Katherine Mansfield's Short Stories

"Katherine Mansfield's Short Stories," the author captures some of the fleeting impressions we encounter daily. Some stories, like "The Garden Party", "The Doll's House", "The Daughters of the Late Colonel", accurately convey the sense of loss, the breathlessness of youth, and the regret of unfulfilled lives all in subtle yet striking prose. The beauty of Mansfield's writing lies in her poetic description of detail--her power of suggestion--and her courage. She was determined, both in her life and in her writing, to move against the current of the time. Her life was filled with problems: her health, her love life, and her writing all caused her measureless pain, but in spite of these she lived her life the way she chose to live it. There are30 stories in this very excellent Katherine Mansfield collection. Her detailed descriptions of objects are intrinsic to the stories, tiny sparkles that spread out and create a canvas on which her characters interact. Every story has its own suppressed passion as Ms. Mansfield gets right into the heart of what makes us all human. They are filled with arrivals and departures, spinsterhood and marriage, love and loss and pangs of despair. Children play a role in her writings, as do distinctions of social class. Life is a struggle for her characters, who are timeless in their humanity, though they all live in a world that existed more than 80 years ago. With rare exceptions, the stories are sad. Layered with subtleties as they deal with the major themes of life and death, "Katherine Mansfield's Short Stories" offers many small slices of life, rare glimpses into human nature with sharp insights meant to spark memories and feelings in the reader, all while providing a deeply enriching literary experience.