Mansfield's "Bliss," written in 1918, is another story of a woman's struggle with dissatisfaction and alienation. Bertha is young, married, and a new mother. Her husband is successful, and a nurse helps her with her new baby. A joyous dinner party, with its liveliness and opportunity for interpersonal penetration and imagination, only serves to heighten Bertha's isolation when it ends and she is left once again with a comparatively empty house.

Kathenne Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" (1929) concerns a dying woman's final thoughts. Written in the stream-of-con-sciousness style, Granny Weatherall's interior monologue is notable for what it contains as well as for what is left unspoken.

A more intimate biography of Katherine Mansfield is provided by LM (Ida Constance Baker) in her 1971 memoir Katherine Mansfield: The Memories ofLM. LM was Mansfield's close friend and assistant. The book was published...