Vincent O'Sullivan – författare

The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield Volume I: 1903-1917

This volume, the second of four, includes her correspondence from early 1918 to the autumn of 1919. Her love for Middleton Murry, her response to the First World War, and her acceptance of the inevitable advance of tuberculosis, are handled with wit and warmth, in a text which has been transcribed afresh from the original letters.

The third volume of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield covers the eight months she spent in Italy and the South of France between the English summers of 1919 and 1920. It was a time of intense personal reassessment and distress. Mansfield's relationship with her husband John Middleton Murry was bitterly tested, and most of the letters in this present volume chart that rich and enduring partner'ship through its severest trial. This was a time, too, when Mansfield came to terms with the closing off of possibilities that her illness entailed. Without flamboyance or fuss, she felt it necessary to discard earlier loyalties and even friendships, as she sought for a spiritual standpoint that might turn her illness to less negative ends. As she put it, 'One must be ... continually giving & receiving, and shedding & renewing, & examining & trying to place'.For all the grimness of this period of her life, Mansfield's letters still offer the joie de vivre and wit, self-perception and lively frankness that make her correspondence such rewarding reading - an invaluable record of a `modern' woman and her time.

The fifth and final volume of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield covers the almost thirteen months during which her attention at first was firmly set on a last chance medical cure, then finally on something very different - if death came to seem inevitable, how should one behave in the time that remained, so one could truly say one lived?Mansfield's biographers, like her friends, have wondered at the seemingly extraordinary decision to ditch conventional medicine, for the bizarre choice of Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Fontainebleau. These letters show the clarity of mind and will that led to that decision, the courage and distress in making it, and the gaiety even once it was made. She went against what her education, her husband, and most of her friends would regard as reasonable, as she opted to spend her last months with Russian émigrés and a strange assortment of Gurdjieff disciples (which she was not). But Fontainebleau give her the space and the incentive to shake free from the intellectualism that she thought the malaise of her time, as she worked at kitchen chores, took in the details of farm life, tried to learn Russian, and attempted to reach total honesty with herself. 'If I were allowed one simple cry to God,' she wrote in one of her last letters, that cry would be I want to be REAL.'

The letters is this volume cover the eighteen months katherine Mansfield spent in England, France, and Switzerland from May 1920 to the end of 1921. It is the period of her finest stories, and when her life took its most decisive turn. There is a subtle but unmistakable change in her expectations, a new 'spiritual' insistence that is both elusive and resolute. From her Chekovian acceptance that 'they are cutting down the cherry trees' she derives a tough existential directness: 'the little boat enters the dark, fearful gulf...Nobody listens. The shadowy figure rows on. One ought to sit still and uncover one's eyes.' There is a determined push - not always successful - towards a necessary honesty, as much as to artistic achievement; while those qualities of her earlier correspondence remain undiminished - the precision and directness, the intelligence and wit, the dark incisiveness as much as sheer fun. Above all, perhaps, these letters comprise a record of very considerable courage, against increasingly adverse odds, as they approach the final years of her life.

With the exception of the first four stories, all were written within a period of ten years. These stories, and the letters following, reflect the urgency of a writer who knew her time was limited. All but four of the texts of the stories reprinted here are versions that Mansfield herself revised or selected.Twenty excerpts from Mansfield’s correspondence address the craft of writing and her own views on her work, subjects rarely broached in her many letters."Criticism" includes eighteen essays that collectively suggest the changing emphases in how Mansfield has been read by critics. Contributors include fellow writers Rebecca West, T. S. Eliot, Katherine Anne Porter, V. S. Pritchett, Elizabeth Bowen, and Frank O’ Connor, as well as biographers Claire Tomalin and Vincent O’Sullivan, among others.A Selected Bibliography is also included.

‘“We owe to her the prosperity of the ‘free’ story,” Elizabeth Bowen said of Katherine Mansfield: “she untrammelled it from conventions.” Here, at last, is the evidence in full: the edition Mansfield deserves.’Professor David Trotter, University of Cambridge'This much needed and very welcome work does two important things: It gives us all of Mansfield’s fiction, with useful notes; and it removes many of John Middleton Murry’s intrusions into the stories he edited after Mansfield’s death. We all owe the editors, Gerri Kimber and Vincent O’Sullivan, a debt of gratitude for this excellent edition of the work of a major modernist writer.'Professor Robert Scholes, Brown UniversityThe Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Fiction of Katherine Mansfield: Volume 1 Fiction 1898–1915Edited by Gerri Kimber and Vincent O’SullivanThe first complete edition of Katherine Mansfield’s fictionThese two volumes collect together 219 of Mansfield’s stories, including 4 newly discovered, previously unpublished stories. Together the volumes expand considerably upon the largest previous single collected edition of 85 stories. Gathered here are Mansfield’s best-loved stories, stories uncollected, unpublished or left incomplete during her lifetime, the full text of The Aloe, from which Mansfield shaped her ground-breaking work Prelude, and her own manuscript versions of several stories later ‘edited’ by her husband, John Middleton Murry. The volumes are arranged in chronological order, so that readers can trace Mansfield’s progress as a creative writer, month-by-month, from her first schoolgirl story in 1898 to her last completed story in July 1922.Mansfield will be read differently, and more accurately, as a result of this edition. The annotations and their cross-referencing to her letters and notebooks deepen what we know of the context and genesis of her fiction. This edition is testament to Mansfield’s importance among twentieth century English-language writers and to her rare and original handling of the short story form.The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Katherine Mansfield in 4 volumes

These two volumes collect together 215 of Mansfield’s stories and expand considerably upon the largest previous single collected edition of 85 stories. They include Mansfield’s best-loved stories, stories uncollected, unpublished or left incomplete during her lifetime, the full text of The Aloe, from which Mansfield shaped her ground-breaking work Prelude, and her own manuscript versions of several stories later ‘edited’ by her husband, John Middleton Murry. The volumes are arranged in chronological order, so that readers can trace Mansfield’s progress as a creative writer, month-by-month, from her first schoolgirl story in 1898 to her last completed story in July 1922.Mansfield will be read differently, and more accurately, as a result of this edition. The annotations and their cross-referencing to her letters and notebooks deepen what we know of the context and genesis of her fiction. This edition is testament to Mansfield’s importance among twentieth century English-language writers and to her rare and original handling of the short story form.Key Features:Brings together for the first time all of Mansfield's extant fictionRefocuses critical attention on one of the most influential exponents of modernist fictionThe essential Mansfield text for individual scholars working on Mansfield studies, as well as those with a more general interest in Mansfield the writerRedefines Mansfield as a writer for the next generationThe Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Katherine Mansfield, Volumes 1-4

The complete works of Katherine Mansfield in 4 volumesThis four-volume edition of Katherine Mansfield’s works, assembled by Series Editor Gerri Kimber and her co-editors, brings together, for the first time, everything Mansfield wrote aside from her letters (which have their own edition).Volumes 1 and 2 – the fiction – bring together 220 stories and story fragments, expanding considerably on a previous ‘definitive' edition of 85 stories. Arranged chronologically, the reader can trace Mansfield’s progress, month by month from her first schoolgirl story in 1898 to her last complete story in July 1922. Volume 3 redefines Mansfield as a critic, translator and poet, by bringing together all of her poetry (almost 200 poems), her literary translations, her witty, sometimes scorching parodies, pastiches and essays, as well as her many incisive reviews of the novels of the day. The collection attests to the enormous variety of her non-fiction output, some of it published here for the first time. Volume 4 – the diaries – resituates Mansfield not just as a short story writer, but also as an observant diarist, chronicler of her times and an erudite reader of English and European literatures. The size of the volume attests to the variety of personal writings, accounts, and reading notes she produced during her lifetime, some of it unpublished until this edition.The material presented here has been minutely edited for the first time, with precise historical, cultural and biographical contextualisations. Essential contextual perspectives reveal Mansfield’s evolution as a writer, and the impact of her era on early drafts of her mature writings. A detailed index facilitates cross-reading and referencing for scholars and general readers alike.Together, all four volumes offer readers the scholarly edition Mansfield’s writing so richly deserves.Key FeaturesFully annotated throughout by leading Mansfield scholarsIncludes material published here for the first timeMansfield’s diaries unexpurgated and chronologically ordered for the first timeComplete collection of her poems brought together for the first time, including many never published beforeTranslations published in one volume for the first time

These two volumes collect together 215 of Mansfield’s stories and expand considerably upon the largest previous single collected edition of 85 stories. They include Mansfield’s best-loved stories, stories uncollected, unpublished or left incomplete during her lifetime, the full text of The Aloe, from which Mansfield shaped her ground-breaking work Prelude, and her own manuscript versions of several stories later ‘edited’ by her husband, John Middleton Murry. The volumes are arranged in chronological order, so that readers can trace Mansfield’s progress as a creative writer, month-by-month, from her first schoolgirl story in 1898 to her last completed story in July 1922.Mansfield will be read differently, and more accurately, as a result of this edition. The annotations and their cross-referencing to her letters and notebooks deepen what we know of the context and genesis of her fiction. This edition is testament to Mansfield’s importance among twentieth century English-language writers and to her rare and original handling of the short story form.Key Features:Brings together for the first time all of Mansfield's extant fictionRefocuses critical attention on one of the most influential exponents of modernist fictionThe essential Mansfield text for individual scholars working on Mansfield studies, as well as those with a more general interest in Mansfield the writerRedefines Mansfield as a writer for the next generationThe Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Katherine Mansfield, Volumes 1-4

‘“We owe to her the prosperity of the ‘free’ story,” Elizabeth Bowen said of Katherine Mansfield: “she untrammelled it from conventions.” Here, at last, is the evidence in full: the edition Mansfield deserves.’Professor David Trotter, University of Cambridge'This much needed and very welcome work does two important things: It gives us all of Mansfield’s fiction, with useful notes; and it removes many of John Middleton Murry’s intrusions into the stories he edited after Mansfield’s death. We all owe the editors, Gerri Kimber and Vincent O’Sullivan, a debt of gratitude for this excellent edition of the work of a major modernist writer.'Professor Robert Scholes, Brown UniversityThe Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Fiction of Katherine Mansfield: Volume 1 Fiction 1898–1915Edited by Gerri Kimber and Vincent O’SullivanThe first complete edition of Katherine Mansfield’s fictionThese two volumes collect together 219 of Mansfield’s stories, including 4 newly discovered, previously unpublished stories. Together the volumes expand considerably upon the largest previous single collected edition of 85 stories. Gathered here are Mansfield’s best-loved stories, stories uncollected, unpublished or left incomplete during her lifetime, the full text of The Aloe, from which Mansfield shaped her ground-breaking work Prelude, and her own manuscript versions of several stories later ‘edited’ by her husband, John Middleton Murry. The volumes are arranged in chronological order, so that readers can trace Mansfield’s progress as a creative writer, month-by-month, from her first schoolgirl story in 1898 to her last completed story in July 1922.Mansfield will be read differently, and more accurately, as a result of this edition. The annotations and their cross-referencing to her letters and notebooks deepen what we know of the context and genesis of her fiction. This edition is testament to Mansfield’s importance among twentieth century English-language writers and to her rare and original handling of the short story form.The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Katherine Mansfield in 4 volumes

The complete works of Katherine Mansfield in 4 volumesThis four-volume edition of Katherine Mansfield’s works, assembled by Series Editor Gerri Kimber and her co-editors, brings together, for the first time, everything Mansfield wrote aside from her letters (which have their own edition).Volumes 1 and 2 – the fiction – bring together 220 stories and story fragments, expanding considerably on a previous ‘definitive' edition of 85 stories. Arranged chronologically, the reader can trace Mansfield’s progress, month by month from her first schoolgirl story in 1898 to her last complete story in July 1922. Volume 3 redefines Mansfield as a critic, translator and poet, by bringing together all of her poetry (almost 200 poems), her literary translations, her witty, sometimes scorching parodies, pastiches and essays, as well as her many incisive reviews of the novels of the day. The collection attests to the enormous variety of her non-fiction output, some of it published here for the first time. Volume 4 – the diaries – resituates Mansfield not just as a short story writer, but also as an observant diarist, chronicler of her times and an erudite reader of English and European literatures. The size of the volume attests to the variety of personal writings, accounts, and reading notes she produced during her lifetime, some of it unpublished until this edition.The material presented here has been minutely edited for the first time, with precise historical, cultural and biographical contextualisations. Essential contextual perspectives reveal Mansfield’s evolution as a writer, and the impact of her era on early drafts of her mature writings. A detailed index facilitates cross-reading and referencing for scholars and general readers alike.Together, all four volumes offer readers the scholarly edition Mansfield’s writing so richly deserves.Key FeaturesFully annotated throughout by leading Mansfield scholarsIncludes material published here for the first timeMansfield’s diaries unexpurgated and chronologically ordered for the first timeComplete collection of her poems brought together for the first time, including many never published beforeTranslations published in one volume for the first time

In "Sentiment", Vincent O'Sullivan looks inside the lives of a group of middle-class English people just before the start of the first world war. The story centres around the love affairs of four young people and how they interact. O'Sullivan picks apart his characters' cares and concerns and shows how these are trivial when we know what was about to happen to them and their world.