She drew a long, soft breath, as though the paper daffodils between them were almost too sweet to bearKatherine Mansfield was a magician of the short story, whose work was described by Virginia Woolf as ‘the only writing I have ever been jealous of’. These eight tales show her gift for transforming fleeting moments – a chance meeting, a letter received, a careless remark – into small miracles of language and feeling.

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. Katherine Mansfield's perceptive and resonant writing helped to define the modern short story, observing apparently trivial incidents to create quietly devastating revelations of inner lives. Graceful, delicate and burning with emotion, Mansfield's stories were integral in shaping the Modernist movement and redefined a genre. This collection contains some of Mansfield's most celebrated stories, including 'Bliss', 'The Garden Party' and 'The Daughters of the Late Colonel'. 'The only writing I have ever been jealous of.' - Virginia Woolf

Radical, witty and inventive, Katherine Mansfield is one of the twentieth century's most accomplished short-story writers and this selection of stories showcases her dazzling skill. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.Prelude & Other Stories is edited and introduced by Professor Meg Jensen. This selection of stories by Katherine Mansfield showcases her remarkable ability to delve into the human mind; in stories such as 'The Garden Party' she reveals the tension between innocence and corruption, the dark side of love and romance are explored in 'Bliss' and 'Love a la Mode', and in the title story, 'Prelude', inspired by her own childhood, her concern is for the isolated and the lonely. Collected together for the first time, this selection of short stories by Katherine Mansfield showcase her remarkable ability to delve deep into human psychology.

'They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden party if they had ordered it' A windless, warm day greets the Sheridan family on the day of their garden party. As daughter Laura takes the reins on party preparations the news of a neighbour's demise casts a cloud over the host and threatens the entire celebration. The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

Katherine Mansfield’s Journal is one of the great classics of twentieth century literature; it is a uniquely truthful record of a great writer at work, of the spirit of a genius in the last ten years of her life, and of the development of the modern mind during the early years of the last century.Her husband John Middleton Murry compiled the Journal soon after she died and it was published in 1927. It consists of fragments of diary entries, unposted letters, scraps of writing, in other words anything that was dated or could have a date attributed to it and that could be woven into a volume called a ‘journal’.Katherine Mansfield’s Journal is far more than an intermittent record of twelve years of a writer’s life: it is intensely observant, self-critical, self-chastising, confessional, atmospheric, agonised and funny, an essential document for anyone interested in women’s writing of the 20th century and in one of its greatest writers.