Classic Women’s Short Stories by Katherine Mansfield, Kate Chopin, Virginia Woolf

Title: Classic Women’s Short Stories
Author: Katherine Mansfield, Kate Chopin, Virginia Woolf
Read by:  Carole Boyd, Lisa Ross, Teresa Gallagher
Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks

Length: 2 hours, 41 minutes
Source:  MP3 Audio through Wisconsin Public Library Consortium – Overdrive on my Droid

This digital audiobook contained four short stories that were nicely bracketed by classical music.  Honestly my favorite of the four stories was “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield.  A well-to do family in the early twentieth century is preparing for a garden party when they hear that a workman was killed in front of their house the very morning of the party.  Daughter Laura suddenly becomes socially aware of the world outside of her family and its garden party and wants to cancel the event out of respect.

“The Mark on the Wall” by Virginia Woolf is one woman’s stream of consciousness thought on a mark her wall and the meaning behind it.  It was different, but I didn’t find it that compelling.  “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” by Katherine Mansfield is the story of two middle-aged women without the ruling influence of their domineering father and at a loss on how to proceed. It was interesting.  Kate Chopin's "Ma'ame Pelagie” is about two daughters in the south not being able to let go of their dreams of their family grander coming back after the Civil War as the years melt by and they become old women.  I was not inspired by the tale.  I wanted to smack the women and tell them to buck up and move on with their lives.

The narrators were all good and I especially loved the classical music between the stories.  Overall these Classic Women’s Short Stories were all interesting, but I especially enjoyed The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield.