6 h 39 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A party takes shape, a neighbour dies, and a young girl must decide what matters.
In Katherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party, and Other Stories, ordinary hours hold difficult choices. Laura Sheridan helps prepare her family’s afternoon party, but a neighbour’s death unsettles her pleasure. In At the Bay, mist lifts over a New Zealand seaside settlement, where watchful Kezia Burnell notices more about the adults around her than they think.
The Daughters of the Late Colonel follows Constantia and Josephine as they face life beyond their father’s rule. Miss Brill finds pleasure in watching a Sunday crowd, while The Life of Ma Parker follows a working woman carrying private grief. Across fifteen short stories, Mansfield reveals hopes, silences and class divisions through a hat, a fur or a change in light.
What you’ll discover
- A celebration under question Follow Laura as her delight in party preparations meets a troubling question about her neighbours.
- Freedom after long obedience Meet two sisters who must learn to choose after a lifetime under their father’s will.
- A child’s watchful eye See family life through Kezia’s plain questions and her close attention to the grown-ups.
- Joy beside loneliness Share Miss Brill’s Sunday pleasures and Leila’s eager hopes for her first dance.
- Small things carrying meaning Notice how familiar objects reveal what people hide, hope for and struggle to say.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who like short fiction, quiet scenes and sharp observation of family life and class. It is good for anyone with a spare half hour. If you want a fast plot with big events, you may find it slow.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- At the Bay opens a family's whole day
- The Garden Party tests a girl's sense of right
- The Daughters of the Late Colonel face freedom
- Miss Brill and Leila meet a harsher world
- Working lives in the cold light
- How Mansfield tells a story
Who’s who
- Laura SheridanThe young daughter in The Garden Party, who enjoys the workmen's company and must decide what a neighbour's death means for her family's afternoon.
- Mrs SheridanLaura's mother in The Garden Party, who loves to plan and arrange, and is set on keeping the afternoon as it was meant to be.
- Kezia BurnellThe small, watchful girl in At the Bay, who asks plain questions about the grown-ups around her and notices more than they think.
- Linda BurnellKezia's mother in At the Bay, who is tired and dreamy and feels set apart from the family around her.
- Constantia and JosephineThe two middle-aged sisters in The Daughters of the Late Colonel, who must learn to choose for themselves after their father's long rule.
- Miss BrillA lonely woman in a French town who loves her Sunday visit to the park and her fur, and enjoys watching the crowd.
- Ma ParkerAn old charwoman who goes on working while carrying a heavy grief, with no one to share it.
- LeilaA country girl at her first dance, eager and thrilled, who believes the night will be perfect.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 9 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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La Garden-party et autres nouvelles
by Katherine Mansfield· 1922
Ordinary encounters expose private hopes, loneliness and divisions of class.
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Language: Français
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
At the Bay opens a family's whole day
The longest story in the book, At the Bay, is set in New Zealand, in a seaside settlement where several households spend the summer. It begins early, with mist over the bay and a shepherd driving his flock down the road. Then it moves from house to house as the day wakes up. Mansfield drew here on her own childhood, and the story feels like a memory made solid.
The central household is the Burnell family. Stanley Burnell is the father, loud and anxious about his breakfast and his train. He hurries off to work, and the house relaxes at once. The women and children are left in a calmer, softer world. Linda, his wife, is tired and dreamy and does not feel the love for her children that she thinks she should.
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The author
Katherine Mansfield
1888–1923 · New Zealand short story writer
Katherine Mansfield was a New Zealand-born writer who transformed the modern short story in her brief life — Virginia Woolf admitted Mansfield's was the only writing she was ever jealous of. The Garden Party, and Other Stories catches whole lives inside small, luminous moments.
“And after all the weather was ideal.”
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What is The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield about?
The title story follows Laura Sheridan, a girl from a well-off family, as her mother holds a party at home. News of a poor neighbour's death forces Laura to ask whether the party should go on.
Is The Garden Party based on a true story?
It is fiction, but Mansfield drew on her New Zealand childhood in Wellington. Many details of family life, houses and the seaside setting come from her own memories. The collection was published in 1922.
Which stories are in The Garden Party and Other Stories?
The book has fifteen stories, including At the Bay, The Garden Party, The Daughters of the Late Colonel, Miss Brill, Her First Ball, The Life of Ma Parker, Marriage a la Mode and The Lady's Maid.
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