The Garden Party

The Garden Party Study Guide

The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield was first published in 1922 by Constable and Co., a notable publishing house in London. The work was dedicated to her husband, John Middleton Murry. The collection of short stories was the last published work by Mansfield before her death on January 9, 1923.

Most of the fifteen stories within the collection were first published elsewhere. “At the Bay,” “The Daughters of the Late Colonel,” and “The Stranger” were published in the London Mercury. “Young Girl” appeared in Athenaeum. “Miss Brill,” “Life of Ma Parker,” and the “The Lady’s Maid” were published in Sphere. The Weekly Westminster Gazette published “Mr. and Mrs. Dove,” “Marriage a la Mode,” “The Voyage,” “Her First Ball,” and “An Ideal Family.” The same magazine published “The Garden Party” in February 1922 in correlation with the book’s release.

The Garden Party and Other Stories was well received upon publication and further cemented Mansfield’s reputation as one of the most influential modernists of her time, joining the ranks of such notable authors as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and D H Lawrence. The Garden Party and Other Stories is considered a modern classic and contains several of Mansfield’s greatest works.