Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a highly influential Modernist writer. She wrote numerous short stories, many of which were published in collections. She drew inspiration from her upbringing in New Zealand and her experiences in a society that she felt was unfair toward women.

Katherine Mansfield: Early Life History

Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp was born on October 14, 1888, in Wellington, New Zealand to parents Annie Dyer and Harold Beauchamp. Her family was prominent in society; her grandfather had been in politics and her father was a chairman of the Bank of New Zealand. Mansfield also had five siblings. The family moved to a nearby suburb, Karori, in 1893.

Katherine Mansfield grew up in Wellington, New Zealand Pixabay

Katherine Mansfield: Education

Katherine Mansfield began attending Karori School in 1895. While there, her writing abilities first shone through when an essay she wrote won a prize. In 1898, the family moved back to Wellington, and Mansfield began attending the Wellington Girls' High School; here she contributed written pieces to the school newspaper. The next year, Mansfield transferred to Miss Swainson's, another school in Wellington.

In 1903, Katherine Mansfield sailed with her family to England. There, she and her sisters attended Queen's College. Mansfield had become an accomplished cello player and dreamed of a career in music. Even though she had her sights set on music, Mansfield continued to write. She discovered many literary figures who would be influential to her, notably Oscar Wilde. She was so active with the school newspaper that she eventually became its editor. During her time at Queen's College, she made lifelong friends with Ida Baker, who Mansfield would call Lesley Moore or "LM." Mansfield herself started to go by Katherine Mansfield or "KM" rather than her birth name, Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp.

Katherine Mansfield: Later Life Biography

In June 1906, Mansfield completed her time at Queen's College. She moved back to New Zealand with her family, but deeply missed London and wished to return there and write. Katherine Mansfield wrote long diary entries detailing her disdain for the social functions she was expected to attend and also containing experimental writings, some of which were modeled on Wilde's style. Mansfield reconnected with Maata, an old friend from school in Wellington, who would be an inspiration in her writing, and fell in love with the wilder areas of New Zealand after a camping trip in late 1907—another influence on her work.

Though Mansfield was often at odds with what her parents expected of her—to participate in social functions and find an advantageous marriage—her father was instrumental in launching her career in writing. He used his influence to have some of her short stories published in Australia in 1907, and when he saw the success that these stories were met with, he agreed to allow Mansfield to travel back to London in 1908. In London, Katherine Mansfield stayed at a boarding house named Beauchamp Lodge. She fell in love with Garnet Trowell, a violinist whose brother she had been close to and had a crush on in her youth. Mansfield soon became pregnant with Trowell's child, but unexpectedly married a singing teacher named George Bowden on March 2, 1909. Mansfield quickly left him, but it would be years before they officially divorced.

By May 1909, Katherine Mansfield's mother had made the trip to London. Though it is unlikely that she knew of Mansfield's pregnancy, she believed that her daughter's friends—particularly Ida Baker—were a bad influence; she whisked her daughter away to Germany and left her to live for six lonely months in Bad Wörishofen.

During her time there, Mansfield had a miscarriage. Her experiences in Germany were the basis for the short stories that would become the collection In a German Pension (1911). This publication helped to establish Mansfield's reputation as a talented literary figure. However, around this time Mansfield began suffering from pleurisy as well as what was likely a venereal infection.

In 1910, Mansfield submitted a piece for publication in Rhythm magazine but was rejected by editor John Middleton Murry. After meeting in person the next year, Katherine Mansfield began a romantic relationship with Murry, and the two soon fell deeply in love. Murry was a prolific author himself, writing over 60 books and numerous essays in his lifetime. Their relationship was deep and committed, but unconventional.

The pair made friends with other writers of the time, including Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, and T. S. Eliot.

Katherine Mansfield: Cause of Death

In late 1917, Katherine Mansfield's pleurisy returned and it was discovered that she had a spot on her lung. She continued to write and finally divorced George Bowden. Then in 1918, she suffered a hemorrhage caused by tuberculosis.

After this frightening event, Katherine Mansfield realized that her time was likely limited. On May 3, 1918, she married John Murry; only a few months later, Mansfield's mother died. She continued to work hard, writing both her own stories—publishing her second story collection in 1920—and literary reviews for the Athenaeum, for which Murry was the editor. Katherine Mansfield's tuberculosis was growing worse, but instead of staying under medical care, she traveled—all the while continuing to write—with Ida Baker to Italy, France, and then Switzerland in 1921. Murry rejoined her then, having quit his demanding editor job to spend more time with her. They spent some time there, Mansfield completing and publishing her final short story collection in 1922 and planning many more stories which she would never write. On January 9, 1923, Katherine Mansfield had another hemorrhage and died.

Katherine Mansfield left all of her writing to her husband. After her death, he went through her manuscripts, journals, and letters to compile and publish several books including The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927), The scrapbook of Katherine Mansfield (1939), The Letters of Katherine Mansfield (1928), and Katherine Mansfield's letters to John Middleton Murry, 1913–1922 (1951).

Katherine Mansfield: Writing Style

Katherine Mansfield's writing style can be described as experimental and innovative. She is considered an early influential figure in literary Modernism.

Mansfield's writing is very deep psychologically while remaining concise and simple in the storytelling. Like many other modernists, Mansfield often preferred to use the first-person point of view to give a sense of her characters' internal thoughts. Additionally, Katherine Mansfield used a lot of symbolism and imagery throughout her writing. The stories she produced were inspired by her experiences growing up in New Zealand and her relationships with men, pregnancy, and miscarriage.

Katherine Mansfield: Books

During her lifetime, Katherine Mansfield published three collections of short stories which are highlighted below.

Mansfield's time in Bad Wörishofen inspired In a German Pension and earned her a statue located therePixabay

In a German Pension (1911)

Mansfield's first published short story collection. It includes 13 short stories:

• "Germans at Meat"

• "The Baron"

• "The Sister of the Baroness"

• "Frau Fischer"

• "Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding"

• "The Modern Soul"

• "At 'Lehmann's"

• "The Luft Bad"

• "A Birthday"

• "The Child-Who-Was-Tired"

• "The Advanced Lady"

• "The Swing of the Pendulum"

• "A Blaze"

In a German Pension was Katherine Mansfield's first published collection of short stories. It was inspired by her experience staying in Germany alone for six months following a tumultuous period of her life that involved a pregnancy, an unhappy marriage, and then a miscarriage. The works in this collection explore the double standards Mansfield saw in her society, especially that men could seek out pleasure, but the women who did so were punished.

Bliss and Other Stories (1920)

• "Prelude"

• "Je ne Parle pas Français"

• "Bliss"

• "The Wind Blows"

• "Psychology"

• "Pictures"

• "The Man Without a Temperament"

• "Mr. Reginald Peacock's Day"

• "Sun and Moon"

• "Feuille d'Album"

• "A Dill Pickle"

• "The Little Governess"

• "Revelations"

• "The Escape"

This collection's stories focus on the difficulty of fulfilling the expectations placed upon you. The titular story, "Bliss," is about a married woman, Bertha, who falls in love with another woman, Pearl. However, she must follow societal rules and can only hint obscurely at her feelings. At the end of the story, though, Bertha discovers that her husband is having an affair with Pearl.

The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922)

• "At the Bay"

• "The Garden Party"

• "The Daughters of the Late Colonel"

• "Mr. and Mrs. Dove"

• "The Young Girl"

• "Life of Ma Parker"

• "Marriage à la Mode"

• "The Voyage"

• "Miss Brill"

• "Her First Ball"

• "The Singing Lesson"

• "The Stranger"

• "Bank Holiday"

• "An Ideal Family"

• "The Lady's Maid"

The Garden Party and Other Stories was Mansfield's final short story collection. She would continue to write additional freestanding stories which were not collected. This book's stories often deal with themes such as gender, marriage, regret, life, and death.

Two other short story collections were published after her death: The Doves' Nest and Other Stories (1923) and Something Childish and Other Stories (1924), as well as the novel The Aloe (1930). Additionally, some of her unfinished writings were published after her death. These include Poems (1923), The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927), and The Letters of Katherine Mansfield (1928.)

Katherine Mansfield: Quotes

The short story "Je ne Parle pas Français" centers on a French writer and his experience with an Englishman he met at a party. This quote is from the French writer's perspective.

"At the Bay" is considered one of the best examples of Mansfield's writing. This quote is from the perspective of a woman with mixed feelings about her marriage; while she loves her husband, she is discontent with the unequal amount of herself and the time she must give up for his benefit. This is a theme that Mansfield covered in many of her works.

¹Gillian Boddy, "Mansfield, Katherine." Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 1996.

²"Timeline/Biography." Katherine Mansfield Society.