The Fly
Complete textAn aging visitor admires the comfortable office of a man known as the boss. Their conversation unexpectedly returns to losses associated with the war. Left alone afterward, the boss turns his attention toward a fly, and a small incident takes on an emotional pressure out of proportion to its scale.
Continue readingAbout The Fly
The story moves from polished surroundings and practiced conversation to an action that is harder to interpret. Control over an office does not necessarily mean control over memory or grief. Consider what the boss can summon deliberately, what returns without permission, and how the treatment of a small living creature complicates his performance of strength.
Reading focus
Compare the boss’s outward control with his unstable response to memory and the small creature that absorbs his attention.
This reading edition contains 2,177 words in 1 original section. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.
Author: Katherine Mansfield. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.
Opening excerpt
“Y’are very snug in here,” piped old Mr. Woodifield, and he peered out of the great, green leather armchair by his friend the boss’s desk as a baby peers out of its pram. His talk was over; it was time for him to be off. But he did not want to go. Since he had retired, since his ... stroke, the wife and the girls kept him boxed up in the house every day of the week except Tuesday. On Tuesday he was dressed up and brushed and allowed to cut back to the City for the day. Though what he did there the wife and girls couldn’t imagine. Made a nuisance of himself to his friends, they supposed.... Well, perhaps so. All the same, we cling to our last pleasures as the tree clings to its last leaves.…
Contents
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Is this the complete The Fly?
This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 1 section and 2,177 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.
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