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Life of Ma Parker
Mrs. Parker has had a hard life, even the neighbours say so. As a girl in Stratford-on-Avon, she had never heard of Shakespeare. In her first position in London, she wasn’t allowed out of the cellar except to pray with the family. After two years of being run off her feet in a doctor’s house, she married a baker who died of consumption while their six surviving children were still young.
Life of Ma Parker by Katherine Mansfield is the story of a woman who has always “kept herself to herself,” but can bear her burdens no longer.
Life of Ma Parker by Katherine Mansfield is the story of a woman who has always “kept herself to herself,” but can bear her burdens no longer.
25 pages, ebook
First published February 26, 1921
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61 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Mansfield
1,004 books1,222 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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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
December 9, 2022
What a beautifully written, though sad little tale about Ma Parker, who’s had a hard life, but now comes the hardest thing she’s had to endure - the death of her precious little grandson.
She’s never cried about anything ( though she’s had good reason to) she doesn’t like to show her feelings, but now the time has come when she can no longer hide her grief. Incredibly sad.
She’s never cried about anything ( though she’s had good reason to) she doesn’t like to show her feelings, but now the time has come when she can no longer hide her grief. Incredibly sad.
September 30, 2021
He was all she'd got from life, and now he was took too.
Ma Parker's grandson has died, as disclosed in the first paragraph of this short story by the modernist writer, Katherine Mansfield. Mrs. Parker is a cleaning lady, arriving for work at the abode of a young "literary gentleman" —and this scholar's awkward obliviousness and distance from the reality of his cleaning lady's life adds a layer of satire or bleak humour to this unrelenting tale of poverty. (The literary gentleman's housekeeping wisdom foreshadows the advice of Quinton Crisp in his later years, but that is another matter.)
Centring a short story on the hard life of a cleaning lady, a grandmother carrying the weight of so many deaths (husband, several children), was daring in the 1920s when so much fiction chose to feature a monied class, partying across the Continent, decadent and irresponsible.
Ma Parker has endured much hardship, and the death of the treasured grandchild who has captured her heart feels unbearable. Where does she turn for solace?
Ma Parker's grandson has died, as disclosed in the first paragraph of this short story by the modernist writer, Katherine Mansfield. Mrs. Parker is a cleaning lady, arriving for work at the abode of a young "literary gentleman" —and this scholar's awkward obliviousness and distance from the reality of his cleaning lady's life adds a layer of satire or bleak humour to this unrelenting tale of poverty. (The literary gentleman's housekeeping wisdom foreshadows the advice of Quinton Crisp in his later years, but that is another matter.)
Centring a short story on the hard life of a cleaning lady, a grandmother carrying the weight of so many deaths (husband, several children), was daring in the 1920s when so much fiction chose to feature a monied class, partying across the Continent, decadent and irresponsible.
Ma Parker has endured much hardship, and the death of the treasured grandchild who has captured her heart feels unbearable. Where does she turn for solace?
September 27, 2018
There was no hint of hope at the end of this story, which bothers me because there is always hope in real life as long as there is life in the body. Other than that, a great short story. It's a powerful characterization for such few pages.
June 11, 2016
Such a sad scene. One of the many sorrowful stories of humankind that we somehow have neither seen nor heard.
February 8, 2022
Ma Parker trabaja haciendo la limpieza para un escritor , ella ha llevado una vida muy dura no así su patrón
Un relato con un escritor
Un relato con un escritor
November 7, 2014
Opening lines:
When the literary gentleman, whose flat old Ma Parker cleaned every Tuesday, opened the door to her that morning, he asked after her grandson. Ma Parker stood on the doormat inside the dark little hall, and she stretched out her hand to help her gentleman shut the door before she replied. “We buried ‘im yesterday, sir,” she said quietly.
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To SEE a WORLD in a Grain of Sand,
And a HEAVEN in a Wild Flower,
Hold INFINITY in the palm of your hand
And ETERNITY in an Hour"
~ William Blake ~
~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is form.
Form is not different than Emptiness;
Emptiness is not different than form
~ Heart Sutra ~
Like the ocean and its waves,
inseparable yet distinct
~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
" I and The Father are one,
I am The Truth,
The Life and The Path.”
Like a river flowing from its source,
connected and continuous
~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
Thy kingdom come.
Let the reign of divine
Truth, Life, and Love
be established in me,
and rule out of me all sin;
and may Thy Word
enrich the affections of all mankind
A mighty oak tree standing firm against the storm,
As sunlight scatters the shadows of night
A river nourishing the land it flows through
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~}-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-{~
~}--------:}|{:-:}|{:- * LINKS * -:}|{:-:}|{:----------{~
~}-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-{~
~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
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* -:}|{}|{:- * SUMMARY * -:}|{}|{:- *
~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
* -:}|{:- * RATING * -:}|{:- * /10 * -:}|{:- *
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* -} Gestalt Psychology Simplified with Examples and Principles {- *
* -:}|{}|{: = MY SYNTHESISED ( ^ GESTALT ^ ) OF THE * -:}|{}|{:=:}|{}|{:- * ( WAY THE AUTHOR FRAMES = HIS WRITING PERSPECTIVES ) & ( POINTERS & IMPLICATIONS = the conclusion that can be drawn IMPLICITYLY from something although it is not EXPLICITLY stated ) = :}|{}|{:- *
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~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
To SEE a WORLD in a Grain of Sand,
And a HEAVEN in a Wild Flower,
Hold INFINITY in the palm of your hand
And ETERNITY in an Hour"
~ William Blake ~
~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is form.
Form is not different than Emptiness;
Emptiness is not different than form
~ Heart Sutra ~
Like the ocean and its waves,
inseparable yet distinct
~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
" I and The Father are one,
I am The Truth,
The Life and The Path.”
Like a river flowing from its source,
connected and continuous
~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
Thy kingdom come.
Let the reign of divine
Truth, Life, and Love
be established in me,
and rule out of me all sin;
and may Thy Word
enrich the affections of all mankind
A mighty oak tree standing firm against the storm,
As sunlight scatters the shadows of night
A river nourishing the land it flows through
~}- - - - - - - - - - - - - -:}|{:- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{~
~}-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-:}|{:-{~
June 7, 2025
"She did not know what she was doing. She was like a person so dazed by the horror of what has happened that he walks away–anywhere, as though by walking away he could escape…"
"Oh, wasn’t there anywhere where she could hide and keep herself to herself and stay as long as she liked, not disturbing anybody, and nobody worrying her? Wasn’t there anywhere in the world where she could have her cry out– at last?"
"Oh, wasn’t there anywhere where she could hide and keep herself to herself and stay as long as she liked, not disturbing anybody, and nobody worrying her? Wasn’t there anywhere in the world where she could have her cry out– at last?"
December 4, 2025
Mansfield conveys the crushing weight of a lifetime of hardship in just a few pages. ᰔ
๑ Ma Parker, an old woman weathered by tragedy, is vividly drawn, and her grief at her grandson’s death is rendered with heartbreaking subtlety:
"Wasn't there anywhere where she could hide and keep herself to herself... and have her cry out—at last?" ⋆✴︎˚｡⋆
๑ Ma Parker, an old woman weathered by tragedy, is vividly drawn, and her grief at her grandson’s death is rendered with heartbreaking subtlety:
"Wasn't there anywhere where she could hide and keep herself to herself... and have her cry out—at last?" ⋆✴︎˚｡⋆
March 12, 2018
This was from the Women's Lit collection on Spotify - read to me by Eve Karpf. This was a very sad tale, but not entirely surprising and shocking. A woman works her whole life and loses the only thing she cares about -- her lovely lively thriving grandson. As a mama I felt her pain deeply.
October 17, 2019
It’s the summarization of a hard life lived by a stoic woman who has reached the end of her “rope” told so poignantly and of the indifference and ignorance of the man Ma Parker cleans house for. You must have a heart of stone if this does not cause a teardrop
November 5, 2020
Sad one ! Ow
May 5, 2022
A forma como Katherine apresenta o dilema de Mãe Parker, através de objetos simbólicos, relações afetivas e no contraste com o literato é magestral.
Want to read
November 25, 2022Heard about it in Philip Larkin letters to Monica. He was saying Virginia Woolf doesn’t have the depth of K.M.
February 8, 2023
Un cuento sencillo y corto pero que demuestra las capacidades sobresalientes de la escritora, muy lindo relato.
July 12, 2023
*3,75
August 12, 2024
Beautifully written, but missing that flash of connection that I seek in Mansfields work
February 14, 2026
A heartbreaking story about the weight of life.
January 24, 2016
4.5/5 stars.
I think I've said this about one of the previous stories, but this is my new favourite from Katherine Mansfield's collection.
I connected with Ma Parker's character stronger than I expected to from a short story. Her journey was so tragic and from every event she describes in her earlier life I was just waiting for her to break down as most normally would do - but she didn't. This only made her mourning of Lennie that much harder to read because she had loved and cared for him the most and no matter how hard she tried his illness would never be cured. Her battle with trying to face her emotions was so tragic with her being ashamed to be emotional in public and too concerned for her daughter to cry in her own home.
This story was so tragic and emotional. Ma Parker had a hard life. How did she not break down every day?
I think I've said this about one of the previous stories, but this is my new favourite from Katherine Mansfield's collection.
I connected with Ma Parker's character stronger than I expected to from a short story. Her journey was so tragic and from every event she describes in her earlier life I was just waiting for her to break down as most normally would do - but she didn't. This only made her mourning of Lennie that much harder to read because she had loved and cared for him the most and no matter how hard she tried his illness would never be cured. Her battle with trying to face her emotions was so tragic with her being ashamed to be emotional in public and too concerned for her daughter to cry in her own home.
This story was so tragic and emotional. Ma Parker had a hard life. How did she not break down every day?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 16, 2022
"𝘜𝘯𝘢 𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘺 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘢 𝘭𝘢 𝘥𝘦 𝘔𝘢 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳, 𝘮𝘶𝘺 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘢".
Este es el cuento más triste que he leído de Katherine Mansfield hasta el momento... No pude evitar soltar una lágrimas cuando lo terminé de leer porque de verdad pensé que tendría una final feliz pero bueno... no fue así.
Este es el cuento más triste que he leído de Katherine Mansfield hasta el momento... No pude evitar soltar una lágrimas cuando lo terminé de leer porque de verdad pensé que tendría una final feliz pero bueno... no fue así.
March 8, 2015
It was really sad. Ma Parker had a hard life I felt sorry for her.
December 26, 2016
Incredibly sad and touching.
July 6, 2016
I have very little to say about this apart from it just didn't interest me
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews