Her First Ball

"Her First Ball" is a 1921 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The Sphere on 28 November 1921, and later reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.

Plot summary
A young girl called Leila has come to the city to stay with her cousins. They are going to a ball. Leila is very excited: this is her first ball. Once there, she is both excited and terrified. After dancing with several young boys her own age, she dances with a wrinkly balding man who has been coming to balls for a while. This spoils her mood until she dances with a good looking young gentleman where her worries disappear.

Characters

 * Leila, a cousin of the Sheridan Girls in The Garden Party. She is 18 years old.
 * Lucas
 * Tomas
 * Meg
 * Miss Eccles, Leila's dance teacher at boarding school.
 * Jose
 * The "Fat Man"
 * the first partner
 * the second partner
 * the third partner
 * the fourth partner
 * the cab driver (just her imagination before the ball)
 * teacher of History

Literary significance
The text is written in the modernist mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative. The main themes of the story are very dramatically portrayed through Leila's reactions and her emotions.