On February 4th, 1922: The first part of Katherine Mansfield’s short story “The Garden Party” appeared in the Saturday Westminster Gazette! It would be published serially in three parts through the month of February. It struggles with the ideas of class discrimination, and addresses a blindness of the upper classes to their own privileges. These struggles lie just below the surface of a beautifully written short story full of idealism and naivety. Katherine Mansfield is well known as a master of the short story, publishing five volumes of stories before her death at the age of 34. This iconic author is a must read for anyone interested in themes of difficulty and ambivalence of families and sexuality, the fragility and vulnerability of relationships, the complexities and insensitivities of the rising middle classes, or the social consequences of war.
(Photo Courtesy of Heritage.org)