- Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classic; New edition edition (May 5 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140188800
- ISBN-13: 978-0140188806
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #892,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
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 her 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.
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. The Garden Party and Other Stories is a fitting epitaph. --Alix Wilber
From Library Journal
The Garden Party is the last volume of short stories published before this New Zealand author's untimely death from tuberculosis at age 35. These 15 stories are typical Mansfield slice-of-life glimpses into human relationships: parent-child, wife-husband, friend-friend, all recognizable, all vivid in their gentleness and sensitivity. Marguerite Gavin reads in a light, American-accented, rather uninspired way, but her voices are marvelous; presenting British accents of every description from cockney to Queen, with clear delineation between characters male and female, is a skill especially important in these character-driven tales. Her sound effects (birdcalls, running water, etc.) are perfect, and she sings in such a lovely clear soprano that the listener wishes there were more songs in the stories. The short story format is often a favorite with listeners who hesitate to commit to hours and hours of the same work. Mansfield belongs in all fiction collections; highly recommended.AHarriet Edwards, East Meadow P.L., NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
please don't miss this - Mansfield is essential,
By A Customer
This review is from: 20th Century Garden Party And Other Stories (Mass Market Paperback)
If you've never read her short stories (she never wrote anything else), please do, and then read her journal. There is really something incredible that's underneath the surface of her short stories. If you just looked at the surface you might think they were cutesy or affected (little girls figure largely), but you would be completely missing the point. It's hard to explain what's so moving about them. When she describes some lazy afternoon, she just gets it so right that all the vast range of human experience seems to be contained in this afternoon (whereas in any Great American Novel-esque tomes you read only a fraction of that experience is ever expressed). But at the same time, it was just this cute little vignette that had very satisfying descriptions of flowers and little girls playing. The journal will help you understand her sadness as it's expressed in her work. You know when you are very, very upset, and you see something so beautiful or even funny, you're likely to become on the verge of tears? That's how Mansfield sounds in her stories - the stories are that beautiful thing that she sees. She is most often compared to Chekhov, and it's not difficult to see why. I truly believe that Mansfield innovated and practically invented the English (language) short story.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Garden Party,
By A Customer
This review is from: 20th Century Garden Party And Other Stories (Mass Market Paperback)
Mansfield's innovative diction captivates readers and draws one into her own world. A world in which individuals are not bound by the common restraints of society.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Garden Party and Other Stories,
By Wal Maassen (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 20th Century Garden Party And Other Stories (Mass Market Paperback)
I came across K.M. as she liked to be refered, 60 years after her death. Very late,but better late then never. And especially for K.M. In a german Pension indrigued me first,a review told me, she could have made a lot of money, to publish it again, during the WWI.she declined. She had lost her Brother at the somme, but could not bring herself to more war mongering.Then I read The Garden Party, and new nearly instandly what kind of person she might have been. She disliked being priviliged, down the Street, kids her age where starving. The Garden Party gave her an opportunity to disclose Society as what it was. The gap between the Have and Have not.And this in the early 20th century in New Zealand. And the Garden Party is on of the few stories at the backdrop of New Zealand scenery. Her Stories make still a highly interesting read, very modern issues with an unbelievable talent for drama, as well as a very dry Sense of humor, like in 'A german Pension' One or two stories of her are always my companion.
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