Within the stories of this collection, which the author considered "immature," there is some great descriptive prose around German characteristics and perspective which can even be said to live on in present Germany. Most impressive is Mansfield's gift in rummaging about in the German psyche. While some of the stories may seem melodramatic, e.g., "The Child-Who-Was-Tired," there are some very entertaining moments in which the author thoughtfully pulls out themes that include sycophancy, overbearance, resignation, mediocrity, selfishness, vanity, truculence, and compunction. For those who love German history and German culture, this is an essential volume.

In a German Pension is a remarkable collection of short stories, displaying all Katherine Mansfield’s skill in the genre. Written shortly after the author visited Germany as a young woman, these short stories form a series of satirical sketches of German characters. From a young wife’s preoccupation with her husband’s stomach, to a society lady’s inability to see beyond the latest fashion, Katherine Mansfield depicts, in exquisite detail, the minute changes of human behavior. In a German Pension reveals her as a true disciple of Chekhov. A key figure in the Modernist movement, Katherine Mansfield is most remarkable for perfecting the art of the short story.

Katherine Mansfield(14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. At 19, Mansfield left New Zealand and settled in the United Kingdom, where she became a friend of modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. In 1917 she was diagnosed with extrapulmonary tuberculosis, which led to her death at the age of 34.