"Father would never forgive them. That was what they felt more than ever when, two mornings later, they went into his room to go through his things..." This classic of modernist literature, dating from 1921, is a poignant and witty exploration of family, grief, and lives lived in the shadow of others. Story begins at 00:01:20
Narrated/performed by Simon Stanhope, aka Bitesized Audio. If you enjoy this content and would like to help me keep creating, there are a few ways you can support me (and get access to exclusive content):
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:20 I
00:07:27 II
00:12:13 III
00:13:37 IV
00:17:23 V
00:20:00 VI
00:27:12 VII
00:31:07 VIII
00:36:33 IX
00:40:21 X
00:44:58 XI
00:46:48 XII
00:56:03 Credits, thanks and further listening
Textual notes:
Ceylon was the British colonial name of present-day Sri Lanka between 1796 and 1948.
"Evening Bertha" refers to a bertha collar, typically made of lace or other thin fabric.
About the author:
Katherine Mansfield was the pen name of Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp). She was born in 1888 in Wellington, New Zealand, to Harold Beauchamp (who later became Chairman of the Bank of New Zealand) and his wife Annie Dyer. Mansfield was Annie Dyer's mother's maiden surname. Young Kathleen spent much of her childhood in Karori, and her memories of that time served as inspiration for a later short story, 'Prelude'. She was educated at Wellington Girls' High School (now Wellington Girls' College). In 1903 she moved to London to attend Queen's College with her two older sisters. Kathleen was an accomplished cellist, and at one stage considered playing professionally, but her interest and focus turned to writing during this period.
After some time travelling in Europe, she returned to her native New Zealand in 1906 and began producing short stories on a regular basis, taking up the pseudonym Katherine Mansfield. Her early works were published in magazines in New Zealand and Australia. In 1908 she made the decision to relocate back to London, where she contributed poetry and short stories to periodicals such as Pall Mall Magazine, The New Age and The Idler. Her first book of short stories, 'In a German Pension', was published in 1911.
Mansfield's private life was tempestuous and rather scandalous for the era: after several affairs, including pregnancy and miscarriage, in 1909 she married George Bowden, a singing teacher who was more than a decade older than her, but left him on their wedding night. In 1910 she met John Middleton Murry, founder and editor of the literary review magazine 'Rhythm', when he commissioned a story from her entitled 'The Woman at the Store'. They began an on-off relationship which continued for several years until they married in 1918. Their circle of friends included several members of the Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf, Lady Ottoline Morrell and D. H. Lawrence. Murry and Mansfield were apparently the inspiration for Gerald and Gudrun in Lawrence's 1920 novel 'Women in Love'.
The death of Mansfield's younger brother, Leslie Beauchamp, who was killed in action in 1915 while serving in World War I, had a noticeable impact on her writing, which began to include more retrospective reminiscences inspired by her childhood in New Zealand; 'Prelude' was written at about this time. Her most prolific period began in 1917, in which year she was first diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. Her remaining years saw her travelling in Europe, notably France, Switzerland and Italy, both in an ongoing search for treatment and also to avoid the cold British winters. So prolific was she in her last five years that she left many stories unpublished at the time of her death, aged 34, in Fontainebleau, France. Her husband John Murry subsequently edited and published two further volumes of short stories posthumously, as well as poetry and collections of her letters and diaries.
Altogether Katherine Mansfield wrote almost 100 stories, the best of which are regarded as amongst the greatest short stories in English literature, and she made an enduring contribution towards the development of the form. Among her best known works are 'The Garden Party', 'Miss Brill' and 'The Doll's House'. 'The Daughters of the Late Colonel' is one of her finest. It was first published in the London Mercury in May 1921, and later reprinted in Mansfield's 1922 short story collection 'The Garden Party and Other Stories'.
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