The Little Governess

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"The Little Governess" is a 1915 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in Signature on 18 October 1915 under the penname of Matilda Berry, and later reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories.^[1]

1 Plot summary
2 Characters
3 Major themes
4 Literary significance
5 Footnotes
6 External links

[edit] Plot summary

After receiving advice from the lady at the Governess Bureau, an English governess is off on the train from France to Munich, from where she will go to a new house for work. There an old man sits in her quarter - though it was originally for ladies only - and they start talking. She finds out he is German; he lets her look at his newspapers. Then the train stops because of a hitch on the track, and he buys her some strawberries; the train gets going again. He insists on showing her round Munich and she agrees. At the station, he walks her to her hotel, and she sees the shabby room she was supposed to stay in all day and wait for Frau Arnholdt to take her to her new house.

They take a stroll in Munich, then go to a museum, then to the English Garden. She doesn't have the time and wants to return to her hotel, but he suggests having an ice cream before she does do. Then he takes her to his flat and there he kisses her without her consent. In shock, she runs out into the street and takes a cab back to the hotel, where she is told Frau Arnholdt came and left when the manager told her he didn't know when she would be back.

[edit] Characters

The Little Governess
The lady at the governess bureau
Porter at the train station
The gentleman sitting opposite her on the train. He is German.
Frau Arnholdt, a woman supposed to take her from Munich to her new house in Augsburg.