'Pension Seguin" by Katherine Mansfield-The Reading Life Katherine Mansfield Project

"Pension Seguin" by Katherine Mansfield (1913, 8 pages)

"Pension Seguin" by Katherine Mansfield (1888 to 1923-New Zealand) was first published in 1913 and anthologized by her husband, John Middleton Murry in 1924 in the collection Something Childish and Other Stories.

Many of Katherine Mansfield's stories revolve around a woman, normally young but not always, observing people she does not know in a public setting.     In some cases the observer is very detached and we can accept her superiority to those she observers such as we see in "German Meat".    In one of her very best stories, "Miss Brill" in the end the joke is on the observer. 

"Pension Sequin" is set in a French boarding house.    It seems to me that Mansfield was not neutral in her attitude toward continental Europeans.      Germans are either figures of fun or like to gorge themselves on rich heavy foods,   the French are snobbish and have a false veneer of culture whereas Russians are seen as exotic and beautiful, of course only the richest Russians could travel to London at the time.     

The lead character in the story is looking for a room to rent in a boarding house.   Here is her first impression:

THE servant who opened the door was twin sister to that efficient and hideous creature bearing a soup tureen into the First French Picture. Her round red face shone like freshly washed china. She had a pair of immense bare arms to match, and a quantity of mottled hair arranged in a sort of bow. I stammered in a ridiculous, breathless fashion, as though a pack of Russian wolves were behind me, rather than five flights of beautifully polished French stairs.

After being advised that there is a room luckily available due to the recent return of its occupant to Argentina the narrator bargains a bit and settles on the room for two months.    The description of a luncheon is very typical Mansfield:

Soup was followed by chestnuts and Brussels sprouts. All the time the Russian priest, who wore a pale blue tie with a buttoned frock coat and a moustache fierce as a Gogol novel, kept up a flow of conversation with Mademoiselle Ambatielos. She looked very young. She was stout, with a high firm bust decorated with a spray of artificial roses. She never ceased touching the roses or her blouse or hair, or looking at her hands—with a smile trembling on her mouth and her blue eyes wide and staring. She seemed half intoxicated with her fresh young body. 

Gogol's Dead Souls   was first translated into English in 1842.      "Pension Sequin" is a very typical Mansfield  story.     There are layers of irony buried on top of each other and the narrator is partially very perceptive and partially silly and pretentious.    It is also funny and a pleasure to read.    

The Reading Life Katherine Mansfield Project

It can be read online here

Mel u

"Angry" by Catalina Rembuyan-A Malaysian Short Story

"Angry" by Catalina Rembuyan (6 pages, 2007)-

Third Post in A Series of Five in Honor of Malaysian Independence Day

About three week ago Jovenus of Biblio Junkie and I decided we would do a joint posting in honor of Malaysian Independence Day which is observed on August 31.     I more or less got the idea for this project from Novroz' posting  in honor of Indonesian Independence day on her blog , observed on August 17.   I ended up doing a series of five posts on short stories by Indonesian women, all written in the 21th century.   I really enjoyed doing this project and wanted to see if I could expand the idea to other countries.   At the time I did a Google search on independence days world wide to see how many South and South East Asian countries observe an independence day.  I noticed Malaysian Indepedence Day is observed August 31.   I was very interested in posting on Malaysian literature in part because Malaysia is less than two hours away from my home in Manila.    Also most historians see Malay culture as having a large influence on pre-colonial Filipino history.

Jovenus has done a great overall post on Malaysia (for which she has a special knowledge and affinity) which explains the history of Malaysia and its struggle for Independence.   She also talks about some of the best known Malaysian writers of today.   I decided as my contribution to our project to post on five short stories by contemporary Malaysian writers.    This will be done in a series of five posts.     This is my third post in the series.    

Catalina Rembuyan, author of "Angry" and numerous other short stories works at and and is working on an advanced degree at the University of Malaysia.   "Angry" is a simple story that any one who has ever walked their children past the candy store window can directly relate to.

Anna saw the chocolate shop. It was a very small shop, but it had all of the richest and the tastiest chocolates that could be found in the Klang Valley: chocolates coating raisin jelly, chocolates coating more layers of chocolate coating nuts, chocolates white and sweet, and chocolates hidden in caramel shells. She felt an urge to grab one rise in her, and thought of stopping for a minute or two - which, she reminded herself; she had no time for, and marched straight on towards the ticket counter. Then she heard Samantha yowl.   "I want a chocolate!"

What parent from wherever you may be cannot relate to how trying this can be:

Samantha gave one last bitter howl, a howl Anna thought would never end, howling and howling and filling the air with thick shame, until the howl turned into a whimper and Anna heard a sob. Moments later Anna heard another howl on her shoulder. Samuel had woken up and was bawling his heart out, confused and frightened by the commotion, sensing the bitterness in his mother's voice. Samuel's tears sparked more tears from Samantha and a fresh flow of tears poured out of her eyes. 

Emotional blackmail works pretty much the same everywhere.    Everyone in the train station where the shop is located seems to be looking at the mother and thinking what a horrible little child raised by a quite unfit mother.  

"Angry" is just a simple story that any parent can relate to.  It can be read online here

Mel u

"Flush-A Biography" By Virginia Woolf-The Reading Life Virginia Woolf Project

Flush-A Biography by Virginia Woolf  (1933)

The Reading Life Virginia Woolf Project

After completing Mrs Dalloway,    I intended for the next work to be read for The Reading Life Virginia Woolf Project to be Orlando.    I knew from Hermione Lee's Virginia Woolf that the character of Orlando was based on Vita Sackville-West, a very wealthy author and garden designer of aristocratic background  and an intimate associate of Woolf.    I decided I should read Victoria Glendining's highly rated biography, Vita, as a prelude to reading Orlando.   (One of the wonderful thing about Virginia Woolf is simply the large number of fascinating people in her life.)    

I was in the mood to read something a bit different, something quirky, funny but still brilliant.   So I decided to read Flush-A Biography .   Flush is a cocker spaniel owned by the great poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 to 1861), wife of another great poet, Robert Browning (1812 to 1889)     Elizabeth Barrett Browning (a life long invalid) wrote the very famous and still much loved Sonnets From the Portuguese.

Flush is a very entertaining and funny book.    It is not at all hard to understand or difficult.   It is in part a satire of English preoccupation with social standing:

But if we are thus led to assume that the Spaniels followed human example, and looked up to Greyhounds as their superiors and considered Hounds beneath them, we have to admit that their aristocracy was founded on better reasons than ours. Such at least must be the conclusion of anyone who studies the laws of the Spaniel Club. 

 In the opening chapters of Flush most of the dog's time is spent in the bedroom of his mistress.  Then one exciting day it is decided everyone will go for a walk outside.    As one would expect of the dog of an invalid Flush begins to love the quiet life.

 Naturally, lying with his head pillowed on a Greek lexicon, he came to dislike barking and biting; he came to prefer the silence of the cat to the robustness of the dog; and human sympathy to either. Miss Barrett, too, did her best to refine and educate his powers still further. Once she took a harp from the window and asked him, as she laid it by his side, whether he thought that the harp, which made music, was itself alive?

Now Flush paid the full price of long years of accumulated sensibility lying couched on cushions at Miss Barrett’s feet. He could read signs that nobody else could even see. He could tell by the touch of Miss Barrett’s fingers that she was waiting for one thing only — for the postman’s knock, for the letter on the tray.

When Flush finds out why Miss Barrett is so eagerly awaiting those letters you may be shocked to see the violence that results when Flush and the author of the letters, Robert Browning,  get to know each other.

As the life of Flush proceeds we see how some of the servants mistreat him when his mistress is not around,  we see how Flush adapts during a trip to Italy and we hold our breath when something terrifying happens to him.

I really cannot see how any one who enjoys a well written whimsical read would fail to enjoy Flush.    We also learn a lot about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her relationship to her husband Robert Browning.




Mel u

"The Silent Cry" by Kenzaburo Oe

The Silent Cry by Kenzaburo Oe  (1967-trans 1974 by John Bester-274 pages)

A  year ago I am sad to say I had never heard of Kenzaburo Oe.   Now, after having read and posted on four of his novellas, five novels, a work of non-Fiction on Hiroshima survivors, and a collection of short works by atom bomb survivors selected and edited by Oe I consider him one of the great literary artists of the post WWII period.   I see him as creating   original wisdom, something I would say of very few writers or thinkers.  Samuel Johnson comes to mind here.    The wisdom of Oe is that of a world turned inside out on itself, that of Johnson is of a world sure of itself.   The best of Oe feels not so much written as discovered.    Oe (1935) won the Nobel Prize for literature in  1994.     He is a towering figure in contemporary Japanese literature.   In a revealing scene in Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami the lead character says his family owns a simple neighborhood book store that sells popular books, not "Tolstoy or Oe". 


The Silent Cry centers on two brothers who return after WWII to their ancestral home town  in a village in rural Japan.    The village is now dominated by a Korean businessman ironically called "The Emperor".     One of the brothers has a mentally handicapped son (this is a frequent theme in the work of Oe and is a large factor in his own life) and The Silent Cry shows how he deals with this.   This is the first of the works of Oe I have read in which we see the effects  the birth of a mentally handicapped child has on the wife who is depicted as now very promiscuous and a lover of whiskey.


One of the brothers tries to come to understand why a long time friend had killed himself.    The other brother tries to lead the local youths in a rebellion against the domination of the Korean.    There is a lot of violence in this work and graphic sexual scenes.   I recommend this book to anyone who has read some of the better known works of Oe and enjoyed them.    
To me the work of Oe is a great world class cultural treasure.


Mel u

"Tobermory" by Saki-A Short Story Cat Lovers will really like

"Tobermory" by Saki- (7 pages, 1914?)

Hector Munro (1870 to 1916)  writing under the pen name of Saki is considered a master of the very short story (under10  pages)and is often mentioned as an English O Henry.   Saki was born in Burma (I prefer the old name) in 1870 where his father was serving as inspector general for the Burmese police.   Burma was part of the British Empire at that time.   At age two Saki is sent back to England to be raised by his grandmother when his mother died as a result of an incident with a cow.   His father later retired to England and he and Saki appeared to have had an amiable relationship as perhaps indicated by Saki also joining the office of the Burmese police inspector at age 23.   Saki caught malaria at age 25 and returned to England where he would become journalist.   He worked for a couple of years as foreign correspondent in Russia where he witnessed the infamous bloody Sunday episode.   He also gave that up and for about the last ten years of his life he was not formally employed on a regular basis  and was supported by family wealth.   It is during this period that he wrote most of his work.   Saki is famous for his satires of the upper classes in Edwardian England

This morning I was looking at one of my favorite web pages East of the Web:Short Stories and found the story of the day was "Tobermory" by Saki.   When I read the description of the story "Revealing the dangers of giving previously dumb animals the power of speech. Especially cats"  I thought reading this might be a lot of fun.    It turns out I was right and I wanted to share this story with readers of my blog.    

I have already posted on two short stories by Saki,  "Open Window" and "The Feast of Nemesis" both of which I really like.

"Tobermory" opens during a conversation with members of the lower gentry ( the milieu of Saki)

in which Corenelius Appin explains to everyone that for many years he has been working at teaching animals human speech and states that he has taught the family house cat, Tobermory, to speak.   Of course no one believe him so he brings the cat in the room to prove his point.     

I loved the remarks made by the cat and and I really felt that if my cats would talk this is how they might sound.

"Will you have some milk, Tobermory?" asked Lady Blemley in a rather strained voice.

     "I don't mind if I do," was the response, couched in a tone of even indifference. A shiver of suppressed excitement went through the listeners, and Lady Blemley might be excused for pouring out the saucerful of milk rather unsteadily.

"What do you think of human intelligence?" asked Mavis Pellington lamely.

     "Of whose intelligence in particular?" asked Tobermory coldly.

     "Oh, well, mine for instance," said Mavis, with a feeble laugh.

     "You put me in an embarrassing position," said Tobermory, whose tone and attitude certainly did not suggest a shred of embarrassment. "When your inclusion in this house-party was suggested, Sir Wilfrid protested that you were the most brainless woman of his acquaintance, and that there was a wide distinction between hospitality and the care of the feeble-minded. Lady Blemley replied that your lack of brain-power was the precise quality which had earned you your invitation, as you were the only person she could think of who might be idiotic enough to buy their old car. You know, the one they call 'The Envy of Sisyphus,' because it goes quite nicely up-hill if you push it."

I do not wish to spoil the plot of this wonderful story by giving away more of the plot.   Maybe I did not like the ending but that just shows how good the story was.    Saki may not be the great artist Katherine Mansfield or Virginia Woolf is but this story made me smile and and took me away for a bit and that is sometimes worth as much as great art.    I do not think there is a cat lover who will not be  glad they read it.



"Tobermory" can be read online HERE


Mel u

"The Stalker Within" by Sabrina Abu Baker-A Malaysian Short Story

"The Stalker Within"  by Sabrina (aka Zabrina) Abu Baker (4 pages, 2007)

Second post in a series of five on Malaysian Short Stories In Honor of Malaysian Independence Day

About three week ago Jovenus of Biblio Junkie and I decided we would do a joint posting in honor of Malaysian Independence Day which is observed on August 31.     I more or less got the idea for this project from Novroz' posting  in honor of Indonesian Independence day on her blog , observed on August 17.   I ended up doing a series of five posts on short stories by Indonesian women, all written in the 21th century.   I really enjoyed doing this project and wanted to see if I could expand the idea to other countries.   At the time I did a Google search on independence days world wide to see how many South and South East Asian countries observe an independence day.  I noticed Malaysian Indepedence Day is observed August 31.   I was very interested in posting on Malaysian literature in part because Malaysia is less than two hours away from my home in Manila.    Also most historians see Malay culture as having a large influence on pre-colonial Filipino history.

Jovenus has done a great overall post on Malaysia (for which she has a special knowledge and affinity) which explains the history of Malaysia and its struggle for Independence.   She also talks about some of the best known Malaysian writers of today.   I decided as my contribution to our project to post on five short stories by contemporary Malaysian writers.    This will be done in a series of five posts.   My first post was on "Hungry In Guangzhou" by Kow Shih Li.

Sabrina Abu Baker is widely published Malaysian writer best known for her inspirational stories and her devotion to the Islamic faith as depicted in her work.    "The Stalker Within" centers on a woman whose lover has gone on his annual Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).    Before he left he made some remarks that made her nervous.   When she asked him when he will be back he responded that anything can happen during Hajj and perhaps he will not return.    The woman about the time of his expected return begins to drive her car past his house repetitively.   She then sees a large number of people come to the house.    The people look like Indonesians to her and as far as she knew her lover had no Indonesian friends or relatives.   Then her worst fears are realized as a hearse pulls up in front  of the house.    She cannot see who is taken inside the house from the hearse.    She begins to break down until she gets a text saying:

She could not bother to hide her face anymore. With each passing vehicle, her heart sank deeper and deeper. She felt a void in her heart. She wanted to cry out his name, scream her heart out but her voice failed her. Even her tears refused to flow. She felt so helpless and empty.

Suddenly, a beeping sound from her phone startled her. She groped in the dark searching for her phone. With squinted eyes she pressed a button. Her jaw dropped upon seeing the message , "My mother's Indonesian maid had an asthma attack. She passed away at 2.30 pm today - Reza".

Her tears flew like a broken dam. Sadness and relief intermingled.

"The Stalker Within" is a simple story.     We do not even learn if the relationship between the man and woman is adulterous or not.     We do get a good insight into the devotion of the woman.   It is worth reading and gives us a small glimpse into a culture perhaps not quite known by most of us.


It can be read online here

Mel u

"Millie" by Katherine Mansfield-The Reading Life Katherine Mansfield Project

"Millie" by Katherine Mansfield (1913, 9 pages)

"Millie" by Katherine Mansfield (1888 to 1923-New Zealand) was first published in 1913 and anthologized by her Husband, John Middleton Murry in 1924 in the collection Something Childish and Other Stories.

"Millie" would fit quite well among the various short stories by writers from and about the Australian Outback that I have lately been reading.     In fact it reminded me a bit of "The Vessel" by Barbara Boynton in tone if not style.

The story is set in New Zealand. As the story begins Millie's husband and several other men have gone off in rush of excitement.   There has been a murder near by and they are in pursuit of the known killer.    Millie is a seemingly simple wife of a hard working man.      The killer is a young Englishmen who had been working  as a  hand on a nearby ranch.   Unlike many of Mansfield's stories this work tells a story rather than just depicting life.  Millie hears a noise in her front yard and is afraid.    She looks out and discovers it is the killer, lying in her yard, brought down by a bullet wound.

He was not much more than a boy, with fair hair, and a growth of fair down on his lips and chin. His eyes were open, rolled up, showing the whites, and his face was patched with dust caked with sweat. He wore a cotton shirt and trousers, with sandshoes on his feet. One of the trousers was stuck to his leg with a patch of dark blood. “I can't,” said Millie, and then, “You've got to.” She bent over and felt his heart. “Wait a minute,” she stammered, “wait a minute,” and she ran into the house for brandy and a pail of water. “What are you going to do, Millie Evans?

Without knowing why she is doing it and feeling it is somehow not quite right she gives the wounded man some brandy and food.     It is enough to send him back on the run.     Here is what Millie tells herself in rationalization of this:

'Ere—try a bit.” She broke the bread and butter into little pieces, and she thought, “They won't ketch him. Not if I can 'elp it. Men is all beasts. I don' care wot 'e's done, or wot 'e 'asn't done. See 'im through, Millie Evans. 'E's nothink but a sick kid.” 

Millie's husband Sid and four of his friends return to the house for the night after being unable to find the killer. Then one of the dogs begins to bark wildly.      He has spotted the killer in the yard.   The killer takes off running as fast as he can with all in pursuit of him.   Now Millie somehow reverses her position (if it can be called that) and urges the men to catch the killer:

And at the sight of Harrison in the distance, and the three men hot after, a strange mad joy smothered everything else. She rushed into the road—she laughed and shrieked and danced in the dust, jigging the lantern. “A—ah! Arter 'im, Sid! A—a—a—h! Ketch him, Willie. Go it! Go it! A—ah, Sid! Shoot 'im down. Shoot 'im!”

We are not shown what happens next but it is clear the killer will be caught.    I think what is most of interest in "Millie" is the states of mind of Millie.    What would cause her on one hand to show compassion for the killer and on the other hand scream wildly (and quite sincerely) for her husband and his friends to shoot him?

This story is quite different from most of her other works.   It deals with people of a social sort that would have been outside of her contact and even comfort zone.   It is for sure still very much worth reading and can be read on line here

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