The Garden Party and Other Stories

by Katherine Mansfield

Some of the stories in this collection were set texts on our Introduction to English Literature course; the rest, options for term paper subjects. Had this not been the case, it might've taken considerably longer for me to even hear of Katherine Mansfield, a highly appreciated author whose work has been rated among the modern classics.

I do not regret having read these stories, and might well get my hands on the rest of her collections.

Mansfield is skilled in allegory and description, and her style is quite evocative. She writes about the young and the old, the weary and the excited alike. Although the first story in this collection, titled At the Bay, is by far the longest and has some rather brilliant lines, I feel that her talent is shown much more effectively in the shorter tales. Complexity of the human mind served up in only a few pages? Yes please. I could not pick a personal favourite out of the lot; I have, however, grown rather fond of The Singing Lesson - obvious reasons aside, that's the one I wrote my term paper on.

If you like short stories, are not opposed to 20th century authors and do not mind moodiness, you should give Mansfield a try.

/ [Linderel]

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