Incredible Tales: Saki Short Stories

by Saki

A collection of some of Saki's darker & sharper short stories: Sredni Vashtar, The Boar-Pig, The Schwarz-Metterklume Method, The Story-Teller, The Lumber Room, The Toys of Peace, The Reticence of Lady Anne, Mrs Packletide's Tiger. The Unrest-Cure, The Quest, The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope, The 7th Pullet, The Hen, The Brogue, The She-Wolf, The Holiday Task, The Blind Spot, Louise, Fibroid Studge, Gabriel-Ernest, Tobermory, The Mouse, The Lost Sanjak, The Background, The Easter Egg, The Peace of Mowsle Barton, Laura, Dusk, The Interlopers, The Open Window & The Image of the Lost Soul.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Horror

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

British writer Hector Hugh Munro under pen name Saki published his witty and sometimes bitter short stories in collections, such as The Chronicles of Clovis (1911).

His sometimes macabre satirized Edwardian society and culture. People consider him a master and often compare him to William Sydney Porter and Dorothy Rothschild Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. "The Open Window," perhaps his most famous, closes with the line, "Romance at short notice was her specialty," which thus entered the lexicon. Newspapers first and then several volumes published him as the custom of the time.

His works include
* a full-length play, The Watched Pot , in collaboration with Charles Maude;
* two one-act plays;
* a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire , the only book under his own name;
* a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington ;
* the episodic The Westminster Alice , a parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland ;
* and When William Came: A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns , an early alternate history.

Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Joseph Rudyard Kipling, influenced Munro, who in turn influenced A. A. Milne, and Pelham Grenville Wodehouse.

Reviews

[Petergiaquinta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was probably the first “adult” book I ever owned, a gift from my favorite uncle back when I was in fourth grade, maybe fifth. It only took me nearly fifty years to finally read it, mostly because the green-skinned demon boy on the cover was rather off putting when I was a lad, and then I was into other things, comic books, Doc Savage, Shakespeare, Henry Miller. But I held onto that paperback for all those years because he was my favorite uncle. And then he died of Covid, so I figured I owed it to him to read the thing before the year was out.

But it’s not like I hadn’t been reading Saki in the interim. I taught “The Open Window” at the beginning of the school year to my recalcitrant freshmen for years and years. I must have taught it at the very least a good sixty times over the course of my career, with few if any of my students ever enjoying it and most of them failing to understand what had happened to Framton Nuttel at the end, even if I explained it to those blockheads a million times. Oh well, at least I enjoyed myself, and the story works well for teaching the five stages of plot, along with more mysterious things like irony and tone, which of course my little charges never quite puzzled out, either.

Oh, listen to me. I sound just like someone in a Saki story.

We are discussing “Laura” this week in my GoodReads short story discussion group, which got me thinking again about this collection, which led me to discovering I’m two years tardy writing my review. Coming back as an otter in the next life doesn’t seem too bad. In fact, it sounds rather pleasant. There are worse things, like being named Egbert. Or Framton Nuttel.

Read December 31, 2020

[Frankie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saki has been recommended to me many times by friends. His stories could be considered short short fiction, as most of them range from 3 to 5 pages. His brevity yet thoroughness is impressive, as he manages to include all necessary plot details in an unimposing way. Many contemporary short fiction writers try to excuse plot gaps and lack of detail by waving the wand of stream-of-consciousness in the reader's face (or by labeling it prose poetry).

My only hesitations lie in the campy simplicity of his characters. Realizing that they are very brief one-act plays, in which the author had often to trick the reader into clever situations of thought and assumption, I should be ashamed to denounce, for instance, Clovis' lack of conscience. But after reading Salinger's or–as a better parallel–Chekhov's stories, repeat characters like Clovis deserve at least a little inner development. Also, I can't help recalling similar stories written anonymously in Reader's Digest over the years. My impression of them then as well as now is one of sensationalism and very fleeting entertainment. This sort of humor has a very short range in a reader's memory.

However temporary and periodical-worthy, his subject matter is entertaining and witty. He affects twists as well as O. Henry, wit and satire like Wilde and Swift, and horror as Poe. His treatment of adolescent characters reminds me of James' Turn of the Screw, with even more natural portrayals of childish candor and prankishness. These child vs. adult subjects are very faerie-tale-like but still injected with a mature point of view. Whether Saki uses supernatural elements or just practical jokes, the adults as children theme always shines through. My favorite stories are The Open Window and The Seventh Pullet, both about deception vs. trust.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of short stories. The author packs so much detail and imagination into each one and they are only a few pages long. They are both funny and dark at the same time. I can't thank my friend Myra enough for sending me this one!

[Rick Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine collection of short stories that may seem outdated to some, but thoroughly enjoyable. His classic tale called Sredni Vashtar is included in this volume, but the one that surprised me was tale titled The Easter Egg. It is just as, or even more so, shocking than the forementioned story that Saki is always associated with. The gamut of the stories within are only a few pages long, but they are more humorous and ironic than horrifying. I noticed a character that appears in most of the stories by the name of Clovis that I percieved to be a personification of the author himself. Highly recommended.

[Kate N. Ewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short stories, written in the late 1800's in England. Some vocabulary may seem obtuse, but these delightful, wickedly funny stories are well worth the read. Each has a devilish little twist at the end. I love short stories, and these are some of the best.

[Paul Jellinek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific short-story writer whose biting wit is almost always right on target. Each of these stories can be read in just a few minutes and yet each is a totally self-contained gem of wit and insight into the human (or at least the early 20th century British) condition that leaves an indelible mark on the reader. His death on the battlefield during the First World War was a terrible loss to literature.

[Myra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and dark, what's not to like. This book fired my imagination like no other.