All Sorts of Lives

Published to celebrate Katherine Mansfield’s centenary, a compact but comprehensive new portrait of her life, work, relevance and wonderfully inspiring personalityRestless outsider, masher-up of form and convention, Katherine Mansfield’s short but dazzling life was characterised by struggle, insecurity and sacrifice — alongside a glorious, relentless creative drive and openness. She was the only writer Virginia Woolf admitted being jealous of, yet in 1957 Elizabeth Bowen was moved to ask, ‘Where is she — our missing contemporary?’ Now, looking back over the hundred years since her death, it is evident how vital she was to the Modernist movement and how strikingly relevant she is today, helping us to see differently, to savour and notice things.In this dynamic and perceptive new study, Claire Harman takes a fresh look at Mansfield’s life and achievements side by side, through the form she did so much to revolutionise: the short story. Exploring ten pivotal works, we watch how Mansfield’s desire to grow as a writer pushed her art into unknown territory, and how illness sharpened her extraordinary love of life: ‘Would you not like to try all sorts of lives — one is so very small.’Inventive, intimate and informative, All Sorts of Lives is the perfect introduction for those who aren’t familiar with Mansfield’s work and, for those who are, it offers a fresh new way of viewing and celebrating her life and legacy.]]>