A Dill Pickle

A Dill Pickle is a 1917 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in the "New Age" on 4 October 1917 under the title of "An Album Leaf". A revised version later appeared in "Bliss and Other Stories". [Katherine Mansfield, "Selected Stories", Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes]

Title explanation

The man recounts how when he was in Russia, a coachman went up to the people on his carriage having lunch outside, and offered them a dill pickle each, thus demonstrating how class-free the society is.

Plot summary

After a six-year hiatus, a man and a woman who used to be lovers or close friends meet in a café. They reminisce about days gone by - the day they spent at the Kew Gardens together; he tells her about Russia and how class-free the society is; about how he liked to talk to her. Despite being poor and she being better-off (as when she would eat caviare), they both of them regret not being friends any more. She then leaves abruptly and he asks the waiter not to charge him for the cream she did not eat.

Characters in "A Dill Pickle"

*Vera, a woman.
*a man, who remains unnamed.

Major themes

*lost love
*class consciousness

References to other works

*The lover mentions The Volga Boatmen's Song.

Literary significance

The text is written in the modernist mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/mansfield/bliss/pickle.html Full Text]