The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

This short story is in the public domain. The paragraphs in the original full text of this short story, following, have been broken up for readability. Here is the entire text of The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield (1920), the original source of “Miss Brill.” Here is some supplementary information on Miss Brill: It’s considered a modernist piece and is replete with symbolism rather than plot. Miss Brill is an elderly woman who has created her own illusory world.Some of the themes in this classic short story include loneliness, aging, and alienation.

It was first published in The Garden Party and Other Stories in 1920. This volume, which also includes a wide selection of Katherine Mansfield’s other short stories, is an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to discover one of the early twentieth century’s finest writers.Ĭontains: ‘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’, ‘The Garden Party’, ‘The Daughters of the Late Colonel’, ‘The Doll’s House’, ‘The Fly’, ‘Germans at Meat’, ‘The Baron’, ‘The Sister of the Baroness’, ‘Frau Fischer’, ‘Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding’, ‘The Modern Soul’, ‘At Lehmann’s’, ‘The Luftbad’, ‘A Birthday’, ‘The Child-Who-Was-Tired’, ‘The Advanced Lady’, ‘The Swing of the Pendulum’ and ‘A Blaze’.“Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield (1888 – 1923) is a much-anthologized short story by this New Zealand-born author considered a master of the genre. Published in 1922, at the height of literary modernism, ‘The Garden Party’ is now considered one of the key texts of that movement. As she learns of the death of one of their working-class neighbours, this burgeoning sense of class consciousness is heightened by a realization of her own mortality.

When her wealthy family prepares to host a lavish summer party, the young, hitherto sheltered Laura Sheridan suddenly feels a kinship with the staff and the helpers hired to set up the venue for the festivities.