Selected Stories of Katherine Mansfield by Katherine Mansfield

Author:Katherine Mansfield [Martin, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781350096660
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2023-04-20T00:00:00+00:00

A Note on the Manuscript of “Marriage à la Mode”

Like “Mr and Mrs Dove,” “Marriage à la Mode” was written as part of a series Mansfield agreed to write for the Sphere. As a whole, Mansfield was not completely pleased with these stories, feeling that they did not represent her best work. She was especially dissatisfied with their presentation in the magazine: “My stories for the Sphere are all done, thank the Lord. I have had copies with ILLUSTRATIONS! Oh Brett! Such fearful horrors. All my dear people looking like—well—Harrods 29/6 crepe de chine blouses and young tailors gents.”1

As with many of the other manuscripts, it is difficult to say if this is the original draft or a cleaner copy of an earlier version. Despite the fact that the story is fully intact, as are most of the stories in Notebook 5—of which this is a part—there are some heavy edits, including the omission of some fairly lengthy sections. It is possible, then, that just as with “A Cup of Tea,” Mansfield may have composed the story in its entirety, making no further edits beyond what we find in this draft. If so, one must believe that Mansfield did much of the composition in her head before putting pen to paper. A potential counter to this theory is that on page twelve of the manuscript, where Mansfield stops writing “Marriage à la Mode” and continues it on the verso pages three through six of the notebook, she includes the date, August 11, 1921. If she started the story the day she dated the first page of the notebook, that would mean she finished the story five days after. Of course, the date on page twelve may signify something completely different.

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