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The Katherine Mansfield BBC Radio Collection
A landmark collection of BBC Radio productions of the works of Katherine Mansfield - plus bonus dramas and documentary.
One of the great Modernist authors, Katherine Mansfield was a short story virtuoso, redefining the genre with her subtle, powerfully perceptive tales. A prolific writer, she penned over 60 stories and several poetry collections before her death from TB in 1923, aged only 34.
This outstanding collection opens with Radio 4's 2020 series And Other Stories: Katherine Mansfield. It comprises dramatisations of Marriage a la Mode, Something Childish But Very Natural, Bliss, Daughters of the Late Colonel, The Garden Party, Ma Parker and Her First Ball, all starring Hattie Morahan, as well as readings of The Stranger, Miss Brill, A Cup of Tea, Poison and The Doll's House, narrated by Hugh Bonneville, Barbara Flynn, Hattie Morahan and Blake Ritson.
Morven Christie reads Mansfield's newly-discovered early short story Little Episodes, and selected stories from her first collection In A German Pension - Germans at Meat and Frau Fischer, The Sister of the Baroness, The Modern Soul, The Advanced Lady and Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding - are dramatised with a cast including Claire Skinner, Eleanor Bron and Emma Cunniffe.
Also included are eight of her lesser-known tales: A Dill Pickle (read by Clare Corbett), Mr Reginald Peacock's Day (read by Brian Gear), Sun and Moon (read by Lin Sagovsky), Psychology and Pictures (read by Eileen Atkins), The Voyage (read by Indira Varma), Honeymoon (read by Emilia Fox) and The Fly (read by Sam Dale). In addition, her evocative poem Winter Song is read by Sir Derek Jacobi.
Two original dramas explore moments in the life of the great author. Katie Hims' Luxembourg Gardens reimagines Katherine Mansfield's last day in Paris and stars Hattie Morahan, while Cherie Rogers' An Oddly Complete Understanding looks at Mansfield's friendship with Virginia Woolf and stars Rosalind Shanks and Penelope Wilton. The passionate correspondence between Katherine Mansfield and her husband John Middleton Murray is revealed in Darling Mouse, Precious Worm, read by Kerry Fox and Michael Maloney. And in Great Lives: Katherine Mansfield, Jacqueline Wilson assesses the impact of Mansfield's brilliant but tragically short career.
Track listing:
1. Bliss
2. Something Childish But Very Natural
3. Marriage a la Mode
4. Daughters of the Late Colonel
5. The Garden Party
6. Life of Ma Parker
7. Her First Ball
8. The Stranger
9. Miss Brill
10. A Cup of Tea
11. The Doll's House
12. Poison
13. Little Episode
14. Germans at Meat and Frau Fischer
15. The Sister of the Baroness
16. The Modern Soul
17. The Advanced Lady
18. Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding
19. Dill Pickle
20. Mr Reginald Peacock's Day
21. Sun and Moon
22. Psychology
23. Pictures
24. The Voyage
25. Honeymoon
26. The Fly
27. Winter Song
28. Luxembourg Gardens by Katie Hims
29. An Oddly Complete Understanding by Cherie Rogers
30-34. Darling Mouse, Precious Worm - letters between Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murray
35. Great Lives: Katherine Mansfield - with Jacqueline Wilson
One of the great Modernist authors, Katherine Mansfield was a short story virtuoso, redefining the genre with her subtle, powerfully perceptive tales. A prolific writer, she penned over 60 stories and several poetry collections before her death from TB in 1923, aged only 34.
This outstanding collection opens with Radio 4's 2020 series And Other Stories: Katherine Mansfield. It comprises dramatisations of Marriage a la Mode, Something Childish But Very Natural, Bliss, Daughters of the Late Colonel, The Garden Party, Ma Parker and Her First Ball, all starring Hattie Morahan, as well as readings of The Stranger, Miss Brill, A Cup of Tea, Poison and The Doll's House, narrated by Hugh Bonneville, Barbara Flynn, Hattie Morahan and Blake Ritson.
Morven Christie reads Mansfield's newly-discovered early short story Little Episodes, and selected stories from her first collection In A German Pension - Germans at Meat and Frau Fischer, The Sister of the Baroness, The Modern Soul, The Advanced Lady and Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding - are dramatised with a cast including Claire Skinner, Eleanor Bron and Emma Cunniffe.
Also included are eight of her lesser-known tales: A Dill Pickle (read by Clare Corbett), Mr Reginald Peacock's Day (read by Brian Gear), Sun and Moon (read by Lin Sagovsky), Psychology and Pictures (read by Eileen Atkins), The Voyage (read by Indira Varma), Honeymoon (read by Emilia Fox) and The Fly (read by Sam Dale). In addition, her evocative poem Winter Song is read by Sir Derek Jacobi.
Two original dramas explore moments in the life of the great author. Katie Hims' Luxembourg Gardens reimagines Katherine Mansfield's last day in Paris and stars Hattie Morahan, while Cherie Rogers' An Oddly Complete Understanding looks at Mansfield's friendship with Virginia Woolf and stars Rosalind Shanks and Penelope Wilton. The passionate correspondence between Katherine Mansfield and her husband John Middleton Murray is revealed in Darling Mouse, Precious Worm, read by Kerry Fox and Michael Maloney. And in Great Lives: Katherine Mansfield, Jacqueline Wilson assesses the impact of Mansfield's brilliant but tragically short career.
Track listing:
1. Bliss
2. Something Childish But Very Natural
3. Marriage a la Mode
4. Daughters of the Late Colonel
5. The Garden Party
6. Life of Ma Parker
7. Her First Ball
8. The Stranger
9. Miss Brill
10. A Cup of Tea
11. The Doll's House
12. Poison
13. Little Episode
14. Germans at Meat and Frau Fischer
15. The Sister of the Baroness
16. The Modern Soul
17. The Advanced Lady
18. Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding
19. Dill Pickle
20. Mr Reginald Peacock's Day
21. Sun and Moon
22. Psychology
23. Pictures
24. The Voyage
25. Honeymoon
26. The Fly
27. Winter Song
28. Luxembourg Gardens by Katie Hims
29. An Oddly Complete Understanding by Cherie Rogers
30-34. Darling Mouse, Precious Worm - letters between Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murray
35. Great Lives: Katherine Mansfield - with Jacqueline Wilson
10 pages, Audible Audio
Published December 3, 2020
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About the author
Katherine Mansfield
987 books1,214 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 21, 2021
A wonderful introduction to the works of Katherine Mansfield!
Somehow she never came up while I was studying literature (boo to that, I say!), so I first heard about this author from Anyta Sunday, who quotes her in her Mansfield Park re-telling Finley Embraces Heart & Home, where the main characters also read and discuss her work.
These short stories are less actual stories, but beautiful (and sometimes ugly) moments, snippets of feelings and emotions that are incredibly vivid and moving! And I'm glad I still have a lot of those to discover.
As for the narration, I enjoyed the productions that feature Hattie Morahan the most. Her voice has a lovely dreamy quality to it, which sets off the emotions to perfection. My favorite story/adaptation was Bliss. And Something Childish But Very Natural.
I also enjoyed Hugh Bonneville and Blake Ritson's contributions.
The original works concerning K. Mansfield I found nice (again, especially the one that featured H. Morahan), but not my favorite.
All in all a wonderful place to begin exploring K. Mansfield's work, narrated by a wonderful array of talented actors.
Somehow she never came up while I was studying literature (boo to that, I say!), so I first heard about this author from Anyta Sunday, who quotes her in her Mansfield Park re-telling Finley Embraces Heart & Home, where the main characters also read and discuss her work.
These short stories are less actual stories, but beautiful (and sometimes ugly) moments, snippets of feelings and emotions that are incredibly vivid and moving! And I'm glad I still have a lot of those to discover.
As for the narration, I enjoyed the productions that feature Hattie Morahan the most. Her voice has a lovely dreamy quality to it, which sets off the emotions to perfection. My favorite story/adaptation was Bliss. And Something Childish But Very Natural.
I also enjoyed Hugh Bonneville and Blake Ritson's contributions.
The original works concerning K. Mansfield I found nice (again, especially the one that featured H. Morahan), but not my favorite.
All in all a wonderful place to begin exploring K. Mansfield's work, narrated by a wonderful array of talented actors.
December 2, 2024
Katherine Mansfield writes in a style that is so lush, so vivid, so gorgeous. It draws you in and lulls you into a calm reminiscence of lazy summer days and sultry evening parties, only to shatter the illusion and leave you feeling empty and depressed. (Can you tell I found her endings frustrating? 😂) In any case, this collection was a pleasant way to pass the time for the most part, including the two biographical stories at the end; the voice actors all did an amazing job of bringing her work to life!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews