Stories

Katherine Mansfield

Jan 2009 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

Although Katherine Mansfield was closely associated with D.H. Lawrence and something of a rival of Virginia Woolf, her stories suggest someone writing in a different era and in a vastly different English. Her language is as transparent as clean glass, yet hovers on the edge of poetry. Her characters are passionate men and women swaddled in English reserve -- and sometimes briefly breaking through. And her genius is to pinpoint those unacknowledged and almost imperceptible moments in which those people's relationships -- with one another and themselves -- change forever. This collection includes such masterpieces as "Prelude," "At the Bay" "Bliss," "The Man Without a Temperament" and "The Garden Party" and has a new introduction by Jeffrey Meyers.

Ratings and reviews

I'm basing this review mainly on the way in which the stories were presented since the stories themselves are magnificent. The introduction of this edition was insightful and brought attention to subtle details in the stories and how they related to the life of the author. It also highlighted aspects of Katherine Mansfield's style, which helped understand more of the complex feelings she was trying to convey in her stories. Also, the cover is really eye-catching and makes a beautiful book inside and out.

About the author

Katherine Mansfield was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1888. From the time of her marriage to John Middleton Murry in 1918 wuntil her death near Paris in 1923, she spent most of her time in Italy, Switzerland and France. Besides her volumes of short stories (all of which are available in The Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield, 1937) her works include Poems (1923), Journal (1927), Letters (1928, 1951), all collected and published after her death.