Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf: A Public of Two (Oxford World's Classics) [Hardcover]

Angela Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0198183984 | ISBN-13: 978-0198183983

Long after the death of Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) described being haunted by Mansfied in dreams. Through detailed comparative readings of their fiction, letters, and diaries, Angela Smith explores the intense affinity between the two writers. Writing at a time when the First World War and the changing attitudes towards empire problematized definitions of foreignness, the fiction of both Mansfield and Woolf is characterized by moments in which the perceiving consciousness sees the familiar made strange, the domestic made menacing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Smith writes persuasively and well about these correspondences [between Mansfield and Woolf], about the influence of Post-Impressionism on both writers, and about their shared interest in the cinema, a developing art form which suddenly challenged the old linear conventions of fiction by offering unparalleled possibilities of narrative immediacy."--Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

Angela Smith is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre of Commonwealth Studies at the University of Stirling.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198183984
• ISBN-13: 978-0198183983
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,990,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Surprise!, June 6, 2001

By 

"beechum" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf: A Public of Two (Oxford World's Classics) (Hardcover)

I came at this book from the Mansfield camp and a little exhausted by all of the stale comparisons between Mansfield and Woolf. However, Smith's work is full of well-researched and thoughtful analysis. It's an amazing study--particularly of Mansfield, I think--and one that belongs on the same shelf as Kaplan's KM & THE ORIGINS OF MODERNIST FICTION and Dunbar's RADICAL MANSFIELD. Essential reading for Mansfield scholars and fans alike.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Surprise!, June 1, 2001

By 

"beechum" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf: A Public of Two (Oxford World's Classics) (Hardcover)

I came at this book with an interest in Mansfield (and to a lesser extent Woolf) and was tired of the countless studies (chapters and essays) comapring the two. Needless to say, then, I approached this study with trepidation and assumed I would not think much of it. But what a surprise! Smith has done a terrific job with her research and has produced a study that towers over the others I've seen. The study smells of sweat and hard work. I put it alongside Sidney Janet Kaplan's and Patricia Dunbar's studies of Mansfield. It is one of the best.