Bliss

“How idiotic civilisation is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?”
– from #BLISS by #KatherineMansfield

#GestaltRealTimeReviewing #covid19UK #coronavirus #CoronaVirusChallenge https://t.co/SgnJNkCC0V

— Des Lewis (@DF_Lewis) March 19, 2020

The Prelude to Social Distancing

The social distancing of cribbage pegs in PRELUDE (1920) by Katherine Mansfield…

“The cribbage pegs were like two little people going up the road together, turning round the sharp corner, and coming down the road again. They were pursuing each other. They did not so much want to get ahead as to keep near enough to talk—to keep near, perhaps that was all.
But no, there was always one who was impatient and hopped away as the other came up, and would not listen. Perhaps the white peg was frightened of the red one, . . . .”

My complete review: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/the-collected-stories-katherine-mansfield/

Give me your hand to press…

“Nature has gone to her rest, love,
See, we are alone.
Give me your hand to press, love,
Lightly within my own.”

Sections VI & VII of PRELUDE
“She did not believe that she would ever not get lost in this garden.”
I may overuse the word ‘rhapsody’, but this novella is an apotheosis of rhapsody. Even rapture. Family in past days, its social mœurs, its blessings and small mercies. A descriptive delight in flowers and Proustian memories. A buttonhole of Siamese twin cherries. With the counterpoint of someone singing the above song…

https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/the-collected-stories-katherine-mansfield/

The Collected Stories – Katherine Mansfield

Just received COLLECTED STORIES by Katherine Mansfield.
I intend to read or re-read these, and, Covfefe permitting, I shall review them on my site.

In the comment stream below.

(My previous reviews of older or classic books: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/reviews-of-older-books/)