I had never heard of Katherine Mansfield until JoAnn ofLakeside Musings reviewed her short story,The Doll’s House. I am always on the lookout for new to me classic authors, so I couldn’t resist checking this story out for myself.
It opens with the Burnells’ receiving the gift of a Doll House for the children from Mrs. Hay.
We learn a lot about the doll house and of all the things in it.
“the smell of paint coming from that doll’s house (“Sweet of old Mrs. Hay, of course; most sweet and generous!”) — but the smell of paint was quite enough to make any one seriously ill, in Aunt Beryl’s opinion. Even before the sacking was taken off.”
“There stood the doll’s house, a dark, oily, spinach green, picked out with bright yellow.”
There is also furniture and a lamp in the doll house.
“The father and mother dolls, who sprawled very stiff as though they had fainted in the drawing-room, and their two little children asleep upstairs, were really too big for the doll’s house. They didn’t look as though they belonged. But the lamp was perfect. It seemed to smile to Kezia, to say, “I live here.” The lamp was real.”
The children were thrilled with the gift and could hardly wait to tell their friends all about it.
“I’m to tell,” said Isabel, “because I’m the eldest. And you two can join in after. But I’m to tell first.” “And I’m to choose who’s to come and see it first. Mother said I might.”
Two by two the other children at school were invited to go home with the Burnell children to see the doll house. However, the Kelvey children were not invited. Kezia wanted to invite them but her mother said, “certainly not.”
“They were the daughters of a spry, hardworking little washerwoman, who went about from house to house by the day. This was awful enough. But where was Mr. Kelvey? Nobody knew for certain.”
The children accept the social hierarchy of their parents without question. They know they are not to talk with the Kelveys’ and they don’t. Except for Kezia. The Kelyveys’ don’t seem to belong to the community, just like the dolls don’t seem to belong in the doll house.
This is a gem of a short story. At just about 9 pages, Katherine Mansdfield makes the story of a doll house a social commentary of caste. This would make for an excellent book club discussion. You can read the story, here.
If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun!
Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.
Thanks to Anna Balasi of Hachette Book Group, I am giving away up to 3 copies of this book.
Book Description:
The first book in the Highland Warriors trilogy, in which three heroes make a pact to insure that a rival clan does not take over their Glen of Many Legends. At the same time, three women plot to marry these heroes to insure peace.
In SINS OF A HIGHLAND DEVIL, James Cameron is concerned when the King’s decree states all three neighboring clans must have a battle to the death in order to lay official claim to the scared Glen of Many Legends. James attempts to make a pact with the heads of the other clans to fight this decree. But he ends up fighting his own fierce desire when coming head-to-head with Lady Catriona of the opposing MacDonald clan, who has her own plan for peace.
The number of entrants to this giveaway will determine how many copies of this book I will giveaway:
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21 or more entrants= 3
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Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.
This giveaway will end on Friday, January 28th,11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email. Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified.
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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.
In February 1895 the wife of a Texas landowner, Vadav Skala , died while giving birth to their son, Karl. Though Karl never knew his mother, he was haunted by thought of her throughout his life.
Karl had three older brothers who helped to raise him. Their father Vadav worked all of his sons hard. He had wonderful horses that he pampered but it was the 4 brothers were the ones that pulled the plow in the fields, with their father cracking the whip. In fact, Karl’s neck leaned to the left his entire life because of this.
Karl excelled in riding horses and his father made land bets against his neighbours with Karl riding. Karl always won and was reward by not getting a beating. One day a wealthy Mexican man, makes a horse race bet with Vadav. His daughter against Karl. The outcome was for much more than land and would ultimately break the Skala apart.
Bruce Machart has been compared to William Faulkner and I can see the resemblance. He captures the desolate landscape and greyness of the story quite like Faulkner would. Here’s and example of his writing:
“He’d known land in his life that, before a few seasons of regular rainfall, had been hard enough to crack a plow point, and he knew that if, by stubbornness or circumstance, that earth became yours to farm, you’d do well to live with the constant understanding that, in time, absent the work of swollen clouds and providence, your boots would fall loudly, giving rise to dust, when you walked your fields.”
This is ultimately the story of the bond of family, forgiveness, and redemption. It has sparse dialogue and lots of narrative. I would have like more dialogue to break up the long narrative more.
This is a book that is not to be rushed. It must be treated like a fine wine and savoured for both the prose and the story. It took me awhile to appreciate this story and see it’s merit. I must have read a good 100 pages before I decided if I was going to finish it or not. However, I am glad I stuck with it. There many pearls to be discovered in the prose. Machart is an author to watch!
Bruce Machart is the author of the novel, The Wake of Forgiveness, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in October of 2010, and a forthcoming collection of short stories entitled Men in the Making, due out from HMH in 2011. His fiction has been published in some of the country’s finest literary magazines, including Zoetrope: All-Story, Story, One Story, Five Points, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere. His short stories have been anthologized in Best Stories of the American West and Descant: Fifty Years. The winner of numerous awards and fellowships, Bruce is a graduate of the MFA program at The Ohio State University.
Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.
