The first three stories were good, but the rest of the stories are just filler with no real zing to them. ( )

This collection is the third and last part of my Kindle edition of [b:Selected Stories|24927102|Selected Stories|Katherine Mansfield|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1423853758s/24927102.jpg|17792091] (the first 2 parts, "The Garden Party and Other Stories" & "Bliss and Other Stories", I read in 2013). I found this collection distinct from the other 2 in that the stories are almost chapters in a "slice of life" novel, describing the various characters & events that occur while the main character, an Englishwoman, is staying at this pension (sort of like a boarding house).

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The pre-World War 1 German bourgeoisie etched in acid. Many of the stories are loosely connected episodes in a German health spa, told in first person by an English woman who suffers the boorish behavior of the other guests, usually in silence. More than half of the stories center on the relation between the sexes; the men are brutish and insensitive, the women veer between insightful revulsion and hopes of domestic happiness. The humor is sometimes broad. This was the author's first published collection; I've only read one of her later stories, these are not up to the level of that one, but the book is still a good read.
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A collection of related short stories, this was Mansfield's first book, published in 1911 after a stay in the spa town of Bad Wörishofen. She refused permission to reprint, believing it could contribute to post-war jingoism but after her death her husband, John Middleton Murry, reprinted them. He should have left well alone. It leaves me with a memory of choppy writing, unpleasant people, often disparaging. It doesn't compare with other books and stories from the same era. Leave this one on the shelf as Mansfield intended. ( )

118/2020. A solid 3/5 for this earliest collection of Katherine Mansfield's short stories, which is well-written and was no doubt insightful, even daring, at the time but without so much to say now to a society that's moved on.

Quotes

Brass: 'He stood in the kitchen puffing himself out, the buttons on his blue uniform shining with an enthusiasm which nothing but official buttons could possibly possess.'

Edible: 'her yellow hair tastefully garnished with mauve sweet peas.'

Motherhood: 'She turned towards Karl, who had rooted an old illustrated paper out of the [rubbish] receptacle and was spelling over an advertisement for the enlargement of Beautiful Breasts.'

Legs: ' "I never walk," said the landlady; "when I go to Mindelbau my man drives me - I’ve more important things to do with my legs than walk them through the dust!" ' ( )