"The Stranger" is a 1921

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebra ...

. It was first published in the '' London Mercury'' in January 1921, and later reprinted in '' The Garden Party and Other Stories''.Katherine Mansfield, ''Selected Stories'', Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes

Plot summary

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, Mr Hammond is waiting for his wife, back from Europe. After talking to some other people waiting at the harbour, she lands in but takes her time, leading him to wonder if she was sick during the voyage - she was not. In the hotel, Hammond says they will spend the next day sightseeing in Auckland, before going back to Napier, where they live. She then appears distant, and eventually reveals that she took a while to leave the ship because a man had died on board, and she was alone with him when that happened. The husband is put off.

Characters

*Mr Scott *Mrs Scott *Jean Scott, their daughter. *Mr John Hammond *Mrs Janey Hammond, back from Europe. *Mr Gaven *Captain Johnson, the harbour master. *The dead man

Major motifs

*Love *Death

Footnotes

External links

Full text''The Garden Party and Other Stories''
at the British Library Modernist short stories 1921 short stories Short stories by Katherine Mansfield Works originally published in the London Mercury {{1920s-story-stub