The Collected Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) is available on Kindle for next to nothing. She was from New Zealand and is yet another scribe whom TB scythed early.
I’m rather tired of reading “a person of his/her times.” Who isn’t? Goddam unfounded superior attitude in my mind. Anyway, all times are pretty much the same–bullshit and power rule and people must conceal their true selves or risk expulsion from their tribes. Social media is just another form of the grapevine. Anyway, Katherine Mansfield was attracted to women and was smart enough not to make that lead news in the nineteen-teens and twenties, yet she was brave about such in her work.
She had a keen understanding of the minds of both male and female characters. Writers such as Mansfield, Flannery O’Connor and others who operated under a death sentence did not waste time on feel good tales. Yet her works, though mostly focused on anxiety and sadness, contain humor and are not affectedly lugubrious as might be a gaggle of Teen Goths at the coffee house.
One story called The Stranger is an especially great example of her talent. A husband loves his wife so much that he wants to “take her into himself and not let any part of her escape.” And yet he is unable to tell her about it. He also finds himself jealous over ridiculous things and even though he knows he is wrong, he swallows that too; thus what should be beautiful instead is a ceaseless private hell of his own creation–all due to his inability to express himself.
Due to the proliferation of comic book fiction (which deserves a place, but should not be the main thing), I fear that people are forgetting how to read. Oh, we understand the words, but nowadays things are so flashy and rushed that we do not examine what we read; we aren’t as likely to turn something over in our minds that we do not immediately “get.” I fear that writing is the one art form that has become dumber over the ages to the detriment of readers. It is in that spirit that I salute Katherine Manfield, a hundred years dead, yet still as vital on the page as ever.
literally stories 
Katherine Mansfield is a wonderful writer I’ve admired for years. It’s great that she gets this recognition.
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Thank you David
It’s great to know she is still known!
Leila
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I didn’t know Katherine Mansfield but I do now – thank you Leila
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Hi Karen
I sent my reply to you by accident to Hugh. But it is not a problem to thank someone who deserves it twice
Thank you!
Leila
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Hi Leila,
I’m a bit weird as I enjoy reviews as much as I do the work. They tweak interest, they can be agreed or disagreed with. Also, for someone to have such a strength of feeling that they write about something or someone is all good!!
Hugh
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Thank you for dropping by Karen!
Leila
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Thank you Hugh. And I think that this feature should continue, although I was ready to snuff this particular section of it a time back
Leila
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I should’ve realised that there’d be a collection of her short stories. I’ve always liked those that crop up in anthologies, though the only title that I can call to mind is ‘The Woman at the Store’ in the Oxford collection of Short Stories. Thanks for the recommendation, Leila.
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Hello Mick
Yes, and I’m amazed what you can get on Kindle for so little. I got the entire and I mean entire HP Lovecraft for a dollar and all the Wodehouse’s Jeeves for fifty cents. I’m glad that I read fast!
Leila
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Thanks, Leila
Her complete stories is now tucked into my reading queue.
Marco
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Thank you Marco
And I’m certain that Katherine’s ghost appreciates it as well!
Leila
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Thank you for yet another engaging Auld Author post – for a change I’ve heard of this week’s writer, but confess to not having read any – added to the ‘to read’ list now.
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Thank you Paul
I hope you spring is going well!
Leila
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That’s interesting as you write about the change in the art form. I just read some of the stories that won the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) short story prize and they seem rather brittle, more like creative non fiction, incorporating social justice issues, not that there’s anything wrong with that. I read The Stranger and it kind of blows the modern stuff away because of the depth of ambiance and atmosphere, and the character development, which to me is so much more important than sending a message of some kind or describing a trauma.
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Thank you Harrison
Lately I have noticed that the art of story arcs is somewhat flatter than usual. But that will (I hope) self correct when topical popular tales will fall by the side because they lack the goods to make the long haul. I root for quality stuff!
Thank you
Leila
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