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The Garden Party
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Portrait of British author Katherine Mansfield, 1914, showing her with short wavy hair and a light blouse, looking directly at the camera.
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Portrait of British author Katherine Mansfield, 1914, showing her with short wavy hair and a light blouse, looking directly at the camera.
Short-story writer Katherine Mansfield Katherine Mansfield, 1914.

The Garden Party

short story by Mansfield
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The Garden Party, short story by Katherine Mansfield, published as the title story in The Garden Party, and Other Stories (1922).

The story centers on Laura Sheridan’s response to the accidental death of a neighborhood workman; Laura suggests that, out of respect for the man’s family, Laura’s family cancel their lavish garden party. Dismissing Laura’s feelings as inappropriate and overwrought, her family proceeds with the festivities. After the party Laura takes a basket of leftover food to the dead neighbor’s bereaved family, views the body, observes the family’s grief, and begins to ponder the meaning of life and death.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Urnesha Bhattacherjee.