Katherine Mansfield and literary modernism /

Including work by both established and rising scholars from Europe, the US, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, this book on prominent modernist author Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) appears in a series that aspires to "historicize" modernism by stressing "empirical accuracy and the value of primary sources." Most collections are uneven, but this one, which arose out of a 2008 conference in London, seems unduly so. The contributors make no reference to one another, and they do not even use the same editions of Mansfield's works. In some cases, they discuss familiar issues with little awareness of previous critics. Given the series mandate, it is unfortunate that some contributors cite John Middleton Murry's notoriously unreliable editions of his wife's notebooks, despite the publication of Margaret Scott's meticulous edition (The Katherine Mansfield Notebooks, 1997). As Kathleen Jones argues in one of the best essays ("The Mansfield Legacy")--and as has long been recognized--Murry's editing "gave a false impression of Mansfield as a person and as a writer." Two other essays stand out: Susan Reid's comparative study of Mansfield and D. H. Lawrence, and Valerie Baisnee's reassessment of Mansfield's notebooks. Summing Up: Optional. Large collections serving upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers. T. Ware Queen's University at Kingston