Reading Club: The Garden Party

The SNFCC Reading Club, hosted by the author Yannis Palavos, meets again in August.

Book lovers renew their date for Wednesday, September 1st, to talk about all things literary – or not! Inspired by the book of the month, the group of readers will come together once again to share their experiences, feelings and thoughts, make friends and exchange opinions. 

August Book of the Month: Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party

New Zealander Katherine Mansfield, a celebrated short story writer with influences from two iconic figures of European literature, Chekhov and Maupassant, wrote dozens of short masterpieces, following in the tracks of her favorite authors. She sketches her characters with a unique blend of sensitivity and astuteness, delving deep into their microcosms and their psyche while, in her fine and eloquent prose, she uses the pages of her books as a canvas upon which she “paints” scenes of everyday life, in her attempt to reveal to her readers the relentless simplicity of living. 

Katherine Mansfield, who was born in 1888 in Wellington, New Zealand and died in Fontaineblue in France in 1923, was a widely traveled author and poet, known mostly for her novellas and short stories. She studied in New Zealand and England. She was first published in “The New Age” magazine, and her debut short story collection entitled In a German Pension, inspired by her time in Bavaria, was published in 1911 and was very well received. A year later, Mansfield began a collaboration with literary critic John Middleton Murry’s “Rhythm” magazine – whom she went on to marry – whist continuing to experiment with her personal style, which she consolidated in 1916 with Prelude. 

A landmark event in her narrative shift to her childhood and family life in New Zealand was her brother’s death at the French front during WWI (1915). In her short life – she died from tuberculosis at only 35 – she wrote 88 short stories, and had the pleasure of seeing her critically acclaimed collection Bliss and Other Stories in print. A further four of her works were published after her death: The Journal of Katherine Mansfield, The Letters of Katherine Mansfield, The Dove’s Nest, and Something Childish But Very Natural.

“The Garden Party” (1922) is Katherine Mansfield’s most well-known book, written in the mature stage of her career, in 1921 in Switzerland, where Mansfield was staying for health reasons, following her travels to England, Italy and France. It consists of fifteen short stories brimming with youthful zest, lyricism and originality, in which light and darkness, intensity and peace, the fear of death and the joy of life, smiling and sorrow alternate masterfully. As Mansfield wrote in her journal (March 1922): “That is what I tried to convey in The Garden Party. The diversity of life and how we try to fit in everything., But life isn't like that. We haven't the ordering of it. And they do all happen, it is inevitable. And it seems to me there is beauty in that inevitability…”.  

Yannis Palavos was born in Velvento, Kozani, in 1980. He studied Journalism at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and Arts Administration at the Panteion University in Athens. He has written the short story collections True love and other stories (Intro Books 2007), Joke (Nefeli 2012), which received the State Literary Award for Best Short Story, and the Short Story Prize of the online literary journal O Anagnostis, and The child (Nefeli, 2019). Working together with Tasos Zafeiriadis, he wrote the script for the graphic novels The Corpse (Jemma Press 2011) and Gra-Grou (Ikaros 2017), illustrated by Thanasis Petrou; Gra-Grou received the prize for Best Comic and Best Script at the Greek Comics Awards. He also edited the republication of Athanasios Gravalis’ short stories Broken Columns (1930), as part of the “Prose Tradition” series by Nefeli Publishing (2019), and translated works by Tobias Wolff, Alden Nowlan, Breece D'J Pancake, Wallace Stegner, Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, etc. 
 

Wednesday 01/09, 18.30-20.30
MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN

For adults
Free participation by online pre-registration

Preregistration starts on Friday 30/07 at 12.00.

To join the Reading Club meetings, all registered participants are required to have read the book of the month. 

Coordinator: Yannis Palavos, author

Due to public health measures, there may be changes regarding either the staging of the event, or the maximum number of participants.

The use of face mask and social distancing measures are mandatory in indoor and outdoor areas of the SNFCC, in accordance with Hellenic National Public Health Organization regulations.