Scan barcode
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.
lnatal's review
4.0
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
Contents:
1. GERMANS AT MEAT.
2. THE BARON.
3. THE SISTER OF THE BARONESS.
4. FRAU FISCHER.
5. FRAU BRECHENMACHER ATTENDS A WEDDING.
6. THE MODERN SOUL.
7. AT LEHMANN'S.
8. THE LUFT BAD.
9. A BIRTHDAY.
10. THE CHILD-WHO-WAS-TIRED.
11. THE ADVANCED LADY.
12. THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM.
13. A BLAZE.
Contents:
1. GERMANS AT MEAT.
2. THE BARON.
3. THE SISTER OF THE BARONESS.
4. FRAU FISCHER.
5. FRAU BRECHENMACHER ATTENDS A WEDDING.
6. THE MODERN SOUL.
7. AT LEHMANN'S.
8. THE LUFT BAD.
9. A BIRTHDAY.
10. THE CHILD-WHO-WAS-TIRED.
11. THE ADVANCED LADY.
12. THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM.
13. A BLAZE.
More...