This book explores contemporary ways of reading some important New Zealand literary works, all produced between 1910 and 1940. Interpretations of these texts have had a significant impact on New Zealanders' ideas of themselves. The author argues that interpretation is a process that can never be completed and to illustrate this discusses key works by two authors: Katherine Mansfield's Bliss and Prelude, Jane Mander's The story of a New Zealand river, and the work of Robin Hyde, poet, novelist and journalist.