Another slim Great Loves book, but this one has eight short stories, some of which I understood and some which I did not. Like for instance the title story 'Something Childish but Very Natural' didn't finally make much sense to me. Two people fall in love and playact their future together. 'Feuille d Album'' is about a man so hopeless with women that when he finally makes a move on a girl he fancies, he picks up an egg and offers it to her - Í think you dropped it - he says.
'Mr and Mrs Dove'' is a terrific insight into human psychology and how Mrs Dove has Mr Dove all wrapped up. 'Marriage A La Mode' is of course of a woman so caught up in her fancy life with her artistic friends that she does not notice her loving husband slip away. 'Bliss' I did not understand. 'Honeymoon' is about a couple that meet, a lot of love seemingly between them, and all thrown away in a moment. 'A Dill Pickle' is about how people change, and don't change - the man remains as petty as ever in spite of the years. 'Widowed' is the anatomy of a young woman learning of her husband's death.
Some I got, some I didn't. Maybe I didn't read them carefully enough. But enough to say there is a delightful mischief in Katherine Mansfield's stories, a wickedness that only people in love have, a lyrical manner of writing and mostly a brilliant insight into human psychology.
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