Examines the ‘Russian influence’ on both Mansfield’s craft as a short story writer and her life choices

Katherine Mansfield’s passion for Russian literature and culture is well documented in her letters and notebooks. Anton Chekhov was not just one of her most significant literary influences, but also a mythological presence with whom she mentally communicated every day. The emotional bond became even stronger when she discovered that the two of them shared the same deadly disease. But her fascination with Russia and its culture extended beyond Chekov and included the Ballets Russes and an interest in Russian politics, in part sparked by Maxim Gorky. She also read and assimilated several other Russian writers, including Fyodor Dostoevsky and Marie Bashkirtseff as well as Leo Tolstoy. This volume presents essays that engage with many aspects of Mansfield’s response to all things Russian as well as to the Russians she met in England and France. In addition, the volume presents a collection of images of Gurdjieff’s Institute at Fontainebleau, several of which have never been seen before.

Key Features

It includes contributions by both English and Russian scholars Mansfield’s personal and artistic response to Russian literature, culture, philosophy, and art Explores her responses to the actual Russians she met in England and – towards the end of her life – in France