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What Do I Read Next?
(Short Stories for Students)
Bliss and Other Stories (1920), The Garden Party and Other Stories(1922), The Doves Nest and Other Stories (1923), Something Childish and Other Stories (1924) were all written by Katherine Mansfield. The collections of stories listed above are crucial to examine for Katherine Mansfield's narrative innovations and for the diverse number of subjects and characters that her stories concern. These are also prime examples of literary modernism in the 1920s.
The Tunnel, a collection of twenty-four vignettes by Dorothy Richardson, was written in 1919. Dorothy Richardson was a great influence on Katherine Mansfield especially in regards to Mansfield's stylistic innovations. While different in content and subject-matter, these pieces are interesting to read as examples of early twentieth-century female modernism.
To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf's most famous novel, was published in 1928. Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield were friends and were great influences on one another. After Mansfield died, Woolf noted that she was the only writer of whom she was jealous. To the Lighthouse is a masterpiece of stream-of-consciousness narrative, and, as such, it shares similarities to Katherine Mansfield's "The Garden Party."
Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, was published in 1922. Similar to "The Garden Party," Mrs. Dalloway is structured around an evening cocktail party. It pairs Mrs. Dalloway, an upper-middle-class wife of a government official, with Septimus Smith, a mentally-ill veteran. The narratives of the two intertwine throughout and serve to comment upon the other. As such, it is a striking indictment of complacence and snobbery.
The Letters of Katherine Mansfield, by Katherine Mansfield, was published in 1928. Katherine Mansfield was a prolific correspondent and many of her letters include commentary on her own fiction as well as other writers of her time.
The Journals of Katherine Mansfield, by Katherine Mansfield, was published in 1927. These journals are an invaluable source for understanding Mansfield's political and social beliefs and the aesthetic and non-aesthetic influences upon her writing.
Women in Love, by D. H. Lawrence was published in 1920. One of the main protagonists of this novel, Gudrun, is based on Katherine Mansfield. The novel is structured around the friendships and marriages of two couples—as such it is loosely based on Mansfield's and John Middleton Murry's friendship with Lawrence and his wife, Frieda.