Strange Bliss Essential Stories

A beguiling new selection of Katherine Mansfield's finest stories, focused on her mysterious, complex portrayals of relationships between women

Katherine Mansfield was one of the true pioneers of the short story. Her style shifts subtly between the comic and the tragic, as calm surfaces are punctured by moments of disruption, insight and strange beauty.

This new collection gathers together the best of Mansfield's work exploring different facets of relationships between women. From complex expressions of desire and connection to shared experiences of frustration and release, these stories capture fleeting movements of feeling with unmatched precision.

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was one of the foremost writers of the 20th century. Born and raised in colonial New Zealand, she left for England at 19 and eventually settled there, often spending time in Continental Europe. Her first collection of stories, In a German Pension, appeared in 1911 and she went on to publish widely in avant-garde magazines. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1919, Mansfield wrote many of her most famous works while plagued with ill health. She spent her final years seeking treatment in Switzerland and France, where she died aged 34.