A definitive, exquisite collection of stories exploring class, relationships, and the beauty and banality of ordinary life by an underappreciated master of the form, with an introduction by bestselling novelist and essayist Sloane Crosley.
“I was jealous of her writing. The only writing I have ever been jealous of.” —Virginia Woolf
In New Zealand–born writer Katherine Mansfield’s brief yet blazing literary career, she became a pillar of early-twentieth-century modernism, and left behind her own dazzling body of work. The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield—which includes her two major collections of short stories, Bliss and The Garden Party, in their entirety—presents, in one volume, the oeuvre of a singular talent.
In these stories, Mansfield explores themes of class and social dynamics, sexuality, and family and domestic dramas, all captured in crystalline, slyly humorous vignettes. In “Miss Brill,” a young woman dons her finest fur to stroll through the stately Jardins Publiques, only to be cut down by a stray remark. In “A Cup of Tea,” a rich woman is moved to help someone less fortunate than herself, and finds that her charity comes at a cost. Mansfield (who married twice and was romantically involved with both men and women) often turns her discerning eye to romantic relationships: in “A Dill Pickle,” former lovers meet by chance; in “Bliss,” the exuberant hostess of a dinner party discovers a shocking truth about her own relationships.
Yet as Sloane Crosley writes in her introduction, Mansfield was also a brilliant writer of children, as in the classic coming-of-age tale “The Garden Party,” and her masterful triptych of New Zealand stories, “Prelude,” “At the Bay,” and “The Doll’s House.” It is ultimately through the eyes of her youngest characters, their disappointments as well as their sense of wonder and openness, that we see the possibilities in our ordinary world.
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