A middle-aged woman running away from her dull reality by pretending to be someone else, a man whose married life has taken a path that he can no longer ignore, and two little girls pushed in a corner by a self-righteous neighbourhood; with these stories Mrs Mansfield unfolds the human mind and gives us an understanding of the twisted ways it reaches out for meaning and fulfillment; she does so through a peculiar style of writing which by skillfully interweaving narrator’s understatements and character’s epiphanies deeply involves the reader and calls on them to reflect on the questions at stake.
The universality of the topics and issues tackled here enables Mrs Manfield’s work to talk to the generations of today, thus enhancing its purpose and value.
Introduction - Miss Brill - Marriage à la Mode - The Doll’s House.