"Mr Reginald Peacock's Day" is a 1920 short story by

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the Literary modernism, modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been ...

. It was first published in the ''

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

'' on 14 June 1917, and later reprinted in '' Bliss and Other Stories''.

Plot summary

Reginald is woken up by his wife for breakfast. He is irritated by his wife who is very polite with him. He has a bath, sings for a bit and fathoms he could be an opera singer. The couple then have a minor spat over the fact that she cooks for him, instead of having a servant doing it for them. After receiving a letter of admiration from Aenone Fell, he gives a lesson to Miss Brittle, then to the Countess Wilkowska, and to Miss Marian Morrow. He then goes to Lord Timbuck's party with his students for dinner. When he gets home he thinks his wife an ingrate for not celebrating his 'triumph', whilst it so happens that he did not even tell her he would be away for dinner.

Characters

*Reginald Peacock, a singing teacher. *His wife *Adrian, Reginald's son. *Aenone Fell, a student of Reginald's. *Miss Betty Brittle, a student of Reginald's. *The Countess Wilkowska, a student of Reginald's. *Miss Marian Morrow, a student of Reginald's. *Lord Timbuck

Major themes

* Married life

Literary significance

The text is written in the

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative.

References to other works

*Reginald says

George Meredith George Meredith (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first, his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but Meredith gradually established a reputation as a novelist. '' ...

's poem ''Love in the Valley'' in his morning bath, though it is misquoted. *He also refers to

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's opera ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wo ...

'' *With the Countess Wilkowska, he sings

John Dowland John Dowland ( – buried 20 February 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep", " Come again", " Flow my tears", " I saw my Lady weepe", " N ...

's song from ''The Third and Last Booke of Songs or Aires'', though it is misquoted.Katherine Mansfield, ''Selected Stories'', Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes

Footnotes

External links

Full text
Modernist short stories 1920 short stories Short stories by Katherine Mansfield Works originally published in The New Age {{1920s-story-stub