Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding
First published in the New Age, vol. 7, no. 12 (21 July 1910), 273–5; revised and reprinted in In a German Pension, 1911.
3 ‘Bub’: lad.
‘Nu’: well, now.
4 Gasthaus: inn.
5 Festsaal: hall.
‘Na’: well.
three mourning rings: this implies that Frau Rupp has been widowed three times.
free-born: child born outside marriage.
8 worsted: woollen.
The Woman at the Store
First published in Rhythm, vol. 1, no. 4 (Spring 1912), 7–21, illustrated by a header by Marguerite Thompson. Mansfield, wanting to publish somewhere other than the New Age, sent John Middleton Murry, the editor of the new magazine Rhythm, a story which he rejected because it did not conform with the magazine’s maxim, ‘Before art can be human again it must learn to be brutal’. She then sent him ‘The Woman at the Store’, which he accepted. The setting draws on a camping trip Mansfield made in 1907: see Ian Gordon (ed.), The Urewera Notebook. Mansfield would not allow the story to be reprinted during her lifetime: ‘I couldn’t have The Woman at the Store reprinted par exemple’ (Collected Letters, iii. 210). When Murry reprinted the story in Something Childish and Other Stories he corrected two confusing sentences in the Rhythm version, but also altered the punctuation and changed ‘Hin’ to ‘Jim’ throughout. ‘Hin’ suggests the Maori name ‘Hinemoa’, usually used of a woman. The original name and fluid punctuation are restored here.
10 pack horse: horse carrying bundles or luggage.
manuka: leptospernum scoparium, a flowering bush or tree, common in New Zealand, which has yellow flowers. Linda sits under a manuka tree in the sixth part of ‘At the Bay’.
galatea: cotton material, striped in blue on a white ground.
wideawake: soft felt hat with a broad brim and low crown.
Jaeger: woollen.
10 p. 376duck: strong cotton used for sails and men’s trousers.
fly biscuits: Garibaldi biscuits: currants sandwiched between two layers of biscuit dough.
11 whare: Maori word for house, and used by pakeha (white New Zealanders) to mean ‘shack’.
12 Bluchers: strong leather half-boots, named after Field Marshal von Blücher.
pawa: paua shell, a type of abalone.
Queen Victoria’s Jubilee: probably the sixtieth (diamond) jubilee celebration, on 20 June 1897, of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne.
Richard Seddon: popular Liberal premier of New Zealand until his death in 1906.
13 treacle papers: to attract and trap flies.
14 Els: an abbreviation of Elsie.
tittivating: Mansfield’s spelling.
Napier: a town in the North Island on Hawke Bay.
15 sundowners: swagmen, or tramps, often arriving at a house or store as the sun went down, looking for food and/or somewhere to sleep.
billy: billy can, a tin with a handle for holding liquid.
‘with no … me from’: Murry altered this, to clarify that the narrator is a woman; the Rhythm version contained a misprint and read: ‘“I’ll draw all of you when you’re gone, and your horses and the tent, and that one”—she pointed at me—“with no clothes on in the creek.” I looked at her where she wouldn’t see me frown.’
16 calico: plain white unprinted cotton.
sateen: cotton with a glossy surface like satin.
spuds: potatoes.
18 Camp Coffee: the advertisements for this coffee substitute, made of chicory and coffee essence mixed with sugar, would feature an image of empire; Camp coffee’s trademark was a picture of a turbaned sepoy serving coffee to an officer in the military uniform of a Highland regiment, with a pennant on the tent behind him inscribed with the words ‘ready aye ready’.
How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped
First published in Rhythm, no. 8 (September 1912), 136–9 under the pseudonym Lili Heron, with a woodcut of a heron by Gaudier-Brzeska and a header by Marguerite Thompson. Reprinted in Something Childish, where Murry dates it as 1910, and divides into shorter paragraphs than are contained in the Rhythm version; the version here is the Rhythm one. The ‘dark women’ are not identified as Maori as they are seen mostly from the child’s perspective and p. 377↵she cannot categorize in that way, but their clothes, domestic equipment, and way of life indicate who they are. Mansfield draws on the experience recorded in The Urewera Notebook in the story. Another tale about Pearl, ‘The Story of Pearl Button’, written about 1908, appears in The Katherine Mansfield Notebooks (i. 112–13) but was not published in Mansfield’s lifetime.
20 flax basket of ferns: kits, baskets of plaited flax which Maori use for carrying, and for storing food.
21 feather mats: the tail-feathers of the huia were once worn by Maori as a badge of rank.
22 green ornament: a greenstone (jade) pendant or (hei)tiki, often a carved representation of an ancestor, also referred to in The Urewera Notebook (p. 84) as part of a Maori girl’s dress.
two pieces of black hair: plaits like the Maori girl ‘with her hair in two long braids’ in The Urewera Notebook (p. 43).
Millie
First published in the Blue Review vol. 1, no. 2 (June 1913), 82–7. Reprinted with alterations in the paragraphing in Something Childish. The Blue Review was an attempt at prolonging the life of Rhythm in an altered form, though J. D. Fergusson was no longer the art editor. Three monthly issues appeared from May to July, but the magazine lacked the dynamism of Rhythm, partly because of the editorial intervention of its backers, and folded.
24 johnny: an inexperienced new hand, used in New Zealand of a new immigrant.
strung up: hanged.
25 Mount Cook: in the South Island and permanently snow-covered, the highest peak in Australasia, named after Captain Cook; the Maori name is Aoraki.
28 skunk: unpleasant, contemptible person.
Something Childish but very Natural
Published posthumously by Murry, in the Adelphi, vol. 1, nos. 9–10 (February-March), 777–90, 913–22, and then in the volume of the same name; Murry dates it 1914. The title comes from a poem of the same name by Samuel Taylor Coleridge which imitates a German folk-song and is quoted in the story. It was sent by Coleridge in a letter to his wife in 1799 and first published in the Annual Anthology, 1800.
29 Charing Cross Road: a street in Soho renowned for its second-hand bookshops.
Had I…: a misquotation, which should read ‘If I had but two …’.
30 p. 378Bolton Abbey: a priory founded in 1150, ruined since the sixteenth century, painted by Turner and described by Ruskin; train compartments were decorated with photographs of famous beauty spots, presumably as an incentive to train travel.
31 have her hair up: wearing her hair in a bun or chignon would indicate that she was old enough for paid employment.
35 pollies: perhaps parrots, copying each other.
36 eat anything …fountain: for fear of food-poisoning.
39 Polytechnic: the Polytechnic of Central London, in Regent Street, founded in 1882 for the mental, moral, and physical development of youth.
44 two T’s: two ticks, that is, very soon.
white pinks: pinks, like carnations, belong to the genus dianthus; they are fragrant and are characteristic of cottage gardens.
45 to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow: a quotation from Macbeth v.v, though when Macbeth says it he is oppressed by the strain and tedium of human life.
telegram: before the universal availability of telephones, a message sent telegraphically to a decoding office; the written message was then delivered, usually by a boy on a bicycle.
The Little Governess
First published in Signature, Part I: no. 2 (18 October 1915) 11–18; Part II: no. 3 (1 November 1915), 11–18, under the pseudonym Matilda Berry. Reprinted without revision in Bliss and Other Stories.
47 Governess Bureau: agency for the employment of governesses, female teachers in private households.
Ladies’ Cabin: compartment for women only on the cross-Channel ferry.
dress-basket: equivalent of a suitcase.
48 Dames Seules: Women Only.
49 Trrrès bien: Verrry well.
motor veil: a veil used by women travelling in early motor-cars, to protect them from dust.
alpaca: fabric made from llama wool.
En voiture: All aboard.
50 Un, deux, trois: One, two, three.
51 Ja, ein wenig, mehr als Franzosisch: Yes, a little, more than French.
Ja, es ist eine Tragœdie: Yes, it’s a tragedy.
53 Standard roses: roses growing as a small tree, with the flowers in a bunch at the top of a straight stem.
p. 379↵Nein, danke: No, thank you.
Wie viel?: How much?
54 Danke … sehr schön: Thank you very much. They are so very lovely.
Englischer Garten: the proper name of a public park in Munich.
Nicht wahr?: Don’t you agree?
55 Regierungsrat: senior civil servant.
Hauptbahnhof: main or central station.
Gewiss: certainly.
Gehen Sie: Go!
Gehen Sie sofort: Go immediately!
58 hochwohlgebildete Dame: highly cultured/extremely well-bred lady.
Na, sagen Sie ’mal: Well, really! (literally: well, tell me then).
An Indiscreet Journey
First published in Something Childish, and dated by Murry as 1915, based on an episode in Mansfield’s life. Bored by her relationship with Murry, and intrigued by a developing attraction to the writer Francis Carco, who was serving with the French army near Gray, in the Zone des Armées, Mansfield travelled in February 1915 to the war zone and spent four nights with Carco. The adventure is described in The Katherine Mansfield Notebooks, ii. 9–12, and in her letters from Paris and Gray in Collected Letters, 1. 148–50.
60 St Anne: mother of the Virgin Mary.
Burberry: trade name of clothing made by Burberrys Ltd., particularly well known for good quality raincoats.
peg-top: a coat that is narrow at the shoulders, flaring to a wide hem.
ma mignonne: my sweet.
electric lotus buds: around 1900 Hector Guimard created Art Nouveau entranceways for the Metro system, some with lotus motifs.
61 two mourning rings: possibly indicating that she has been widowed twice.
big wooden sheds: field hospitals.
petit soldat: little soldier.
62 ma France adorée: my beloved France.
sabots: clogs.
képi: French military cap.
Merci… aimable. Thank you, Monsieur, you are very kind.
We, Sir Edward Grey …: this formal authorization is inscribed in the narrator’s British passport. Viscount Grey of Falloden was Foreign Secretary; the Foreign Office issued passports at this period.
63 Toute de suite: right away.
63 p. 380ah, mon Dieu: oh, my God.
juste … gare: directly opposite the station.
Je … tendrement: lots of love.
visiting card: a card with a person’s name and address, left when paying a visit, particularly if the host was not at home.
64 Venez vite, vite: Come quickly, quickly.
Oui: yes.
Excusez … chapeau: Excuse me Madam, but perhaps you have not remarked that there is a kind of seagull settled on your hat.
65 It means … word: soldiers on active service are executed by their own side if they consort with women who have entered a restricted area illegally.
Non … ça: No, I can’t eat that.
viséd: stamped with an authorization.
66 Matin: morning paper.
Montez vite: Get in quickly.
je m’en f…:! don’t give a damn.
Bonjour, mon amie: Hello, my friend.
Prends … vieux: Take this, old chap.
67 Dodo … dodo: ‘Sleep, my man, go to sleep.’ This is the beginning of the refrain from a song called ‘Idylle Rouge’, words by Saint Gilles and Paul Gay, music by Georges Picquet. Mansfield wrote it out in full for Murry in a letter of 8–9 May 1915 (Collected Letters, i. 181).
68 Premier Rencontre: first meeting.
Triomphe d’Amour Triumph of Love.
C’est ça: that’s right.
69 Sept, huit, neuf. Seven, eight, nine.
Il pleure de colère: He’s crying with rage.
70 Un Picon: a bitter aperitif.
Mais … ça: But you know it is rather disgusting, that.
V’ld Monsieur. There’s Monsieur.
un … charcuterie: a little prepared meat, such as salami, or prepared salad.
N’est-ce pas: Isn’t that so.
bifteks: steaks.
si, si: yes, yes.
ma fille: my girl.
Souvenir tendre: touching memory.
71 p. 381È-pa-tant: marvellous.
Mirabelle: plum brandy.
Café des Amis: Friends’ café.
The Wind Blows
First published as ‘Autumns: II’ under the pseudonym Matilda Berry and with a first-person narrator in Signature, no. 1 (4 October 1915), 18–23; Signature, a fortnightly magazine, was launched by D. H. Lawrence and Murry but only survived for three issues. Revised in the third person as ‘The Wind Blows’, it appeared in the Athenaeum, no. 4713 (27 August 1920), 262–3 and in Bliss and Other Stories (1920). Mansfield wrote of it to Murry: ‘I put it in because so many people had admired it. (Yes its Autumn II but a little different.) Virginia, Lytton—and queer people like Mary Hamilton & Bertie all spoke so strongly about it I felt I must put it in’ (Collected Letters, iii. 273–4). Wellington is a famously windy city.
74 hat-elastic: women’s hats had a band of elastic attached to prevent them from blowing off; it was usually worn at the back of the head.
tam: tam-o’-shanter, a woollen beret named after the hero of Burns’s poem of the same name, and introduced as a fashion for girls and women in about 1887.
75 MacDowell: Edward Alexander MacDowell (1861–1908), an American composer whose own instrument was the piano; he composed piano suites and pieces, characteristically based on folk-songs.
Rubinstein: Anton Grigorovitch Rubinstein (1829–94), a celebrated Russian pianist and composer who gave concerts and recitals throughout Europe and America.
76 stave: set of lines for musical notation.
allegretto: a musical term meaning somewhat brisk.
‘I bring… showers’: misquoted from P. B. Shelley’s ‘The Clouds’ (1820): ‘I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers’.
Bogey: a nickname that Mansfield used both for her brother and her husband.
77 ulster: a long, loose rough overcoat, often with a belt.
pahutukawas: usually spelt pohutukawa, this tree (metrosideros excelsa) is popularly known as the ‘Christmas tree’ as its crimson flowers appear in December. It grows close to the sea, particularly in the North Island of New Zealand.
Prelude
First published by the Hogarth Press, owned and run by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, as a 68-page booklet in July 1918; hand-set partly by Virginia Woolf and bound by her husband, some copies had line-blocks on the upper and lower wrappers of a woman’s head by the art editor of Rhythm, p. 382↵J. D. Fergusson. Then published in Bliss and Other Stories. ‘Prelude’ was a pared-down version of ‘The Aloe’, an earlier story which was not published in Mansfield’s lifetime. The best edition, The Aloe with Prelude (Port Nicholson Press, 1982), is edited by Vincent O’Sullivan, giving the text of ‘The Aloe’ on the recto of each page and that of ‘Prelude’ on the verso, and including Fergusson’s picture for the upper wrapper. The text of ‘The Aloe’ attempts to reproduce the detail, and excisions, of the manuscript.
79 buggy: a light one- or two-horse vehicle.
80 reticule: a small bag.
81 dripping: fat left over after meat has been roasted; often used instead of butter.
scullery: a room attached to the kitchen in which dishes were washed and dirty household tasks done.
82 stay-button: button from a corset.
loose iron: the roofs of houses in New Zealand were usually made of corrugated iron.
dray: a low cart for carrying heavy loads.
83 Quarantine Island: Somes Island in Wellington Harbour; named after a deputy-governor of the New Zealand Company, it had been used as a quarantine station for immigrant ships, and was subsequently an internment camp for aliens during wartime.
hulks: the body of a dismantled ship used as a storage vessel.
Picton boat: Picton is the northernmost port of the South Island, with a ferry service to and from Wellington.
84 new roads: Karori, three miles from Wellington, was the first of the outlying valleys to be opened up for settlement; Harold Beauchamp, Mansfield’s father, bought a property there in 1893.
85 reefer: slang name given to a midshipman.
hassock: a thick cushion for resting the feet on.
87 Pure… free: ‘Fair as a lily, joyous and free’ is quoted in Henry Lawson’s story ‘The Songs They Used to Sing’.
88 Gentle … thee: Lottie has an inaccurate version of the hymn she has heard, which should be: ‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, | Look upon a little child, I Pity my simplicity, | Suffer me to come to thee’ (Charles Wesley, 1742).
89 eau-de-nil: literally water of the Nile, pale green.
adenoids: overgrowth of glandular tissue on the back of the upper part of the throat.
90 fantails: small birds (rhipidura fuliginosa placabilis; Maori: piwakawaka).
tui: sometimes: called the ‘parson bird’ because of its white throat feathers, the tui (prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) can mimic other birds.
91 corporation: slang term for fat body.
93 p. 383wash-house: outbuilding for washing clothes.
94 foulard: thin material of silk or silk and cotton.
watch-guard: a chain used to secure a watch when it is worn on the body.
97 box: a genus (buxus) of small evergreen shrub.
98 picotee: a variety of carnation (dianthus caryophyllus).
99 Bodega: wine-shop that also sells groceries.
100 hire a pew: to assert his presence and respectability as a newcomer.
… Believers: a misquotation from the Book of Common Prayer, stressed to indicate how it would be chanted in church. It should read: ‘When thou hadst overcome …’
102 box ottoman: a cushioned seat like a sofa but without a back or arms.
104 rissoles: chopped meat mixed with breadcrumbs and egg, divided into small cakes, and fried.
105 kerosene: paraffin.
boncer: usually spelt bonzer; Australian/New Zealand term for ‘very good’.
110 stuff: woollen fabric.
jetty: jet-black.
barracouta: a long thin loaf with a rough crust on top, named after a barracouta fish, a snake-mackerel which is about a metre long.
111 doyleys: lace mats.
112 crib: abbreviation of cribbage, a game using a pack of cards and a board with holes and pegs for scoring.
114 Chesterfield: a large overstaffed sofa.
116 ‘lock, stock and barrel’: the entirety of it.
117 chapeau: hat.
118 serge: durable worsted material.
Mr Reginald Peacock ‘s Day
First published in the New Age, vol. 21, no. 7 (14 June 1917), 158–61; reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories.
122 When her … wedded: from a poem by George Meredith (1828–1909), ‘Love in the Valley’, with ‘looping’ and ‘tying’ transposed.
Covent Garden: the Royal Opera House, opened 1732.
Lohengrin … Elsa: title of an opera (1845–8) by Richard Wagner, and name of the protagonist, a knight who proves to be the son of Parsifal, king of the Holy Grail. He marries Elsa but they separate almost immediately; a mysterious swan appears at crucial points in the plot.
Voilà tout!: That’s all!
123 John Bull: the Englishman, first used to name a character in John Arbuthnot’s The History of John Bull (1712).
127 p. 384Weep … fast?: a slight misquotation of a song by John Dowland from The Third and Last Booke of Songs or Aires (1603); it begins: ‘Weep you no more sad fountains | What need you flow so fast?’
Feuille d’Album
First published as ‘An Album Leaf’ in the New Age, vol. 21, no. 21 (20 September 1917), 450–2; slightly revised as ‘Feuille d’Album’ and reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories.
129 tortoise stove: wood-burning stove.
131 as neat as a pin: from the saying ‘neat as a new pin’.
lamplighter: gas street-lights were lit each night by a lamplighter.
A Dill Pickle
First published in the New Age, vol. 21, no. 23 (4 October 1917), 489–91; revised and reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories. A dill pickle is a cucumber pickled with dill leaves and seeds.
135 raised her veil: fashionable women’s hats of the period had veils covering the face which were lifted indoors.
136 Kew Gardens: the Royal Botanic Gardens, founded in 1759.
137 river … song: the Volga is the longest river in Europe; the ‘Volga Boat Song’ (traditional) was popular in the early years of the twentieth century.
138 crochet hook: a hooked implement used for crochet, a kind of knitting.
Je ne parle pas français
First published by the Heron Press, which belonged to Mansfield and Murry; it was set by Murry’s brother. One hundred copies appeared in 1920, dated 1919. The story was too sexually explicit for Michael Sadleir, Mansfield’s editor at Constable, who insisted on cuts before he would publish it. At first Mansfield resisted: ‘No, I certainly won’t agree to those excisions if there were 500000000 copies in existence. They can keep their old £40 & be hanged to them. Shall I pick the eyes out of a story for £40. Im furious with Sadler. No, Ill never agree. Ill supply another story but that is all. The outline would be all blurred. It must have those sharp lines’ (Collected Letters, iii. 273). Murry persuaded her to give in, but when the story was published in Bliss and Other Stories she regretted it and loathed the blurb: ‘if Id known they were going to say that no power on earth would have made me cut a word. I wish I hadn’t. I was wrong—very wrong’ (Collected Letters, iv. 137). A fuller account of the circumstances and events surrounding the story is given in Alpers’s edition, The Stories of Katherine Mansfield, pp. 559–61. The title means ‘I don’t speak French’.
142 p. 385portmanteaux: suitcases.
143 sous: coins of little value.
144 ‘dying fall’: quotation from the opening speech by Orsino in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night: ‘That strain again!—it had a dying fall’.
145 geste: gesture, in the sense of a highly significant moment.
spill: a slip of wood for lighting candles etc.
bubble of gas: a gas lamp.
147 passons outre: let’s pay no heed. (Alpers’s text reads oultre, which seems to be a misprint; I have followed the Constable text and substituted outre.)
concierge: caretaker.
148 bon enfant: good child.
le Kipling: the writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), author of Kim.
149 photographs: erotic or pornographic pictures offered to prospective customers by a prostitute.
tweed knickerbockers: the stereotypical outfit for an English gentleman; knickerbockers would be referred to as plus-fours in Britain, and worn when shooting or golfing.
150 comme il faut: as it should be, proper.
cubist: coined about 1911; a contemporary art movement based on the form of a cube.
152 enfin: lastly, here: for heaven’s sake.
153 ce cher Pinkerton: this dear Pinkerton. In Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly the Japanese heroine yearns for the return to Japan of her husband, the American Pinkerton, and dresses beautifully in her wedding kimono to greet him when he does come.
154 mignonette green: greyish green.
155 Gare Saint Lazare: a major station in Paris.
158 flap seat: folding seat opposite the passengers’ seats in a taxi.
159 garçon: porter.
pair of boots: guests in hotels could leave their shoes or boots outside their bedroom doors to indicate that they wished staff to take them away to be polished.
164 morning coat: formal dress.
167 gallant: a man of fashion and pleasure.
Sun and Moon
First published in the Athenaeum, no. 4718 (1 October 1920), 430–2; reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories, though Mansfield tried to withdraw it from the p. 386↵Athenaeum: ‘Even tho I am as poor as a mouse don’t publish Sun & Moon’ (Collected Letters, iv. 53).
169 white thing: a cape to protect her clothes from make-up.
Bliss
First published in the English Review, vol. 27 (August 1918), 108–19; reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories.
177 Entendu: OK.
179 monocle: a single eye-glass.
perambulator: pram, baby-carriage.
180 ‘Why doth the bridegroom tarry?’: an ironic reference to the biblical theme expressed most clearly in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, Matthew 25: 5: ‘While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.’
181 liée: close to.
Tchekof: now spelt Chekhov. Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was the Russian author of short stories that were admired and translated by members of the Bloomsbury Group and Mansfield. His plays include The Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, and The Cherry Orchard.
183 drunk and seen the spider: a quotation from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale II. i; Leontes says: ‘I have drunk, and seen the spider.’ There was a belief that if there was a spider in the cup, the drinker was unharmed as long as he was unaware of it, but poisoned if he saw the spider as he drank.
185 Table d’Hôte: literally the host’s table, used to refer to the set menu in a restaurant or hotel.
Psychology
First published in Bliss and Other Stories.
186 sommier: day-bed.
187 en escargot: like a snail.
188 hatter’s bag: possibly a reference to the Mad Hatter, who was preoccupied with bread and butter, in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865).
Book … good: an adaptation of the line that is repeated in the first chapter of the book of Genesis: ‘And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of heaven … and God saw that it was good’ (vv. 14, 18).
189 psycho-analyst’s claim: psychoanalysis was a popular fictional theme at this period; when she was reviewing, Mansfield wrote to Murry: ‘I am p. 387amazed at the sudden “mushroom growth” of cheap psycho analysis everywhere. Five novels one after the other are based on it: its in everything’ (Collected Letters, iv. 69).
Pictures
First written as a dialogue called ‘The Common Round’ in the New Age, vol. 21, no. 5 (31 May 1917), 113–15; later recast and published as ‘The Pictures’ in Art and Letters, vol. 2, no. 4 (Autumn 1919), 153–6, 159–62. Reprinted as ‘Pictures’ in Bliss and Other Stories.
193 Brighton: coastal town in Sussex famous for its raffish entertainments.
my poor dear lad in France: the first version of the story was written and published during the First World War.
194 washing … pointing: an indication that Miss Moss cannot afford to employ someone to do her washing.
195 vanity bag: a small handbag fitted with a mirror and powder-puff.
ABC: around 1890 the Aerated Bread Company (ABC) and the Express Dairy opened hundreds of popular cafés serving drinks and buns.
parmas: Parma violets, named after the city in northern Italy which is also famous for its cheese and its ham.
196 brahn: imitating a Cockney accent, meaning brown or sun-tanned.
all found: with everything, such as meals, provided.
lino: floor covering.
197 ‘Waiting … Lee’: song with words by L. Wolfe Gilbert and music by Lewis F. Muir, made famous by Al Jolson.
cure: eccentric.
scream: uproariously funny.
provinces … West End: shows and plays that begin their run outside London and then move to London’s theatreland in the West End of the city.
198 hop it: dance.
Hearts of oak: both ‘Be brave’ (from sea shanties describing sailors as hearts of oak) and rhyming slang for broke, no money.
199 never pay their crowds: a film company that does not pay extras who appear in crowd scenes.
aviate: fly an aeroplane.
buck-jump: jump like a horse that bucks.
The Man Without a Temperament
Originally called ‘The Exile’ (see The Katherine Mansfield Notebooks, ii. 188). First published as ‘The Man Without a Temperament’ in Art and Letters, vol. 3, no. 2 (Spring 1920), 10–14, 17–22, 25; reprinted with small improvements in Bliss and Other Stories.
202 p. 388brown wooden bear: an umbrella stand.
pinnies: pinafores.
nets: mosquito nets.
Vous desirez, monsieur?: What do you want, sir?
205 Vous avez voo ça!: Did you see that!
206 drawers: knickers, with a drawstring.
210 Saturday Evening Post: an American magazine.
a feast … soul: quotation from Alexander Pope (1688–1744), Satires, Epistles and Odes of Horace, Satire I, Book 2.
212 bread and wine: the sacrament.
The Stranger
First published in the London Mercury, vol. 3, no. 15 (January 1921), 259–68; the place-names were altered from Auckland and Napier to Crawford and Salisbury when it was reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories. Alpers restores the original names in his text. Mansfield wrote of the story to Murry: ‘Ive been this man been this woman. Ive stood for hours on the Auckland Wharf. Ive been out in the stream waiting to be berthed. Ive been a seagull hovering at the stern and a hotel porter whistling through his teeth. It isn’t as though one sits and watches the spectacle. That would be thrilling enough, God knows. But one IS the spectacle for the time’ (Collected Letters, iv. 97). The story was first called ‘The Interloper’, but this was changed on the original manuscript.
213 Don’t … harmless: a signal that might have been sent in the days of colonial exploration.
A welcome …forgiven: the language of melodrama.
every man-jack of them: every one of them.
218 costume: suit.
state-room: superior accommodation on a ship.
221 new collars: shirt collars were buttoned on to the shirt, so that a clean collar could spruce up a shirt that had already been worn.
Miss Brill
First published in the Athenaeum, no. 4726 (26 November 1920), 722–3; reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories. Mansfield told her brother-in-law, Richard Murry, in a letter that: ‘In Miss Brill I chose not only the length of every sentence, but even the sound of every sentence—I chose the rise and fall of every paragraph to fit her—and to fit her on that day at that very moment. After Id written it I read it aloud—numbers of times—just as one would play over a musical composition, trying to get it nearer and nearer to the expression of Miss Brill—until it fitted her’ (Collected Letters, iv. 165).
225 p. 389Jardins Publiques: public gardens.
tingling: an indication of degenerating health.
rotunda: circular bandstand with a domed roof.
226 Panama hat: hat made from leaves of the stemless screwpine.
227 ermine toque: small white fur hat.
228 English … a week: Miss Brill earns a living by teaching English and reading to an invalid for payment.
The Daughters of the Late Colonel
First published in the London Mercury, vol. 4, no. 19 (May 1921), 15–30; reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories. The title on the manuscript of the story is ‘Non-Compounders’, a term used at Mansfield’s school in London, Queen’s College, to refer to older students who did not take the full-time programme. Mansfield wrote of the story to Dorothy Brett: ‘I put my all into that story & hardly anyone saw what I was getting at. Even dear old Hardy told me to write more about those sisters. As if there was any more to say!’ (Collected Letters, iv. 316).
230 top-hat: man’s silk hat with a high cylindrical crown.
bowler: a hard, low-crowned, stiff felt hat, named after a London hatmanufacturer.
‘Remember’: possibly an echo of the ghost of Hamlet’s father’s saying, ‘Remember me’ (Hamlet, I. v).
wear black: formal mourning clothes.
231 Ceylon: a British colony at that time; now Sri Lanka.
233 blancmange: a milky and opaque white jelly.
234 holding his wrist: taking his pulse.
Miss Pinner: a formal mode of address, distinguishing the elder from the younger sister by using the surname of the elder one.
236 tight-buttoned: refers to the leather upholstery inside the cab.
239 Round Pond: Alpers capitalizes Round Pond to indicate that it refers to the pond in Kensington Gardens.
drawers: loose shorts with a drawstring.
240 cork helmet: a pith helmet or solar topee, worn by colonial officers in hot climates; the veranda and cane rocker are stereotypical images of colonial life.
Tatler: a magazine published in London about fashionable life.
Busks: strips of wood, whalebone or steel used to stiffen corsets.
waistcoats: men wore watches in the fob pockets of waistcoats.
246 Bertha: a deep-falling collar, to be attached to the top of a low-necked evening dress.
246 p. 390barrel-organ: a musical instrument with a pin-studded revolving barrel acting mechanically on the keys; organ-grinders were traditionally accompanied by monkeys, which often wore hats and jackets.
247 pagodas: a temple or sacred building built over the relics of Buddha or a saint; this and other artefacts suggest mementoes of colonial life from a colony such as Ceylon.
boa: a scarf of feathers worn by women.
248 Anglo-Indian: person of British birth resident in India.
Eastbourne: a respectable holiday resort on the coast of Sussex.
carved screen: another reference to an object brought back from a posting in a colony, possibly Ceylon.
on approval: purchasing things which could be returned to the shop and the money refunded within a fixed time limit.
Life of Ma Parker
First published in the Nation & the Athenaeum, vol. 28, no. 22 (26 February 1921), 742–3; reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.
250 jetty spears: black hat-pins.
toque: small hat without a brim or with a very small brim.
252 Shakespeare: Stratford-upon-Avon was Shakespeare’s birthplace.
consumption: tuberculosis, the disease that Mansfield suffered from.
255 lock-up: police cells.
Mr and Mrs Dove
First published in the Sphere, vol. 86, no. 1125 (13 August 1921), 172–3; reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.
257 Rhodesia: the British colony in south central Africa, named after Cecil Rhodes, which is now independent Zimbabwe.
the mater: public school parlance for mother.
258 Umtali: a town in eastern Zimbabwe on the main railway line to Mozambique from Harare, known since Independence in 1982 as Mutare.
Pekes: Pekinese, an ancient breed of toy dog originating in China.
the governor: public school term for father.
trouser pockets: moved out of little boys’ shorts to long trousers.
263 ilex-tree: holm-oak or evergreen oak (quercus ilex).
p. 391Her First Ball
First published in the Sphere, vol. 87, no. 1140A (28 November 1921), 15, 25; reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.
265 Sheridan girls: Leila is a cousin of the girls who appear in ‘The Garden Party’.
tuberoses: a fragrant, creamy-white, funnel-shaped flower (polyanthes tuberosa).
Twig?: understand?
266 programmes: men wrote their names in women’s programmes to engage them for particular dances.
267 More pork: the endemic owl (ninox novaeseelandiae), ruru in Maori, found throughout New Zealand; its cry sounds a bit like ‘more pork’.
chaperones: married women who accompany young women for the sake of propriety.
parquet: polished wooden floor.
Marriage à la Mode
First published in the Sphere, vol. 87, no. 1145 (31 December 1921), 364–5; reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories. The title means ‘fashionable marriage’.
271 Royal Academy: in Piccadilly, founded in 1768 with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first president; a gallery that is seen by Isabel as an establishment institution.
273 fire-shovel, tongs: fire irons.
274 Titania: the Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
276 Avanti: Forward!
277 sloe gin: a version of gin made from the fruit of the blackthorn.
my Nijinsky dress: Nijinsky was the male star in Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, an avant-garde Russian company that appeared in cities such as London and Paris at this period.
mes amis: my friends.
279 marriage lines: marriage certificate.
A Lady reading a Letter: a popular theme in painting.
At the Bay
First published, carelessly edited, in the London Mercury, vol. 5, no. 27 (January 1922), 239–65; revised and reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories (22 February 1922). Mansfield’s family, the Beauchamps (whose name is p. 392↵translated for the grandmother in the story, Mrs Fairfield), spent summer holidays at Muritai or at Day’s Bay, on the eastern side of Wellington harbour, which is where ‘At the Bay’ is set. Contemporary photographs of it appear in Katherine Mansfield’s New Zealand by Vincent O’Sullivan. Mansfield comments on the writing of the story fully in letters, making one of her most significant comments on the nature of her fiction: ‘I have tried to make it as familiar to “you” as it is to me. You know the marigolds? You know those pools in the rocks? You know the mousetrap on the wash house window sill? And, too, one tries to go deep—to speak to the secret self we all have—to acknowledge that’ (Collected Letters, iv. 278).
281 bush-covered hills: New Zealand bush is characterized by lush vegetation and a wide range of trees and bushes, including eucalypts, pines and tree-ferns.
paddocks: fields; a word in more common use in Australia and New Zealand than in Britain.
bungalows: one-storeyed houses, here mostly holiday cottages.
toi-toi: Maori name for native grass, like pampas grass, which has rough thin leaves and tall stems topped with huge silvery plumes that glisten as they blow in the bush.
frieze: coarse woollen cloth with a nap.
wideawake: see note to p. 10 above.
283 whare: see note to p. 11 above.
289 Limmonadear: Lemonade dear.
290 straight dinkum: equivalent of ‘and hope to die’, that is, totally honestly.
293 stays: corsets.
294 turned turtle: turned over.
steamer chair: chair for lounging, like those used on the deck of a ship.
manuka tree: see note to p. 10 above.
picotees: see note to p. 98 above.
295 Tasmanian: Tasmania, formerly Van Diemen’s Land, is an island state south of Victoria in Australia, separated by the Bass Strait from the mainland.
uncovered: doffed his hat, as a gesture of greeting.
296 something pink: his toes.
297 sand-hoppers: small terrestrial jumping crustaceans with no carapace; buried in sand by day but at night emerging to feed on debris under stones or amongst seaweed.
pawa shells: see note to p. 12 above.
298 casting on: creating stitches on a knitting needle.
mines: probably on the Australian gold diggings.
perishall: parasol, represented as Alice says it.
larrikin: rascal.
her mosquitoes: i.e. mosquito repellent.
canningbals: Mrs Stubbs’s version of ‘cannibals’.
301 johnny cake: cake made of wheatmeal, baked on the ashes or fried in a pan.
Primus stove: trade name of a stove burning paraffin.
302 dozzing: Alice’s version of dozen, i.e. twelve.
water-fall… snow: the background to a studio photograph, suggesting national identity.
dropsy: accumulation of watery fluid in the body.
mutting: Alice’s version of ‘mutton’.
Be not afraid, it is I: Christ’s words to his disciples when he walked on the water; Matt. 14: 27.
303 copper: a copper vessel for washing clothes.
ninseck: child’s version of’insect’.
304 pinny: pinafore, apron.
308 ledger: a book containing records; Jonathan is a clerk.
do I fondly dream?: Jonathan uses archaic and literary language as a kind of self-mockery; ‘Ay me, I fondly dream!’ is from John Milton’s elegy ‘Lycidas’ (1637), 1. 56.
309 Jehovah: the name of God in the Old Testament.
Whose eye … simply: the way that Linda imagines the Last Judgement.
310 greengage: a green plum.
telegraph … wire: see note to telegram, p. 45 above.
wash-leather: shammy or chamois leather.
314 A cloud … still: in the American edition of The Garden Party and Other Stories Mansfield separated the final paragraph from the preceding text, as Section 13 of the story; Alpers includes this revision in his edition of the stories.
The Voyage
First published in the Sphere, vol. 87, no. 1144 (24 December 1921), 340–1; reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.
315 The Picton boat: the boat that ferried passengers across the Cook Strait from Wellington Harbour to Picton, the port at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound in the South Island.
ulster: see note to p. 77 above.
318 p. 394grandma’s blackness … crêpe: they are in mourning for Fenella’s mother.
a little something: spirits of some kind.
319 fascinator: headscarf for wearing at home.
plush: cloth with a nap longer than velvet, used for upholstery.
lace: laced up, and thus hard for a small child to remove.
320 the Straits: the Cook Strait.
321 ferns … trees: tree-ferns and eucalypts.
lid of a box: boxes decorated with sea-shells were popular souvenirs
322 bluchers: strong leather half-boots.
A Married Man’s Story
First published in the Dial, New York, vol. 74 (January-June 1923), 451–62; reprinted in the London Mercury, vol. 7, no. 42 (April 1923), 577–86 and in The Dove’s Nest and Other Stories. The story was published posthumously and is incomplete.
323 Mother and Child: like a painting of the Madonna and the Christ-child.
cover: a horse-drawn cab; the horse has been covered while the driver waits for custom.
324 arum lily leaf: white funnel-shaped lilies (zantedeschia), often associated with the Madonna as images of purity and death.
326 tant mieux pour nous: all the better for us.
tant pis: too bad.
327 stories of little children: such as the twins Romulus and Remus in the myth about the founding of Rome.
328 sotto voce: quietly.
bravuras: a piece of music written to task the artist’s powers.
confirmation dress: for her confirmation in the faith and first communion.
Botanical Gardens: this suggests that the story is set in Wellington.
331 Gregory Powder: a nineteenth-century laxative named after its creator.
332 pestle: a pharmacist’s instrument for bruising or pounding.
334 beads of black: mascara.
bust … Hahnemann: Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), a German physician and the founder of homeopathy.
The Garden Party
First published in the Saturday Westminster Gazette, vol. 59, nos. 8917, 8923, (4 February 1922, pp. 9–10; 11 February, p. 10) for Parts 1–11; Weekly p. 395↵Westminster Gazette, vol. I, no. I (18 February 1922, pp. 16–17) for Part III. Revised and reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories. In the first editions the title of the story was hyphenated but that of the book was not.
336 Meg, Jose: the names, and Laurie, later, seem to echo those of two of the March sisters and their male friend in Little Women (1868) by Louisa May Alcott.
337 karakas: corynocarpus laevigata, glossy, bushy trees with big shiny ovoid leaves, reaching 15 metres high, and growing naturally in groves. The fact that the trees are bearing their golden-orange berries (prized as food by the Maori) indicates that the story is set in February.
338 squiz: look, glance.
339 green baize: baize is coarse woollen stuff with a long nap, often used to cover doors that were demarcation lines; see Graham Greene’s account of the door between his headmaster father’s house and the school, Berkhamsted, at the opening of The Lawless Roads (1939).
canna lilies: ornamental plants (cannaceae) thriving in a warm climate with showy flowers ranging from pale yellow to scarlet.
340 chesterfield: see note to p. 113.
341 flags: small labels attached to cocktail sticks.
342 traction-engine: a steam-engine used for drawing heavy loads along a road.
The Doll’s House
First published in the Nation & the Athenaeum, vol. 30, no. 19 (4 February 1922), 692–3: reprinted in The Dove’s Nest and Other Stories. Other possible titles for it, appearing in lists of titles for prospective collections devised by Mansfield, were ‘The Washerwoman’s Children’ and ‘At Karori’. This is another story about the family of’Prelude’ and ‘At the Bay’.
350 Pat: Pat also appears in ‘Prelude’.
turn: walk.
351 oil: the lamp is a miniature version of a paraffin lamp.
352 art-serge: probably high-quality serge.
wishbone: the small forked bone in a chicken’s breast; traditionally people pull it between them when the meat has been cooked and eaten, and the person with the larger piece makes a wish.
353 johnny cake: see note to p. 301 above.
356 creek: small river or stream, a word used more familiarly in Australia and New Zealand than in Britain.
wattles: acacias, which flourish in Australia and New Zealand; their p. 396↵flowers range in colour and appear at different times whereas yellow mimosa is the only variety familiar in Britain.
The Fly
First published in the Nation & the Athenaeum, vol. 30, no. 25 (18 March 1922), 896–7; reprinted in The Dove’s Nest and Other Stories.
358 Q.T.: quiet, confidential information.
Windsor Cassel: Windsor Castle, on the River Thames, one of the royal residences.
finger: measure of alcohol.
Belgium: at a First World War cemetery.
360 telegram: see note to p. 45 above.
A Cup of Tea
First published in the Story-Teller, May 1922, pp. 121–5; reprinted in The Dove’s Nest and Other Stories.
362 a baby in long clothes …: small babies wore gowns.
Curzon Street: in Mayfair, one of the most elegant and expensive parts of London.
364 Dostoevsky: Russian novelist (1821–81) whose passionate sympathy for the downtrodden, often in an urban setting, is reflected ironically in the story.
365 velvet strap: the car has luxurious fittings.
women were sisters: Rosemary has heard feminist and suffragette arguments.
lacquer furniture: probably expensive oriental furniture.
368 The Milliner’s Gazette: an ironic comment implying that he cannot prepare for a dinner engagement as he usually would by checking on the guest in the fashionable or financial press.