Mansfield
- Submitted by: lilit
- Views: 495
- Category: English: Authors
- Date Submitted: 03/06/2013 04:29 AM
- Pages: 14
- Report this Essay
Chapter1. Life and Literary Career
1.1 Early life
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp was born in 1888 in a socially prominent family in Wellington, New Zealand. Mansfield had two older sisters and a younger brother. Her father, Harold Beauchamp, became the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand and was knighted. Her grandfather represented the Picton electorate in Parliament. The Mansfield family moved from Thornton to Karori in 1893, where Mansfield spent the happiest years of her childhood.
Her first published stories appeared in the High School Reporter and the Wellington Girls' High School magazine (the family returned to Wellington in 1898), in 1898 and 1899. She fell in love with a cellist, Arnold Trowell (Mansfield was an accomplished cellist, having received lessons from Trowell's father), in 1902, although the feelings were largely unreciprocated. Mansfield wrote in her journals of feeling alienated to some extent in New Zealand, and, in general terms, of how she became disillusioned due to the repression of the Māori people, who were often portrayed in a sympathetic or positive light in her later stories, such as “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped”.
She moved to London in 1903, where she attended Queen's College along with her two sisters. Mansfield recommenced playing the cello, an occupation that she believed when at Queen's that she would take up professionally, but she also began contributing to the school newspaper with such dedication that she eventually became editor during this period. She was particularly interested in the works of the French symbolists and Oscar Wilde, and she was appreciated amongst her peers for her vivacious and charismatic approach to life and work. She met fellow writer Ida Baker (also known as Lesley Moore), a South African, at the college, and the pair became lifelong friends. Mansfield began journeying into continental Europe in 1903–1906, mainly to Belgium and Germany. After finishing her schooling in England,...
1.1 Early life
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp was born in 1888 in a socially prominent family in Wellington, New Zealand. Mansfield had two older sisters and a younger brother. Her father, Harold Beauchamp, became the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand and was knighted. Her grandfather represented the Picton electorate in Parliament. The Mansfield family moved from Thornton to Karori in 1893, where Mansfield spent the happiest years of her childhood.
Her first published stories appeared in the High School Reporter and the Wellington Girls' High School magazine (the family returned to Wellington in 1898), in 1898 and 1899. She fell in love with a cellist, Arnold Trowell (Mansfield was an accomplished cellist, having received lessons from Trowell's father), in 1902, although the feelings were largely unreciprocated. Mansfield wrote in her journals of feeling alienated to some extent in New Zealand, and, in general terms, of how she became disillusioned due to the repression of the Māori people, who were often portrayed in a sympathetic or positive light in her later stories, such as “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped”.
She moved to London in 1903, where she attended Queen's College along with her two sisters. Mansfield recommenced playing the cello, an occupation that she believed when at Queen's that she would take up professionally, but she also began contributing to the school newspaper with such dedication that she eventually became editor during this period. She was particularly interested in the works of the French symbolists and Oscar Wilde, and she was appreciated amongst her peers for her vivacious and charismatic approach to life and work. She met fellow writer Ida Baker (also known as Lesley Moore), a South African, at the college, and the pair became lifelong friends. Mansfield began journeying into continental Europe in 1903–1906, mainly to Belgium and Germany. After finishing her schooling in England,...