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mikebond's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This was my second short stories collection by Catherine Mansfield.
I enjoyed some stories. Some I found long and boring. An interesting read, anyway.
I enjoyed some stories. Some I found long and boring. An interesting read, anyway.
polly__flintandherbooks's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
carlamarcella's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
garleighc's review
funny
hopeful
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
femkevds's review
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
qiaosilin's review against another edition
4.0
Read "Germans at Meat", "Frau Fischer" and "The Modern Soul" for class.
In A German Pension is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories that Mansfield wrote while staying in a guesthouse in Bavaria before World War I. The stories focus mainly on an unnamed Englishwoman narrator and a few other German women as third-person narrators.
I really like the majority of these stories and the topics Mansfield tackles. She does a great job in imbuing the stories with topics that were generally ignored, such as rape and infanticide, and with topics that show the progression and hypocrisy of the times, like a man imagining he's suffering more than his wife currently giving birth and ladies outright stating the need for women to have babies in order to be complete, all the while expressing the modern thought existing in the narrator's mind.
Favourite stories are: "Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding", "The Modern Soul", "The Child-Who-Was-Tired", "The Swing of the Pendulum" and "A Blaze".
In A German Pension is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories that Mansfield wrote while staying in a guesthouse in Bavaria before World War I. The stories focus mainly on an unnamed Englishwoman narrator and a few other German women as third-person narrators.
I really like the majority of these stories and the topics Mansfield tackles. She does a great job in imbuing the stories with topics that were generally ignored, such as rape and infanticide, and with topics that show the progression and hypocrisy of the times, like a man imagining he's suffering more than his wife currently giving birth and ladies outright stating the need for women to have babies in order to be complete, all the while expressing the modern thought existing in the narrator's mind.
Favourite stories are: "Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding", "The Modern Soul", "The Child-Who-Was-Tired", "The Swing of the Pendulum" and "A Blaze".
drewsstuff's review
4.0
And now I'm about to say something so banal and stupid I'm going to hate myself* forever**. Sorry***.
Katherine Mansfield isn't Dorothy Parker. Or Virginia Woolf. Or Jane Austen.
There just isn't the same level of understanding human character, there's not the same level of ascerbic wit, or ability to sum up a person in a few choice words.
And that's a bad thing because?
I shake my head. It's not a bad thing at all. This girl was, at her oldest, 22 when she wrote these stories. If anyone, including me, thinks you can imply and show in-depth characters in twenty words and be funny, with the life experience you've gained at 22 you are (I am) an idiot.
So what does she give you, dear reader?
She gives you writing (and, more importantly, stories) that in many aspects are as close to Austen, Parker or Woolf as you can get without actually being them. Splendid vignettes of high-born German characters, their nuances and idiosyncracies; stories where an action alters a character's outlook; a story of horror told so simply that it's not until you've read it and thought about it does the real horror reveal itself.
As with all good stories, there is something fundamentally timeless about each of these. Timeless and thoroughly enjoyable. It's a shame she died in her mid-thirties, she would, I believe, have become one of the great writers in English, if not the greatest. I could be wrong, I'm basing that little outburst on nothing more than these thirteen short stories.
And yes, I do mean greater than Austen, Parker and Woolf.
So there you have it. Read it if you like. Don't if you don't like. It's your loss. Me, I'm off to finish my current reads so that I can start on a new Katherine Mansfield. :)
*no, I'm not. Prolonged self-hate is the domain of the self-centred. And stupid.
** for never.
*** not sorry.
Thanks for reading this and sorry for keeping you from reading your own books.
Katherine Mansfield isn't Dorothy Parker. Or Virginia Woolf. Or Jane Austen.
There just isn't the same level of understanding human character, there's not the same level of ascerbic wit, or ability to sum up a person in a few choice words.
And that's a bad thing because?
I shake my head. It's not a bad thing at all. This girl was, at her oldest, 22 when she wrote these stories. If anyone, including me, thinks you can imply and show in-depth characters in twenty words and be funny, with the life experience you've gained at 22 you are (I am) an idiot.
So what does she give you, dear reader?
She gives you writing (and, more importantly, stories) that in many aspects are as close to Austen, Parker or Woolf as you can get without actually being them. Splendid vignettes of high-born German characters, their nuances and idiosyncracies; stories where an action alters a character's outlook; a story of horror told so simply that it's not until you've read it and thought about it does the real horror reveal itself.
As with all good stories, there is something fundamentally timeless about each of these. Timeless and thoroughly enjoyable. It's a shame she died in her mid-thirties, she would, I believe, have become one of the great writers in English, if not the greatest. I could be wrong, I'm basing that little outburst on nothing more than these thirteen short stories.
And yes, I do mean greater than Austen, Parker and Woolf.
So there you have it. Read it if you like. Don't if you don't like. It's your loss. Me, I'm off to finish my current reads so that I can start on a new Katherine Mansfield. :)
*no, I'm not. Prolonged self-hate is the domain of the self-centred. And stupid.
** for never.
*** not sorry.
Thanks for reading this and sorry for keeping you from reading your own books.
spinesinaline's review
3.0
I really like Katherine Mansfield, even though this is only the third of her (collections of) short stories that I've read - The Garden Party and Miss Brill being the other two. I was a little confused by this collection - for one, I thought it was a longer novel and so it didn't make much sense when the chapters didn't all flow together. My bad :P
I did a quick Google search after reading and found that it's Mansfield's first published collection and a lot of it is based on her life. I think it's probably something I'd like to go back to and study more in-depth, and also read up more on my favourite short story author.
I did a quick Google search after reading and found that it's Mansfield's first published collection and a lot of it is based on her life. I think it's probably something I'd like to go back to and study more in-depth, and also read up more on my favourite short story author.