Product Description

A large, seemingly loving family, the Burnells lead an idyllic life, with the children free to play at will, and enough adults on hand to lavish love upon them. Yet alongside this innocent evocation of childhood bliss, another aspect of the household is delicately and unmistakeably laid bare as Mansfield exposes the true nature of the family. Pretensions and insecurities rise to the surface in a series of vivid and all too real impressions of domestic life. The result is an elegant and exquisite rendering of childhood, memory and understanding.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #502856 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

The Guardian
...no one has ever so arrestingly captured certain universal, secret, almost unconscious states of longing.

From the Inside Flap
A large, seemingly loving family, the Burnells lead an idyllic life, with the children free to play at will, indulged by their parents’ love. Yet, alongside this innocent evocation of childhood bliss, another aspect of the household is delicately and unmistakably laid bare as Mansfield plumbs the depths below this veneer. Pretensions and insecurities rise to the surface in a series of vivid and all too real impressions of domestic life. The result is an elegant and exquisite rendering of childhood, memory and understanding.

Accompanied here by its continuation pieces At the Bay and The Doll’s House, Prelude shows Mansfield at the height of her powers, revealing her debt to Chekhov, and teasing out subtle insights on the family and the self.

From the Back Cover
‘I was jealous of her writing – the only writing I have ever been jealous of’ – VIRGINIA WOOLF