to have patience while feeding her child.
I had difficulty in digesting the following paragraph:
"Really–really–she had everything. She was young. Harry and she were as much in love as ever, and they got on together splendidly and were really good pals. She had an adorable baby. They didn't have to worry about money. They had this absolutely satisfactory house and garden. And friends – modern, thrilling friends, writers and painters and poets or people keen on social questions books, and just the kind of friends they wanted. And then there were books, and there was music, and she had found a wonderful little dressmaker, and they were going abroad in the summer, and their new cook made the most superb omelettes. . ."
You may well ask me, "Why did I have difficulty in digesting it?" Bertha seems to be living in an Utopian world. Everything about Bertha's life seems to be so perfect. Where exactly do you see/find such a perfect world?
Bertha is extremely fashion conscious. The same holds true for all her friends -- whether male or female.
"Yes, it was the spring. Now she was so tired she could not drag herself upstairs to dress.
"A white dress, a string of jade beads, green shoes and stockings. It wasn't intentional. She had thought of this scheme hours before she stood at the drawing-room window."
Bertha has a lot of time on her hands as she had contemplated on what to wear several hours before the arrival of her guests. With her white dress she wears "a string of jade beads, green shoes and stockings". She makes sure that all are green. She seems to be filthy rich too!
Naxos AudioBooks.
"But when she noticed Face's funny little habit of tucking something down the front of her bodice – as if she kept a tiny, secret hoard of nuts there, too -- Bertha had to dig her nails into her hands – so as not to laugh too much."
I was laughing on reading about hoarding nuts in the bodice as it reminded me of many women of Calcutta, Delhi, Lahore and Karachi during the '60s and '70s who used to use their bra as a purse by keeping money there, often a handkerchief too. Maybe it was the safest place which was out of the reach of pickpockets. When women went out shopping, they would tuck their hands inside their bra and pull out the money.
Even though the story says that Bertha feels a desire for her husband Harry for the first time, she actually has homosexual leanings towards her new friend, Pearl Fulton. The irony is that Harry is having an affair with Pearl as they exchange glances about meeting "tomorrow". So the story deals with both homosexuality and adultery without going into the details of either. And mind you, the story was written way back in 1918 when writers used to play it pretty safe so as not to be ostracized by society.
Julia Stenberg's six-image retelling of the short story Bliss by Katherine Mansfield. The colours are loosely inspired by Picasso's blue period.
January 2, 2018
Having already read Bliss (5 stars), Feuille d'album (3 stars) and A dill pickle (3 stars), I jumped straight to:
Prelude - the Burnell family is moving; Stanley Burnell is married to Linda, they have three daughters (Isabel, Kezia, Lottie); Linda's mother Mrs Fairfield and sister Beryl live with them (4 stars)
Je ne parle pas français - Raoul, a Parisian, meets Dick the Englishman and they connect through their love of literature; Dick comes back to Paris with a woman and invites Raoul to live with them (4 stars)
The wind blows - woken up by the wind, Matilda goes to her music lesson (4 stars)
Psychology - a female playwright and a male novelist take tea and discuss the merits of the psychological novel (5 stars)
Pictures - miss Ada Moss, a contralto singer is seeking employment (4 stars)
The man without a temperament - sickly mrs Jinnie Salesby has gone on a walk with her husband, Robert (3 stars)
Mr. Reginald Peacock's day - Reginald is woken up by his wife for breakfast in an utterly irritating fashion (3 stars)
Sun and moon - the children, Sun and Moon, are hanging around the house while a party is being prepared (3 stars)
The little governess - a French governess (referred to throughout the story as "the little governess") is off on the train to Munich, from where she will go to a new house for work (3 stars)
Revelations - even though she is only thirty three Monica at times considers herself to be old, not as pretty as other women and not understood by anybody (4 stars)
The escape - odds are that a couple is going to miss their train and the wife is silently fuming at her husband (4 stars)
Prelude - the Burnell family is moving; Stanley Burnell is married to Linda, they have three daughters (Isabel, Kezia, Lottie); Linda's mother Mrs Fairfield and sister Beryl live with them (4 stars)
Je ne parle pas français - Raoul, a Parisian, meets Dick the Englishman and they connect through their love of literature; Dick comes back to Paris with a woman and invites Raoul to live with them (4 stars)
The wind blows - woken up by the wind, Matilda goes to her music lesson (4 stars)
Psychology - a female playwright and a male novelist take tea and discuss the merits of the psychological novel (5 stars)
Pictures - miss Ada Moss, a contralto singer is seeking employment (4 stars)
The man without a temperament - sickly mrs Jinnie Salesby has gone on a walk with her husband, Robert (3 stars)
Mr. Reginald Peacock's day - Reginald is woken up by his wife for breakfast in an utterly irritating fashion (3 stars)
Sun and moon - the children, Sun and Moon, are hanging around the house while a party is being prepared (3 stars)
The little governess - a French governess (referred to throughout the story as "the little governess") is off on the train to Munich, from where she will go to a new house for work (3 stars)
Revelations - even though she is only thirty three Monica at times considers herself to be old, not as pretty as other women and not understood by anybody (4 stars)
The escape - odds are that a couple is going to miss their train and the wife is silently fuming at her husband (4 stars)
February 23, 2024
O que eu estive fazendo da minha vida durante todo esse tempo que nunca tinha parado pra ler nada da Katherine Mansfield?
Já tinha essa edição da Antofágica aqui em casa e fico feliz que finalmente resolvi iniciar ~e terminar~ essa leitura... amei todos os contos que li mas "A vida de Ma Parker" conquistou meu coração e posso dizer que é, sem dúvida, o meu favorito dessa coleção (achei a coisa mais sensível... dolorosamente real, terminei de ler com um nó na garganta).
Também gostei muito de "Êxtase" , conto que acredito ser o mais famosinho da autora, mas confesso que tive que lê-lo duas vezes porque num primeiro momento eu fiquei meio confusa e embasbacada com o final.
Curti "Aula de canto" , mas esse e "As filhas do falecido coronel" foram os que menos apreciei dentre os cinco que compõem essa edição. Acho que, por motivos distintos, não consegui me conectar tanto com as personagens dessas histórias, embora de certo modo eu empatize e entenda as angústias das protagonistas...
"Festa no jardim" foi muito interessante, fluiu bem, e embora eu também não tenha exatamente gostado da protagonista, me envolvi demais da leitura; os personagens são excelentes como ferramentas para construção de contraste na narrativa.
No geral, foi uma leitura que amei e acho que a Antofágica fez um belo trabalho (mas pretendo procurar uma edição mais completinha com outros contos da Mansfield depois).
Já tinha essa edição da Antofágica aqui em casa e fico feliz que finalmente resolvi iniciar ~e terminar~ essa leitura... amei todos os contos que li mas "A vida de Ma Parker" conquistou meu coração e posso dizer que é, sem dúvida, o meu favorito dessa coleção (achei a coisa mais sensível... dolorosamente real, terminei de ler com um nó na garganta).
Também gostei muito de "Êxtase" , conto que acredito ser o mais famosinho da autora, mas confesso que tive que lê-lo duas vezes porque num primeiro momento eu fiquei meio confusa e embasbacada com o final.
Curti "Aula de canto" , mas esse e "As filhas do falecido coronel" foram os que menos apreciei dentre os cinco que compõem essa edição. Acho que, por motivos distintos, não consegui me conectar tanto com as personagens dessas histórias, embora de certo modo eu empatize e entenda as angústias das protagonistas...
"Festa no jardim" foi muito interessante, fluiu bem, e embora eu também não tenha exatamente gostado da protagonista, me envolvi demais da leitura; os personagens são excelentes como ferramentas para construção de contraste na narrativa.
No geral, foi uma leitura que amei e acho que a Antofágica fez um belo trabalho (mas pretendo procurar uma edição mais completinha com outros contos da Mansfield depois).
Want to read
August 11, 2016Oh god. I need to be far away from Goodreads recommendations.
At least for two days.
At least for two days.
April 30, 2020
Have you felt bliss just because of the weather - a day flushed with just the right amount of sunshine, just the perfectly cool breeze, just just because?
Have you felt bliss in watching a tree blossom and shed in your backyard - stunned by its beauty in every season?
Have you felt bliss in coming back home?
Have you felt the bliss of sudden realisations?
I know I have!
I have been enraptured out of a bad mood by good weather.
I have had a tree to myself all my childhood, one that was always there, no matter the season or time of day, no matter who came and who left, it was there in my joys and jilts, it stood outside my bedroom window, not in my house, just a little distance away, and everytime I came home, it was there. Just the fact that it was there was enough for me, to know that somethings won’t change. And when I left home for college, and then returned for the holidays, it was still there until one time, it wasn’t. I know the despair I felt that day, I’m yet to reconcile with it.
Coming back home has always been the greatest bliss of life, and sudden realisations, well, they can be blissful too.
Happiness is bliss. Calm is bliss.
Nature is bliss.
Is ignorance bliss?
Probably not. In my opinion, definitely not.
Bliss, a short story by #KatherineMansfield, is absolute bliss. Read it, please!
Oh, the other stories were good too, but nothing compares to Bliss!
Overall: 3 stars!
Bliss: 5 stars!
Have you felt bliss in watching a tree blossom and shed in your backyard - stunned by its beauty in every season?
Have you felt bliss in coming back home?
Have you felt the bliss of sudden realisations?
I know I have!
I have been enraptured out of a bad mood by good weather.
I have had a tree to myself all my childhood, one that was always there, no matter the season or time of day, no matter who came and who left, it was there in my joys and jilts, it stood outside my bedroom window, not in my house, just a little distance away, and everytime I came home, it was there. Just the fact that it was there was enough for me, to know that somethings won’t change. And when I left home for college, and then returned for the holidays, it was still there until one time, it wasn’t. I know the despair I felt that day, I’m yet to reconcile with it.
Coming back home has always been the greatest bliss of life, and sudden realisations, well, they can be blissful too.
Happiness is bliss. Calm is bliss.
Nature is bliss.
Is ignorance bliss?
Probably not. In my opinion, definitely not.
Bliss, a short story by #KatherineMansfield, is absolute bliss. Read it, please!
Oh, the other stories were good too, but nothing compares to Bliss!
Overall: 3 stars!
Bliss: 5 stars!
May 11, 2020
I thought that this was a mixed bag.
I had read other collections of short stories by this author, and enjoyed them immensely, but this book left me cold. In part I suspect this is down to me - my reading mood shifts constantly. Another Mansfield book awaits in my to read pile, perhaps I will fare better next time.
A couple of the stories were a cut above the rest in my view
Pictures - penniless resting singer seeks employment. Ultimately she takes the only job she can get
The little governess - naive English governess is led astray in Munich
I had read other collections of short stories by this author, and enjoyed them immensely, but this book left me cold. In part I suspect this is down to me - my reading mood shifts constantly. Another Mansfield book awaits in my to read pile, perhaps I will fare better next time.
A couple of the stories were a cut above the rest in my view
Pictures - penniless resting singer seeks employment. Ultimately she takes the only job she can get
The little governess - naive English governess is led astray in Munich
June 16, 2023
Finalmente pude conhecer a escrita da Katherine Mansfield - traduzida pela também escritora Nara Vidal. Fiquei maravilhada! Apaixonada por todos os cinco contos presentes no livro. Quero ler mais e mais dela ♥️
July 24, 2020
Какие-то мотивашки для самоубийства, (особенно см. рассказ The Little Governess). Удивительный колюще-режущий талант, но такого сейчас читать не то чтобы не хочется, а даже не очень возможно.
August 10, 2020
42 SHORT STORIES IN 42 DAYS*
DAY 33: Bliss
Between this and Chekov, I might finally be getting hold of the idea that there's more to literary short stories than Raymond Bloody Carver.
*The rules:
– Read one short story a day, every day for six weeks
– Read no more than one story by the same author within any 14-day period
– Deliberately include authors I wouldn't usually read
– Review each story in one sentence or less
Any fresh reading suggestions/recommendations will be gratefully received 📚
DAY 33: Bliss
Between this and Chekov, I might finally be getting hold of the idea that there's more to literary short stories than Raymond Bloody Carver.
*The rules:
– Read one short story a day, every day for six weeks
– Read no more than one story by the same author within any 14-day period
– Deliberately include authors I wouldn't usually read
– Review each story in one sentence or less
Any fresh reading suggestions/recommendations will be gratefully received 📚
April 14, 2023
mulheres, mulheres, mulheres! esperançosas, desesperadas, ardentes pela vida, assustadas, complexas: coadjuvantes em suas vidas, protagonistas desses contos. a extraordinária, porém tímida subversão escondida atrás da delicadeza das paisagens, dos costumes, dos chapéus e das xícaras de chá.
June 30, 2023
No sé cómo nunca había leído a Katherine Mansfield. Esta selección de cuentos es realmente hermosa. Logré conectar con casi todos. Creo que lo lindo de su narrativa es que siempre hay un gesto, un ser u objeto que aparece y trastoca el mundo emocional de alguno o alguna de las personajes.
Mis cuentos favoritos fueron: “La mosca”, “El canario”, “La mujer del almacén” y “Fiesta en el jardín”.
Estoy gratamente sorprendida <3
Mis cuentos favoritos fueron: “La mosca”, “El canario”, “La mujer del almacén” y “Fiesta en el jardín”.
Estoy gratamente sorprendida <3
October 9, 2023
Está compilación de cuentos tiene la particularidad de hablar desde lo cotidiano pero explorando la pasión de las emociones. Una particularidad destacable de Katherine, que se expresa de una forma clara, directa y muy arrolladora. Desde la aristocracia hasta la servidumbre pasan por esa gama descrita.
De todos ellos, mis favoritos fueron: «Felicidad», «La lección de canto», «Cómo secuestraron a Pearl Button», «Las hijas del difunto coronel», «Veneno» y «La vida de mamá Parker». Todos ellos con una gama de temas y emociones muy variadas, algunos de ellos algo oscuros y sombríos. Incluso el primer cuento mencionado se contrapone con la situación que se va dando.
Si tienen la oportunidad de leerla, háganlo. Su literatura es una caja llena de sorpresas.
De todos ellos, mis favoritos fueron: «Felicidad», «La lección de canto», «Cómo secuestraron a Pearl Button», «Las hijas del difunto coronel», «Veneno» y «La vida de mamá Parker». Todos ellos con una gama de temas y emociones muy variadas, algunos de ellos algo oscuros y sombríos. Incluso el primer cuento mencionado se contrapone con la situación que se va dando.
Si tienen la oportunidad de leerla, háganlo. Su literatura es una caja llena de sorpresas.
December 15, 2014
Katherine Mansfield is a capturer of moments. The stories in this collection do not always have a plot and some of them seem at first glance vague and insignificant, but they all build up images and impressions so that the meaning is deeply felt. The picture on the front cover of this edition is apt: a woman putting on an earring in the mirror, her expression distant (what is she thinking?), a wash of bluey green filling the background.
I liked the first story, Prelude, the best. A long short story - a novella almost - about a New Zealand family moving from the town to the country. Mansfield is a adept at writing from a child's point of view without being twee or sentimental - not always an easy thing.
Some of the stories are quite prudish, which I was surprised about given Mansfield's private life. There are a lot of thwarted women and a lot of women punished for being foolish or stepping out of line - even if only briefly, even if completely innocently - of society's conventions. You could say that this is because of the mores of the time but remember that Jean Rhys' stories of London's seedy demi-monde were not far off. Perhaps it was a form of protection for herself.
I liked the first story, Prelude, the best. A long short story - a novella almost - about a New Zealand family moving from the town to the country. Mansfield is a adept at writing from a child's point of view without being twee or sentimental - not always an easy thing.
Some of the stories are quite prudish, which I was surprised about given Mansfield's private life. There are a lot of thwarted women and a lot of women punished for being foolish or stepping out of line - even if only briefly, even if completely innocently - of society's conventions. You could say that this is because of the mores of the time but remember that Jean Rhys' stories of London's seedy demi-monde were not far off. Perhaps it was a form of protection for herself.
January 29, 2022
En este bellísima edición que consta de nueve relatos, si se animan a leerla, encontrarán joyas increíbles, como Felicidad, La mosca (breve pero tremendoooo), La fiesta en el jardín, Vida de Ma Parker (agárrense bien el corazón, que se les puede romper 😔) y El canario.
Los demás que no he mencionado como La casa de muñecas o La mujer del almacén también creo que los van a sorprender. No hay pierde con esta selección de cuentos 🥰
Los demás que no he mencionado como La casa de muñecas o La mujer del almacén también creo que los van a sorprender. No hay pierde con esta selección de cuentos 🥰
August 26, 2015
From BBC Radio 4 Extra - Mr. Reginald Peacock's day
A singing teacher ponders the mundane nature of his married life, compared to the passion of his profession. Read by Brian Gear.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0671h1q
A singing teacher ponders the mundane nature of his married life, compared to the passion of his profession. Read by Brian Gear.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0671h1q
September 9, 2016
Gente, mas que coisa linda. Sempre tive problemas em gostar de contos como gosto de romances e novelas, mas essa seleção da Mansfield é irretocável.
April 29, 2023
Read: April 2023
Prelude - 3/5 stars
Je ne parle pas francais - 2/5 stars
Bliss - 3/5 stars
The Wind Blows - 3/5 stars
Psychology - 2/5 stars
Pictures - 2/5 stars
The Man without a Temperament - 2/5 stars
Mr Reginald Peacock's Day - 3.5/5 stars
Sun and Moon - 2/5 stars
Feuille d'Album - 2/5 stars
A Dill Pickle - 3/5 stars
The Little Governess - 2.5/5 stars
Revelations - 2/5 stars
The Escape - 2/5 stars
Prelude - 3/5 stars
Je ne parle pas francais - 2/5 stars
Bliss - 3/5 stars
The Wind Blows - 3/5 stars
Psychology - 2/5 stars
Pictures - 2/5 stars
The Man without a Temperament - 2/5 stars
Mr Reginald Peacock's Day - 3.5/5 stars
Sun and Moon - 2/5 stars
Feuille d'Album - 2/5 stars
A Dill Pickle - 3/5 stars
The Little Governess - 2.5/5 stars
Revelations - 2/5 stars
The Escape - 2/5 stars
Displaying 1 - 30 of 315 reviews