“But we can’t possibly have a garden-party with a man dead just outside the front gate.”
— “The Garden-Party” by Katherine Mansfield
Skyboat Media presents The Best of Katherine Mansfield, an original compilation of stories from one of the defining writers of modernist fiction. Katherine Mansfield’s stories shine a light on the duality and the overpowering nature of psychology through her delicate, nuanced, and often stream-of-consciousness narration style. None of her stories seem to settle on just one theme; like life they encompass the intersectional nature of all moments, from the most minute and mundane to the most terrific and tragic.
This compilation also includes all the stories she wrote featuring the Burnell family, including little Kezia who is a stand-in for the author herself. “Prelude,” “The Little Girl,” “The Doll’s House,” and “At the Bay” follow the family through the everyday moments that quickly add up to the biggest revelations and devastations that shape a human soul.
Full Contents:
The Second Self: Introduction by Alison Belle Bews
“Prelude”
“Mr. and Mrs. Dove”
“Miss Brill”
“The Garden-Party”
“Feuille d’Album”
“Psychology”
“The Little Girl”
“A Married Man’s Story”
“Her First Ball”
“A Cup of Tea”
“Mr. Reginald Peacock’s Day”
“The Doll’s House”
“A Dill Pickle”
“The Fly”
“Bliss”
“Je ne parles pas français”
“At the Bay”
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“The interpretations of the five narrators…provide a helpful throughline to the twentieth-century New Zealand-born author’s wonderful writing…Gabrielle de Cuir brings expressiveness and warmth; Stephan Rudnicki, resonance and timing; Justine Eyre, pacing and a quavering Kiwi intonation; and Nan McNamara, a sweet yet bracing delivery that aligns with Mansfield’s oblique takes on the works.”
— AudioFile
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Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and settled in Europe to finish her education. She published her first short fiction in The New Age, then in Rhythm, whose editor, the British writer and critic John Middleton Murry, she soon married. Her writing contributed to the development of the stream of consciousness technique and to the modernist use of multiple viewpoints, and her style has had a powerful influence on the development of the short story form.
Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her “velvet touch” as an actor’s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.
Justine Eyre is a classically trained actress who has narrated many audiobooks, earning the prestigious Audie Award for best narration and numerous Earphones Awards. She is multilingual and known for her great facility with accents. She has appeared on stage, with leading roles in King Lear and The Crucible, and has had starring roles in four films on the indie circuit. Her television credits include Two and a Half Men and Mad Men.
Nan McNamara has performed on stage, television, film, and behind the microphone in voice-overs for over twenty years. Her passion is to tell good stories—no matter what the medium. Originally from St. Paul, Nan received a BA cum laude in theater.
Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.