文档介绍：The Garden Party
by Katherine Mansfield
作者简介
曼斯菲尔德凯瑟琳( ),
的笔名,娘家姓,短篇小说作
家,生于新西兰惠灵顿。曾在伦敦女皇学院学****又在新西兰学两年
音乐,随后回到伦敦从事文学创作。在受到某种心灵创伤以后,
年与作家默里结婚。她早期受到的心灵创伤对她后来的创作有很大影
响。第一部杰作《序曲》()是她童年时代在新西兰的
回忆。在《幸福》( )和《另外一些故事》(
)中的《我不会说法语》()
以及《序曲》中一些最优秀的短篇,肯定了她受契诃夫的影响,但具
有创新精神的女作家地位。她患肺结核而过早去世。逝世前出版的另
外两部著作是《花园舞会》( )和《另外一
些故事》()。死后出版的著作有《诗集》( )、
《相当幼稚》( )、《另外一些故事》
( )、《日记》( )和《书信集》(
)。
The Garden Party 1
THE GARDEN PARTY.
And after all the weather was ideal. They could not have had a more
perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. Windless, warm, the
sky without a cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as
it is sometimes in early summer. The gardener had been up since dawn,
mowing the lawns and sweeping them, until the grass and the dark flat
rosettes where the daisy plants had been seemed to shine. As for the roses,
you could not help feeling they understood that roses are the only flowers
that impress people at garden-parties; the only flowers that everybody is
certain of knowing. Hundreds, yes, literally hundreds, e out in a
single night; the green bushes bowed down as though they had been visited
by archangels.
Breakfast was not yet over before the men came to put up the marquee.
“Where do you want the marquee put, mother?”
“My dear child, it’s no use asking me. I’m determined to leave every-
thing to you children this year. Forget I am your mother. Treat me as an
honoured guest.”
But Meg could not possibly go and supervise the men. She had washed
her hair before breakfast, and she sat drinking her coffee in a green turban,
with a dark wet curl stamped on each cheek. Jose, the butterfly, always
came down in a silk petticoat and a kimono jacket.
“You’ll have to go, Laura; you’re the artistic one.”
Away Laura flew, still holding her piece of bread-and-butter. It’s so
delicious to have an excuse for eating out of doors, and besides, she loved
having to arrange things; she always felt she could do i