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Bliss and Other Stories
Kathleen Mansfield Murry (1888-1923) was a prominent New Zealand modernist writer of short fiction. She took on the pen-name Katherine Mansfield upon the publication of her first collection of short stories, In a German Pension, in 1911. She also contracted gonorrhoea around this time, an event that was to plague her with arthritic pain for the rest of her short life, as w...more
Paperback, 200 pages
Published
April 18th 2008
by Dodo Press
(first published 1922)
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Elizabeth
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Recommends it for:
Literary types looking to wallow in a little personal misery
Recommended to Elizabeth by:
Virginia Woolf, Moira, & Buck
I know more about some writers than I know of them. When I read Virginia Woolf's diaries several years ago, I watched with joy the relationship between these two smart, literary, genuine women begin and bloom, and then with sadness as it was cut off so soon. Virginia Woolf did not write about grief often. She had that horrific Victorian-English conditioning against showing grief. So reading the little that she did say in her diary during Katherine Mansfield's illness and then death was powerful,...more
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The opening story, about Lottie and Kezia and family, was a good introduction for me because the only Mansfield I'd read previously was "The Doll's House" in high school. She writes wonderfully character-focused stories, whether these are ordinary or extraordinary characters, children or adults, lovely characters or characters with some petty nasty flaw: they're all intensely real.
"Bliss" itself was wonderful -- the emotion in it, and the constraint around it, and...more
"Bliss" itself was wonderful -- the emotion in it, and the constraint around it, and...more
While I like the style in which these stories are written, each one has a very similar, predictable quality. Because of this I don't know if I have much to say about them, though I would recommend the collection for someone looking for light reading.
My favorite story has to be 'Mr. Reginald Peacock's Day,' as I love the way the main character is always saying 'Dear lady, I shall be only too charmed.' This is his standard response to anything his singing-lesson students say, and he's pr...more
My favorite story has to be 'Mr. Reginald Peacock's Day,' as I love the way the main character is always saying 'Dear lady, I shall be only too charmed.' This is his standard response to anything his singing-lesson students say, and he's pr...more
D.M.
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
literary women, occasional depressives, plunderers of the human condition.
Recommended to D.M. by:
NOBODY! And shame on them.
I'd never heard of Katherine Mansfield before getting this book in a lot of the Great Writers Library (dirt cheap, and commanding my reading over the next year or so). That is nothing less than a crime, as far as I'm concerned.
Apparently, this woman is well-known in her home country of New Zealand and her last country-of-residence France (where she died of TB at 34), as well as most points between. It's small wonder to me, though, that a poorly educated American like myself was never intro...more
Apparently, this woman is well-known in her home country of New Zealand and her last country-of-residence France (where she died of TB at 34), as well as most points between. It's small wonder to me, though, that a poorly educated American like myself was never intro...more
This woman has the gift to tell vibrant yet simple stories. I enjoyed all of them, specially Bliss and The Doll House... Special and emotional characters who discover quite special revelations. A must.
Some quotes:
"She wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop..."
"Perhaps it is the way God opens houses at the dead of night when He is taking a quiet turn with an angel"
Some quotes:
"She wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop..."
"Perhaps it is the way God opens houses at the dead of night when He is taking a quiet turn with an angel"
What a fabulous writer. Although Mansfield has a tendency to stop some of her stories with a number of loose ends trailing, she is an artist. This collection of stories centre around themes of (yearned for) love, (troubled) marriage, (false) expectations, childhood (awakening), and a few others. The beauty of the writing is in what remains unsaid, and in the build-up of emotions and the hidden stories which result.
i am entirely enchanted by katherine mansfield right now--haven't read much of it before. i love the way there is this horrible, unbearable sadness lurking just beneath the surface of every lovely, normal-seeming scene.
I do see why Virginia Woolf considered Mansfield her greatest threat; yet, she and her husband published her work.
Despite influences from Chekhov, her stories are her own and reveal many a folly into which we fall.
Despite influences from Chekhov, her stories are her own and reveal many a folly into which we fall.
Famous Kiwi author. I used to go past her house all the time in Wellington. Great style.
Beautifully written, innovative short stories.
Another book I wish I could read over again, to really fully understand. Her prose is so straightforward, and many of the stories have this yearning, claustraphobic feel to them. I imagine she must have felt like that.
Rhonda
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Recommends it for:
Females will probably like it more, but I'm awestruck again by the writing.
Mansfield reminds me why I was a lit major and makes me want to voluntarily write a paper, even though I'm out of school. I'm glad I pulled this back off my shelf where it's been gathering dust since I returned from England.
Like Angela Carter, this is so psychologically taut, challenging, illuminating, but this is more devasting and earnest than her counterpart
Desperation- clawing for what isn't. The narrator was excellent! She was perfect for these intriguing short stories.
Delicate, insightful vignettes with great big gallons of emotional portent and doom swashing around below the surface.
Beutifully written, intriguing
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Kathleen Mansfield Murry 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 suc...more
More about 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 suc...more
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“And the two women stood side by side looking at the slender, flowering tree. Although it was so still it seemed, like the flame of a candle, to stretch up, to point, to quiver in the bright air, to grow taller and taller as they gazed - almost to touch the rim of the round, silver moon.
How long did they stand there? Both, as it were, caught in that circle of unearthly light, understanding each other perfectly, creatures of another world, and wondering what they were to do in this one with all this blissful treasure that burned in their bosoms and dropped, in silver flowers, from their hair and hands?”
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How long did they stand there? Both, as it were, caught in that circle of unearthly light, understanding each other perfectly, creatures of another world, and wondering what they were to do in this one with all this blissful treasure that burned in their bosoms and dropped, in silver flowers, from their hair and hands?”
