Small Paperback, Good Condition, 1977, 224 pages, ISBN 0 14 00 1739 9

Bliss and Other Stories – Katherine Mansfield

A contemporary critics noted, Katherine Mansfield had been greatly influenced by her reading of Chekhov. In the realm of the short story, however, she quickly established her own manner. It is undramatic – indeed she almost dispenses with plot – marked by a sensitive subtlety in the treatment of human behaviour, and lyrical in style to the verge of poetry. When the fourteen short stories which make up this volume were first published in 1920, she had already effected a transformation in this form of fiction, and the influence of this and three further collections has been deeply felt by subsequent writers.

“Miss Mansfield’s stories might be likened to Chekhov’s; they have their affinity with Maupassant’s… She is an artist in fiction.” – Times Literary Supplement