In a German Pension

Second Edition. Small crown 8vo. Pp. [2], x, 144. Grey ribbed cloth boards, lined and lettered in navy blue to spine and front; edges untrimmed. Introductory Note by John Middleton Murray. Issued on 11 February 1926 at 6s. Author's first book, originally published by Stephen Swift (an alias of Charles Granville) on 11 December 1911 in an edition of 500 copies, with two further reprints of 500 each in January and June of the following year.

Foxing throughout, bookseller's ticket to f.f.e.p., ex-libris bookplate pasted on the inside front cover has left a negative impression onto the f.f.e.p., off-setting to back-and-front free endpapers.

Thirteen sketches and stories, written after Mansfield's 1909 stay in the German spa town of Bad Wörishofen, whilst recuperating from her disastrous marriage and miscarriage. Satirising the Germans as boorish and chauvinistic, the collection struck a chord with British readers at a time of a rumoured German invasion.

'The Child-Who-Was-Tired', which had already appeared in the New Age, and describes the suffocation of a baby by an exhausted nursemaid, became the subject of heated correspondence in the pages of the TLS in 1951, and led to accusations of plagiarism. The story arc closely follows that of Chekhov's short story 'Sleepy'. 'Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding,' a chilling portrayal of a village woman's subjugation to her husband, is considered the best story in the collection.

Mansfield was diagnosed with extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in 1917, which led to her death six years later at the tragically early age of thirty-four. "A born short story writer, observant, economical and astringent, demanding rediscovery. ...New Zealand's only offering to our avant-garde." –Cyril Connolly

[Kirkpatrick A1c]