Review of “Bliss” (1918)
Katherine Mansfield (writer).
Read in 2018.
Skilfully executed modernism, featuring ambiguous sexual orientations (Eddie, Bertha, Pearl) and a deliberate contradiction of the protagonist’s early attempt to find a transcendent meaning in nature (the tree). Alas, it is not, as the first half suggests, about a happy person (here: upper-class twit). It’s just a pun: Ignorance is bliss.