false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172543380m/188087.jpg 188087 29 Virginia Woolf once described Katherine Mansfield as "of the cat kind, alien, composed, always solitary & observant." All of these qualities are on display in Mansfield's writing, as well; hers are lonely tales of missed connections, inchoate longings, and complicated emotions within the context of a rigidly defined social setting. Born in New Zealand, Mansfield set many of her stories there, even though she emigrated to England in 1908 at age 19, never to return. Her characters are almost invariably middle-class, the daughters, sweethearts, wives, and widows of office clerks, military men, businessmen. In "At the Bay," for example, Mansfield focuses on the Burnell family as they take their summer vacation at the beach. Not content to follow just one character through the story, she drifts in and out of the consciousness of half a dozen, from the family cat to Stanley and Linda Burnell, their children, Linda's sister, Beryl and their in-laws, the Trouts. Dipping into Linda's thoughts, for example, we learn that she loves her husband--"not the Stanley whom everyone saw, not the everyday one; but a timid, sensitive, innocent Stanley who knelt down every night to say his prayers and who longed to be good." Unfortunately for Linda, "she saw <I>her</I> Stanley so seldom." Mansfield then swoops into the mind of Stanley's brother-in-law, Jonathan Trout, who is discontented with his life but knows he hasn't the will to change it, and then on to Beryl, whose longing for "someone who will find the Beryl they none of them know" leads her into a rash action.<p> In the title story, Mansfield concentrates on young Laura Sheridan on the afternoon of her family's garden party. The story follows the family through the preparations--flags to identify the different sandwiches, the delivery of cream puffs, the setting up of a marquee on the lawn. This perfect idyll is broken, however, by news of a fatal accident down the lane. A young workman has been killed, leaving a wife and five children. Into Laura's perfect Eden, death comes whispering and her reaction to it is both subtle and surprising. In fact, many of Mansfield's stories feature young women on the brink of adulthood--facing, for the first time, the realities of their constricted lives. Love is a trap; childbearing is another; death can be "simply marvellous." Mansfield died in 1923 of tuberculosis, leaving behind a body of work that is as bold, unconventional, and modern as she was. <I>The Garden Party and Other Stories</I> is a fitting epitaph. <I>--Alix Wilber</I> 1698523 1922 The Garden Party and Other Stories (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) total:353|5:128|4:127|3:83|2:11|1:4| 353 1423 559 36 0 1 false false Tue Jun 24 21:20:01 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 24 21:33:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jul 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 11:28:48 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 11:29:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jul 28 11:24:37 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 09:35:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 04 12:54:04 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 26 17:19:09 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 09 07:28:41 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 09 07:28:55 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 01:52:15 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 01:54:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon May 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 18:31:27 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 15:50:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu May 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 17:14:31 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 17:32:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Nov 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 03:28:17 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 03:29:51 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Thu Oct 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 20:07:59 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 20:11:45 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 15:29:51 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 14:54:16 -0700 2009
Mansfield's influence on Virginia Woolf is startling, and this is why I chose to try out a collection of her short stories. Some of these are incredibly beautiful portraits of daily life, others are heartbreaking works, and a few mad...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 19 11:33:35 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 18:13:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed May 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 19:34:01 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 19:37:04 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1990 Sat Jul 05 06:33:43 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 08:40:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Mar 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 16:27:55 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 08:09:53 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Sep 14 12:15:12 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 12:15:12 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri May 15 18:29:05 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 18:32:01 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 21 11:10:57 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 12:43:03 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu May 15 12:43:41 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 12:47:27 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Mon Jun 25 05:31:43 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 06:31:57 -0700 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=188087