In a German Pension

In a German Pension (1911) was Katherine Mansfield’s first published collection of short stories. Many of these works had been previously published in the British weekly magazine, The New Age, which also featured work by figures including G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw. The word “pension" in the title refers to a European guest-house.

After several relationally tumultuous years—which saw Mansfield fall pregnant out of wedlock, only to marry another man whom she left on the night of the wedding (an outcome that Mansfield’s mother blamed on a lesbian relationship)—Katherine was whisked off by her mother to Bad Wörishofen, a German spa town. Around this time, she miscarried her child. The stories contained in this collection were written soon after.

Contents:“Germans at Meat”“The Baron”“The Sister of the Baroness”“Frau Fischer”“Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding”“The Modern Soul”“At ‘Lehmann’s’”“The Luft Bad”“A Birthday”“The Child Who Was Tired”“The Advanced Lady”“The Swing of the Pendulum”“A Blaze”

“About Katherine Mansfield"—written and read by Susannah Fullerton.