7 h 27 minAudiobook2 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
How much can a dinner party, a chance meeting, or a brief silence reveal about the feelings we hide?
In Katherine Mansfield’s Bliss, and Other Stories, ordinary life becomes strange and charged with feeling. Prelude follows the Burnell family into a new home, where adults and children share rooms but inhabit different worlds. In Bliss, Bertha Young’s intense happiness shapes her view of her marriage, her child, and her dinner guests.
Other encounters expose the distance between affection and understanding. In A Dill Pickle, former lovers remember their relationship differently. Sun and Moon places children at the edge of an adult celebration, while The Little Governess follows a young woman whose journey toward employment tests her trust in strangers.
What you’ll discover
- A household of separate worlds Enter the Burnells’ new home, where childhood perceptions meet domestic duties and adult dissatisfaction.
- Happiness that fills a room Follow Bertha Young as overwhelming joy colours everything she sees in her home and guests.
- One past, different memories Listen as former lovers reveal how little a shared experience guarantees a shared understanding.
- Through a child’s eyes Notice the details children catch while the adult world remains bewildering and out of reach.
- The weight of small things Discover how a meal, a remembered sound, or silence carries desire, resentment, and loneliness.
Who will love it
For readers who love intimate short fiction, complicated family relationships, and emotional meaning carried by small details, with desire, loneliness, and unspoken feelings beneath ordinary conversation.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
Who’s who
- PreludeThe Burnell family’s move brings childhood perceptions, domestic duties, and adult dissatisfaction into the same household.
- Bertha YoungThe central figure in Bliss experiences an intense happiness that shapes how she interprets her guests and marriage.
- A Dill PickleA meeting between former lovers exposes the distance between shared experience and private memory.
- The Little GovernessA young woman’s journey toward employment tests her confidence in strangers and her ability to judge their intentions.
- Childhood perceptionChildren notice details adults overlook, yet often cannot understand the social world surrounding them.
- Unspoken feelingsDesire, resentment, and loneliness emerge through small gestures rather than direct confession.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 27 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 2 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- 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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Read and hear Bliss, and Other Stories in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Bliss, and Other Stories
by Katherine Mansfield · 1920
At her dinner party, Bertha Young’s intense happiness shapes how she sees her guests and marriage.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Bliss, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield is a collection about family life, desire, loneliness, and the feelings people struggle to understand or express. Its sharp, intimate scenes make a dinner party, a chance meeting, or a child’s bewilderment feel charged with things nobody quite dares to say.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Katherine Mansfield builds these stories around moments when ordinary life feels suddenly strange or intensely important. A household moves, guests arrive for dinner, former lovers meet, a young woman travels alone. The outward action may be small, but each encounter changes what someone notices about other people and about themselves.
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What is Bliss, and Other Stories about?
The collection follows people in households, social gatherings, chance encounters, and unfamiliar places. Its central concern is the difference between what people feel and what they can say, especially when desire, loneliness, pride, or dependence complicates their relationships.
Which stories are in Bliss, and Other Stories?
The collection includes 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, and The Escape.
What does the pear tree mean in Bliss?
Bertha sees the pear tree as an image of her own happiness and completeness. It also becomes part of her sense of connection with Pearl Fulton. Its meaning depends on Bertha’s perceptions, making it a useful way to follow the story’s tension between feeling and understanding.
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.
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