Major themes
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| "A Cup of Tea" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Katherine Mansfield | |
| Publication | |
| Published in | The Story-Teller |
| Publication date | May 1922 |
"A Cup of Tea" is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The Story-Teller in May 1922. It later appeared in The Doves' Nest and Other Stories (1923). [1] Her short stories first appeared in Melbourne in 1907, but literary fame came to her in London after the publication of a collection of short stories called In a German Pension .
The character Rosemary Fell is a "fictional reconstruction" of Mansfield's wealthy first cousin, once removed, the writer Elizabeth von Arnim. [2]
Rosemary Fell, a wealthy young married woman, goes to Curzon Street to shop at a florist's and an antique shop (in which she admires, but does not buy, a beautifully painted small ceramic box). Before going to the car, Rosemary is approached by Miss Smith, a poor girl who asks for enough money to buy tea. Instead, Rosemary drives the girl to her plush house, determined to show her "that dreams do come true" and "that rich people did have hearts." At the Fells' home, Miss Smith eats her fill of food and tea. She then begins to tell Rosemary of her life until Rosemary's husband, Philip, comes in. Although initially surprised, Philip recovers and asks to speak to Rosemary alone.
In the library, Philip conveys his disapproval. When Rosemary resists dismissing Miss Smith, Philip tries another, more successful, tactic: He plays to Rosemary's jealousy and insecurity by telling her how pretty he thinks Miss Smith is. Rosemary retrieves three pound notes and, presumably, sends the girl away (a far cry from Rosemary's first vow to "look after" and "be frightfully nice to" Miss Smith). Later, Rosemary goes to her husband and informs him that "Miss Smith won't dine with us tonight." She first asks about the antique box from the morning, but then arrives at her true concern, quietly asking Philip, "Am I pretty?" The story ends with this question.
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An adaptation of "A Cup of Tea", directed by Shyam Benegal, was included in the Indian television series Katha Sagar in 1986. [3]
The story was read by Emilia Fox, as part of the BBC Radio 4 The Montana Stories, broadcast January 2019. This was a series of readings of four short stories written by Mansfield when she lived in the Montana region (now Crans-Montana) of Switzerland between May 1921 and January 1922, and later from June to August 1922. [4] [5]
Kathleen Mansfield Murry was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world, and have been published in 25 languages.
Elizabeth von Arnim, born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an English novelist. Born in Australia, she married a German aristocrat, and her earliest works are set in Germany. Her first marriage made her Countess von Arnim-Schlagenthin and her second Elizabeth Russell, Countess Russell. After her first husband's death, she had a three-year affair with the writer H. G. Wells, then later married Frank Russell, elder brother of the Nobel prize-winner and philosopher Bertrand Russell. She was a cousin of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield. Though known in early life as May, her first book introduced her to readers as Elizabeth, which she eventually became to friends and finally to family. Her writings are ascribed to Elizabeth von Arnim. She used the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley for only one novel, Christine, published in 1917.
"The Fly" is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield.
Manthan, also released under the translated title The Churning, is a 1976 Hindi film directed by Shyam Benegal, inspired by the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Verghese Kurien, and is written jointly by him and Vijay Tendulkar. It is set amidst the backdrop of the White Revolution of India. Aside from the great measurable success that this project was, it also demonstrated the power of "collective might" as it was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs. 2 each. Manthan is the first crowdfunded Indian film.
"God Sees the Truth, But Waits" is a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy first published in 1872. The story, about a man sent to prison for a murder he did not commit, takes the form of a parable of forgiveness. English translations were also published under titles "The Confessed Crime", "Exiled to Siberia", and "The Long Exile". The concept of the story of a man wrongfully accused of murder and banished to Siberia also appears in one of Tolstoy's previous works, War and Peace, during a philosophical discussion between two characters who relate the story and argue how the protagonist of their story deals with injustice and fate. Along with his story The Prisoner of the Caucasus, Tolstoy personally considered this work to be his only great artistic achievement.
"The Canary" is a short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published posthumously in The Nation and Atheneum on 21 April 1923, and later appeared in The Doves' Nest and Other Stories (1923).
"The Garden Party" is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in three parts in the Saturday Westminster Gazette on 4 and 11 February 1922, and the Weekly Westminster Gazette on 18 February 1922. It later appeared in The Garden Party and Other Stories. Its luxurious setting is based on Mansfield's childhood home at 133 Tinakori Road, the second of three houses in Thorndon, Wellington that her family lived in.
"Je ne parle pas français" is a short story by Katherine Mansfield. She began it at the end of January 1918, and finished it by February 10. It was first published by the Heron Press in early 1920, and an excised version was published in Bliss and Other Stories later that year.
"Mr Reginald Peacock's Day" is a 1920 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in the New Age on 14 June 1917, and later reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories.
"The Man Without a Temperament" is a 1920 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in Arts and Letters in Spring 1920, and later reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories.
"The Daughters of the Late Colonel" is a 1920 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in the London Mercury in May 1921, and later reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.
"Her First Ball" is a 1921 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The Sphere on 28 November 1921, and later reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.
"Prelude" is a short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published by the Hogarth Press in July 1918, after Virginia Woolf encouraged her to finish the story. Mansfield had begun writing "Prelude" in the midst of a love affair she had in Paris in 1915. It was reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories (1920). The story was a compressed and subtler version of a longer work The Aloe, which was later published posthumously in full.
"Pictures" is a 1917 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published under the title of The Common Round in the New Age on 31 May 1917 and later as The Pictures in Art and Letters in Autumn 1919. It was then reprinted as Pictures in Bliss and Other Stories.
"Miss Brill" is a short story by Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923). It was first published in Athenaeum on 26 November 1920, and later reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.
"At the Bay" is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in the London Mercury in January 1922 in twelve sections, and later reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922) with a short descriptive coda which is now the thirteenth section. The story represents Mansfield’s best mature work, a luminous example of her literary impressionism. While writing it at the Chalet des Sapins in Montana, Switzerland, she was coming to terms with her relationship with her husband John Middleton Murry and with her own origins and identity.
The Garden Party and Other Stories is a 1922 collection of short stories by the writer Katherine Mansfield.
The Last Leaf is a short story by O. Henry published in his 1907 collection The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories. The story first appeared on October 15, 1905, in the New York World.
Katha Sagar is an Indian television series that aired on DD National in 1986. The series featured a collection of stories by writers from around the world, including Katherine Mansfield, Guy de Maupassant, Leo Tolstoy, O. Henry, and Anton Chekhov. Each episode was directed by one of eight well known Indian directors, including Shyam Benegal, Kundan Shah, Ved Rahi and Satyen Bose. Most of the stories in the series were one-episode long.
The Doves' Nest and Other Stories is a 1923 collection of short stories by the writer Katherine Mansfield, published by her husband John Middleton Murry after her death.