Bliss, and Other Stories

Bliss and Other Stories is a 1920 collection of short stories by the writer Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield's writing is lovely, even thrilling in places (that scene in 'Bliss' when Bertha sees her husband in the hall...) and while the alignments to Woolf are clear, the style is also reminiscent at times of Colette and look forward to Jean Rhys. Observant, perceptive, capturing moments of subjectivity and interiority in motion, attentive to gender and gendered (mis)understandings, sometimes wickedly witty ("It begins with an incredibly beautiful line: 'Why Must It Always Be Tomato Soup?'") these are little moments of life being lived, not always happily, but captured indelibly. (Goodreads)