Description: Originally published in the United States in 1922 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Brief description:
Katherine Mansfield was a popular New Zealand short-story writer best known for the stories "The Woman at the Shore," "How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped," "The Doll's House," and her twelve-part short story "Prelude," which was inspired by her happy childhood. Although Mansfield initially had her sights set on becoming a professional cellist, her role as editor of the Queen's College newspaper prompted a change to writing. Mansfield's style of writing revolutionized the form of the short story at the time, in that it depicted ordinary life and left the endings open to interpretation, while also raising uncomfortable questions about society and identity. Mansfield died in 1923 after struggling for many years with tuberculosis.
Review Quotes:
"Mansfield...is one of the progenitors of modernist literature.... Her imaginative worlds and their inhabitants are so inviting." - Forbes
"Mansfield was a pioneering modernist... The collection to start with is The Garden Party and Other Stories, published in 1922 when she was at the peak of her powers. Her range and skill here is thrilling... The title story is one of her best known.... And the ending is wonderfully ambivalent, as it is so often in Mansfield's work." - The Guardian