Marriage a la Mode | Literary Criticism & Book Review

Marriage a la Mode Critical Overview

"Marriage á la Mode" is often compared by critics to another of Mansfield's stories, the more wellknown "Bliss." In both works, Mansfield sets a domestic drama against the satirical background of the pretentious English bohemian art crowd. While both stories were characterized in 1949 by John Middleton Murry, Mansfield's husband, as "semisophisticated" failures concerning "quite simple women who have taken up with the stupider intelligensia," the majority of critics see neither story as a failure. "Marriage á la Mode" is only one of Mansfield's stories set against the London art crowd of which Mansfield was a rather reluctant participant.

"Marriage á la Mode" was first published in December 1922 and was included in Mansfield's collection, The Garden Party, and Other Stories. Early critics generally enjoyed the volume, seeing it as a solid addition to Mansfield's body of literary work. D. K. Laub, writing for the Detroit News, calls her...
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