Monday, July 19, 2010

"Marriage a la Mode." Katherine Mansfield



Review: William and Isabel. When young and newly married they were truly in love. But then Isabel became bored with William, a British lawyer. She picks up a group of fruity, arty friends who laugh at people, not with them. They laugh at Isabel’s husband William. She also wanted a new roomier house with servants.

But Isabel is torn. William, on his latest business trip, writes a love letter to his wife. She laughs deliriously at his emotional endearments and then reads the letter to her “friends.” When they laugh at William’s love letter to his wife, Isabel realizes how shallow they are and she is. She races into her house and up to her bedroom. She must write back to William. But the voices of her “friends” call her through the window to go swimming and she has a decision to make. Will she go with her “friends” to swim, or will she stay and write to William? She puts off writing to William and goes with her “friends.”

Short Story Masterpieces. Ed. RP Warren and A. Erskine. New York: Dell Books. 1954.

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