Her First Ball
"Her First Ball" is a 1921 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The Sphere on 28 November 1921, and later reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.[1]
Plot summary
A young girl called Leila has come to the city to stay with her cousins. They are going to a ball. Leila is very excited: this is her first ball. Once there, she is both excited and terrified. After dancing with several young boys her own age, she dances with a wrinkly balding man who has been coming to balls for a while. This spoils her mood until she dances with a good looking young gentleman where her worries disappear.
Characters
- Leila, a cousin of the Sheridan Girls in The Garden Party. She is 18 years old.
- Lucas
- Tomas
- Meg
- Miss Eccles, Leila's dance teacher at boarding school.
- Jose
- The "Fat Man"
- the first partner
- the second partner
- the third partner
- the fourth partner
- the cab driver (just her imagination before the ball)
- teacher of History
Literary significance
The text is written in the modernist mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative. The main themes of the story are very dramatically portrayed through Leila's reactions and her emotions.
Footnotes
- ^ Katherine Mansfield, Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes
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- "Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding"
- "The Woman at the Store"
- "How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped"
- "Millie"
- "Something Childish But Very Natural"
- "The Little Governess"
- "Revelations"
- "The Escape"
- "An Indiscreet Journey"
- "The Wind Blows"
- "Prelude"
- "Mr Reginald Peacock's Day"
- "Feuille d'Album"
- "A Dill Pickle"
- "Je ne parle pas français"
- "Sun and Moon"
- "Bliss"
- "Psychology"
- "Pictures"
- "The Man Without a Temperament"
- "The Stranger"
- "Miss Brill"
- "The Daughters of the Late Colonel"
- "Life of Ma Parker"
- "The Young Girl"
- "Mr and Mrs Dove"
- "Her First Ball"
- "The Singing Lesson"
- "Bank Holiday"
- "An Ideal Family"
- "The Lady's Maid"
- "Marriage à la Mode"
- "At The Bay"
- "The Voyage"
- "A Married Man's Story"
- "The Garden Party"
- "The Doll's House"
- "The Fly"
- "A Cup of Tea"
- "The Canary"
- "The Sister of the Baroness"
[1] muiz khan
External links
- The Garden Party and Other Stories at the British Library
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- ^ kathreina