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afvick's review against another edition
“But Joyce is (if only Pound didn’t think so too) immensely important”
So glad to learn my favorite author and I both love Joyce and hate Pound
So glad to learn my favorite author and I both love Joyce and hate Pound
bibliobethreads's review against another edition
3.0
I didn’t really know too much about Katherine Mansfield until earlier this year, when I noticed that her name kept cropping up in books I was reading. Then a book group that I participate in picked the book Mansfield by C.K. Stead, which is a fictionalised account of Katherine’s life, to read one month. I wasn’t entirely sure about that book (please see my post HERE), but it is only since reading the Letters and Journals, that a few pieces have slotted into place. Katherine Mansfield was originally from New Zealand, but spent a lot of her time in England and France, where she felt that she completed all of her best writing. She became famous mainly for her short stories, but also for her friendships with other literary persons such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, the latter being responsible for publishing some of her work. She contracted tuberculosis, which plagued her and left her bed-ridden at times, and led to her death at the untimely age of 34.
Unfortunately, I cannot really comment on Mansfield’s short fiction, haven’t not read any of it at the moment, but I plan to change this very soon. From her letters to her second husband Murry, and her journal entries, she comes across as a bright, vivacious, and entertaining person, with a beautifully descriptive way with language, even in her own private words. I particularly love the poem she wrote about her beloved brother, Leslie “Chummie” Beauchamp after he was killed in the war, fighting in France. The ending lines are particularly poignant:
By the remembered stream my brother stands
Waiting for me with berries in his hands…
“These are my body. Sister, take and eat.”
I think Katherine was an incredibly complex yet interesting person on the whole. She was clearly passionate about the people she loved, but appeared to be slightly flighty, and could switch loyalties as she chose. She separated from Murry a few times, although he certainly was the love of her life, and had some brief affairs which she seemed to plunge into feet first. I loved reading about her friendship with D.H. Lawrence, who used Katherine as his inspiration for Gudrun in his novel Women In Love, his fiery personality and tempestuous partnership with his wife was fascinating to read about. Although I did enjoy the writings of Katherine Mansfield, I probably wouldn’t read this book again, in parts it was fairly disjointed and difficult to take in, although I appreciate that sometimes it’s incredibly difficult to place letters in exact sequence of events! I will definitely try and slot in some of her work, as she seems to have captured my interest.
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.wordpress.com
Unfortunately, I cannot really comment on Mansfield’s short fiction, haven’t not read any of it at the moment, but I plan to change this very soon. From her letters to her second husband Murry, and her journal entries, she comes across as a bright, vivacious, and entertaining person, with a beautifully descriptive way with language, even in her own private words. I particularly love the poem she wrote about her beloved brother, Leslie “Chummie” Beauchamp after he was killed in the war, fighting in France. The ending lines are particularly poignant:
By the remembered stream my brother stands
Waiting for me with berries in his hands…
“These are my body. Sister, take and eat.”
I think Katherine was an incredibly complex yet interesting person on the whole. She was clearly passionate about the people she loved, but appeared to be slightly flighty, and could switch loyalties as she chose. She separated from Murry a few times, although he certainly was the love of her life, and had some brief affairs which she seemed to plunge into feet first. I loved reading about her friendship with D.H. Lawrence, who used Katherine as his inspiration for Gudrun in his novel Women In Love, his fiery personality and tempestuous partnership with his wife was fascinating to read about. Although I did enjoy the writings of Katherine Mansfield, I probably wouldn’t read this book again, in parts it was fairly disjointed and difficult to take in, although I appreciate that sometimes it’s incredibly difficult to place letters in exact sequence of events! I will definitely try and slot in some of her work, as she seems to have captured my interest.
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.wordpress.com
kugisakis's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
franfernandezarce's review against another edition
4.0
i read this for the same reason i read [b:Short Stories|390449|Short Stories|Katherine Mansfield|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568548342l/390449._SY75_.jpg|69087229]: i'm writing a comparative essay on gertrude stein's objects and needed another author to, well, compare. the link in my head was more or less: i read mansfield's "the garden party" years ago and nothing happened there except characters talking about a hat. a hat is an object. objects are what i need. bam!
i'm very happy my mind gave those conceptuals sommersaults (my essay is very happy too--even though at the moment it is closer to a theoretical frankenstein's monster than an actual essay) because mansfield was perfect for the job. reading this was almost infuriating; whenever i needed a quote for a certain point, she would make it in either a letter or a journal entry. i never stopped taking notes, even when the time period was no longer applicable to my essay's focus (it's world war one if anyone's interested). it also gave me the best memories of my time reading [b:The Life And Letters Of John Keats|2334222|The Life And Letters Of John Keats|Richard Monckton Milnes Houghton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328446649l/2334222._SY75_.jpg|2340798] years ago (actually, around the time i read mansfield for the first time). the fact that they both died at a very young age, at the prime of their artistic careers and from the same illness did certainly help to make the link.
i'm very happy my mind gave those conceptuals sommersaults (my essay is very happy too--even though at the moment it is closer to a theoretical frankenstein's monster than an actual essay) because mansfield was perfect for the job. reading this was almost infuriating; whenever i needed a quote for a certain point, she would make it in either a letter or a journal entry. i never stopped taking notes, even when the time period was no longer applicable to my essay's focus (it's world war one if anyone's interested). it also gave me the best memories of my time reading [b:The Life And Letters Of John Keats|2334222|The Life And Letters Of John Keats|Richard Monckton Milnes Houghton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328446649l/2334222._SY75_.jpg|2340798] years ago (actually, around the time i read mansfield for the first time). the fact that they both died at a very young age, at the prime of their artistic careers and from the same illness did certainly help to make the link.
gh7's review against another edition
4.0
I once tried to keep a journal. What I found was that more often than not I was embellishing and embroidering. I wasn’t being particularly honest. It was like I was correcting my experiences rather than recounting them.
Often I had the sense KM was doing much the same in both her journal and letters. There aren’t that many entries when you feel she’s not wearing a mask of some kind and reading her words is a bit like playing hide and seek with her. She’s a chameleon, has a different mask for each of her correspondents. Some of these individuals, like Virginia Woolf, inspire her; others seem to bring out a sentimental fakery in her. You can’t help wishing she and Woolf had exchanged a whole volume of letters. There are beautiful inspired passages and there are rather boring passages too. I first read this when I was very young and ravenous to know more about her. As much as anything it showed me how much I’ve changed in the intervening years: my former wild hearted adulation has hardened into sober respect. The last fifty pages or so when she knows she is going to die are heartbreaking. I remain convinced she would have rivalled Virginia Woolf had she lived another ten years.
Often I had the sense KM was doing much the same in both her journal and letters. There aren’t that many entries when you feel she’s not wearing a mask of some kind and reading her words is a bit like playing hide and seek with her. She’s a chameleon, has a different mask for each of her correspondents. Some of these individuals, like Virginia Woolf, inspire her; others seem to bring out a sentimental fakery in her. You can’t help wishing she and Woolf had exchanged a whole volume of letters. There are beautiful inspired passages and there are rather boring passages too. I first read this when I was very young and ravenous to know more about her. As much as anything it showed me how much I’ve changed in the intervening years: my former wild hearted adulation has hardened into sober respect. The last fifty pages or so when she knows she is going to die are heartbreaking. I remain convinced she would have rivalled Virginia Woolf had she lived another ten years.
bookcrazylady45's review against another edition
3.0
Her writing is so accessible and her descriptions so vivid. Her short life was interesting as she was very much an individual personality but her life was shortened through her own foolishness and stubbornness.
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