The Daughters of the Late Colonel (Annotated & Illustrated Edition) A Modernist Study in Silence and Sisterhood Short Shot Classic When Katherine Mansfield published The Daughters of the Late Colonel in 1921, readers were baffled by its restraint—its silences, its hesitations, its refusal to “get on with the plot.” A century later, this story stands as one of the defining achievements of literary modernism. Two unmarried sisters, Constantia and Josephine, are left adrift after the death of their domineering father. The week after his funeral becomes a quietly seismic moment: their habits persist, their fears hover, and yet something within them begins—imperceptibly—to stir. Mansfield transforms this modest domestic setting into a study of consciousness, memory, and paralysis. Beneath the sisters’ timid dialogue and comic indecision lies the aching truth of lives spent in obedience, haunted by the echo of a patriarchal voice that still controls them even in death. The story is both humorous and devastating—a portrait of emotional habit as a form of imprisonment, and of silence as both wound and possibility. This Short Shot Classic edition brings new dimension to Mansfield’s masterpiece through thoughtful curation and critical insight. Inside this Edition The Complete Original Story — beautifully formatted for modern readers, preserving Mansfield’s rhythmic sentences and subtle tonal shifts. - Afterword: “The Stillness That Moves” — a new essay exploring scholarship on Mansfield’s radical treatment of time, consciousness, and repression, situating the story alongside Woolf, Joyce, and Chekhov in the evolution of the modern short story. - Quick Takes: Discussion Questions —interpretive prompts inviting deeper engagement with themes of memory, grief, habit, and awakening. - About the Author — a concise biographical note on Mansfield’s pioneering role as a voice of early 20th-century women’s experience. - Short Story Club Invitation — join a community of readers rediscovering timeless short fiction through contemporary editions. Why This Edition Matters This new annotated volume highlights what makes Mansfield extraordinary: her ability to render the invisible movements of thought—the flicker between laughter and despair, the paralysis that hides beneath the ordinary. The Daughters of the Late Colonel captures the moment when two women, long silenced, begin to sense the outline of freedom without yet being able to name it. Critics have called it “a landmark in the history of the English short story.” In this edition, readers encounter not only the text but the living pulse of its artistry—the stillness that holds motion, the pause that reveals transformation. Perfect For Readers Who Love Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse - James Joyce’s Dubliners - Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper - Anton Chekhov’s psychological short fiction - Modernist literature and women’s writing Keywords for Discoverability: Katherine Mansfield, modernism, short story classics, annotated edition, psychological realism, women’s fiction, feminist literature, literary analysis, early 20th-century fiction, domestic modernism. This edition of The Daughters of the Late Colonel invites readers to linger in the quiet spaces between thought and speech—to feel the power of stillness, the beauty of hesitation, and the first tremors of awakening. It is not merely a short story; it is a turning point in literary history—rendered here with the clarity, reverence, and depth it deserves. Join us at ShortStoriesNow.com for a free ebook every month.