The Cobweb

by Saki

A famous short story

Genres: Short Stories, Horror

Unknown Binding

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

[Kavita · Rating 4 out of 5]

When young Emma Ladbruck becomes the mistress of a nice farmstead, she starts planning on how to redecorate the place and to make changes in its daily running. But there is an obstacle to her plans: old Martha Mountjoy, who had lived and worked in the farm for decades, cementing her own relationship with the farm and making the new mistress feel an outsider. As time passes, Emma begins to feel annoyed and wish for the death of Martha. And then Martha sees death coming ...

I really enjoyed this short story by Hector Hugh Munro aka Saki. The Cobweb is not necessarily a ghost or horror story, but has some supernatural elements to it. I rather liked the old-world atmosphere of a nice farm. I could relate to Emma but sort of expected the end. It did not come as a complete surprise but the reading of it was fun.

Will definitely seek out more stories by this author.

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An atypical offering from Saki; the setting is not a weekend at a manor house, but rather life on an inherited farm. The farm is overseen, ruled from the kitchen at the centre of the web of influence, by the ancient Martha Mountjoy.

Renovations must await.

Martha feels vibrations at the edges of her cobweb, and a tragedy unfolds. Evoking the eternal, Martha Mountjoy endures, just as she always has.

sidenote >>>>In terms of the cobweb that is Goodreads, one must now be signed in to receive notifications. This does not, at least on my part, encourage engagement. I find the lack of notifications alienating, and am now even slower responding to comments. I'm sure you all understand, and perhaps are feeling equally frustrated. <<<<<

[Madhulika Liddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old Martha Mountjoy is ninety-four, so frail and ancient that it seems a miracle that she still moves around. Let alone that she runs the kitchen, looks after the poultry, washes, cleans, bakes, sweeps, cooks at the farm a young couple have just inherited. And as Emma Ladbruck, with ideas of changing the kitchen to suit herself discovers, Martha does not accept change...

This one started off in a humorous way, and then, in classic Saki style, it took a chilling turn. Short, crisp, evoking farm life superbly. And creepy.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd little story, I'd place it with stories like 'The Peace of Mowsle Barton' or even 'The Music on the Hill' in that they deal with the countryside, country people and country ways, but not as the 'picturesque' and 'folkloric' background that most non residents see, admire and expect. Saki's countryside is much more feral and works to different rules. His country folk are never the 'simple peasants' that city dwellers expect. They are shrewd, harsh and unforgiving, or at least unsentimental.

This is not a tale of the supernatural, I don't why Saki has a reputation as a writer of the supernatural. He comments on the foibles and idiocies of humankind and doesn't like human beings. He likes animals. If he ever wrote a proper 'horror' story I imagine it would be like Clive Barker's 'Pig Blood Blues' (I do hope anyone reading this will search out volume 1 on Barker's Books of Blood for the story).

Like all of Saki this is a great story but it is not wonderful on the level of his best. If it was by someone else I might easily have given it five stars but from the author of Gabriel Ernst (another great story about nature red in tooth and claw) it is only a four star tale.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 The cobweb is an old woman who seems as though she will be a fixture of the farm forever. Narrated by Nadia May.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should be listed as Cobweb, The NOT
The Cobweb.

For anyone who knows anything about library cataloging which is
apparently not most people.