Book Review: In a German Pension, short stories by Katherine Mansfield (1911)

The paperback cover of my copy of In a German Pension, by Katherine Mansfield. Originally published in 1911, this edition is from 2005. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

The author Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand and spent much of her adult life in England. Mansfield’s time spent living in German spa towns influenced her first collection of short stories, In a German Pension, published in 1911. And here’s where I clarify that Mansfield was not receiving a pension from the German government but was using the word “pension” in its second definition: “accommodations especially at a continental European hotel or boardinghouse.” Thanks Merriam-Webster!  

In a German Pension is comprised of 13 short stories. The stories are all quite short, as my edition of the book is just over 100 pages long. Some of the stories deal with cultural differences between Germans and the English.  

One of my favorite lines was from the story “Frau Fischer,” where the narrator invents a husband. She makes him a sea captain “on a long and perilous voyage.” Frau Fischer says to the narrator, “Handfuls of babies, that is what you are really in need of. Then, as the father of a family he cannot leave you. Think of his delight and excitement when he saw you!” The narrator thinks to herself, “The plan seemed to me something of a risk. To appear suddenly with handfuls of strange babies is not generally calculated to raise enthusiasm in the heart of the average British husband. I decided to wreck my virgin conception and send him down somewhere off Cape Horn.” (p.25)  

In the short story “The Modern Soul,” Sonia is an actress who befriends the narrator. After Sonia gives a performance at the pension, she and the narrator take a walk to the train station and back. Sonia says, “What a night! Do you know that poem of Sappho about her hands in the stars...I am curiously sapphic. And this is so remarkable—not only am I sapphic, I find in all the works of all the greatest writers, especially in their unedited letters, some touch, some sign of myself—some resemblance, some part of myself, like a thousand reflections of my own hands in a dark mirror.” (p.41)  

I thought that was such a beautiful quote. Okay, Sonia might be hitting on the narrator by mentioning Sappho so much, but it seems to go over the narrator’s head. But I love the idea of finding some part of yourself in the works of great artists. Even if we might not be great artists ourselves, perhaps there is something that resonates in their work with us, like a shard of reflected glory. Or as Mansfield writes, “like a thousand reflections of my own hands in a dark mirror.”  

If you’re a fan of short stories, I’d recommend Katherine Mansfield’s work. Unfortunately, she died young, at the age of just 34 in 1923, but she left behind stories that still resonate more than a century after they were written.