When her wealthy family prepares to host a lavish summer party, the young, hitherto sheltered Laura Sheridan suddenly feels a kinship with the staff and the helpers hired to set up the venue for the festivities.

As she learns of the death of one of their working-class neighbours, this burgeoning sense of class consciousness is heightened by a realization of her own mortality.

Published in 1922, at the height of literary modernism, 'The Garden Party' is now considered one of the key texts of that movement. This volume, which also includes all of Katherine Mansfield's other published short stories, is an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to discover one of the early twentieth century's finest writers.

“It is necessary to read no more than two or three of Miss Mansfield's stories before discovering that she has great talent. And after reading all of them, including her first volume, Bliss, there is no doubt at all that this talent amounts to the rare thing which a lack of a juster word to express our enthusiasms we call genius, and that her name must be added to that small company of the living… who really have something to say, and can say it uncommonly well.” – Robert Littell, New Republic

“I was jealous of her writing – the only writing I have ever been jealous of.” – Virginia Woolf,