Story: Fiction

On the brink of success

The 2011 television film Bliss charts Katherine Mansfield's early attempts to forge a career as a writer. In this clip, Mansfield (played by Kate Elliott) has rather daringly asked her rejected husband George Bowden (Ian Hughes) to read a collection of stories she wrote based on her time in a German pension (guesthouse). He is impressed, excited and convinced of the stories' literary worth, and encourages Mansfield to submit her work to Alfred Orage, editor of the literary periodical The new age. As she walks towards Orage's office with Bowden, she passes John Middleton Murry, with whom she went on to have a profound (though difficult) romantic and literary relationship. Mansfield's stories were published by Orage, and were collected in book form under the title In a German pension in 1911.

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How to cite this page:

Lydia Wevers, 'Fiction - Katherine Mansfield', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/video/41919/on-the-brink-of-success (accessed 20 April 2024)

Story by Lydia Wevers, published 22 Oct 2014, updated 1 Aug 2015