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The Lull
- GenresShort StoriesHumor
Paperback
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About the author
Saki
1,761 books596 followersBritish 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 10, 2021
3.5 stars. A zany story involving a hen, a pig, a politician, and an attempt to keep said politician's mind off of politics. A funny story. Audible edition narrated by Nadia May.
November 22, 2024
One of my favorite Saki stories and if he hadn't covered, broadly, the same theme in 'The Unrest Cure' and had a niece with a similar taste for fantasy in 'The Open Window' I probably would have shelved it as books-without-which-I-cannot-live (come to think of it the niece in both stories may be the same, they are both named Vera).
Instead of an 'unrest cure' Vera aids an aspiring politician (interesting how often politics crop up in Saki's stories - but then we forget in the post WWI nostalgia for the pre 1914 world what a political divisive time it was with Lloyd George's budget, House Of Lords reform, Home Rule for Ireland and the Suffragettes) in forgetting the strains of election campaign for one night. How she does it is the point of the story, at one point Vera informs the political candidate that a local reservoir has burst. He asks have many people drowned to which Vera responds:
"...Heaps I should say. The second house maid has already identified three bodies that have floated past the billiard-room window as being the young man she's engaged to. Either she's engaged to a large assortment of the population round here or else she's very careless at identification. Of course it may be the same body coming round again and again in a swirl; I hadn't thought of that."
Absolutely purest Saki - horribly cruel but horribly funny. You also realise that even the slightest rearrangement or change in words can strip that passage of its comic genius. Saki appears effortless but a great deal of work went into those sentences.
Instead of an 'unrest cure' Vera aids an aspiring politician (interesting how often politics crop up in Saki's stories - but then we forget in the post WWI nostalgia for the pre 1914 world what a political divisive time it was with Lloyd George's budget, House Of Lords reform, Home Rule for Ireland and the Suffragettes) in forgetting the strains of election campaign for one night. How she does it is the point of the story, at one point Vera informs the political candidate that a local reservoir has burst. He asks have many people drowned to which Vera responds:
"...Heaps I should say. The second house maid has already identified three bodies that have floated past the billiard-room window as being the young man she's engaged to. Either she's engaged to a large assortment of the population round here or else she's very careless at identification. Of course it may be the same body coming round again and again in a swirl; I hadn't thought of that."
Absolutely purest Saki - horribly cruel but horribly funny. You also realise that even the slightest rearrangement or change in words can strip that passage of its comic genius. Saki appears effortless but a great deal of work went into those sentences.
March 1, 2024
Saki’s wit had a license to kill.
February 10, 2026
There are parts of this
story which I love and find
absolutely hilarious.
The only thing that bothers
me is that I can't believe that
that guy wouldn't have had the
brains to look outside during
the night and see that there
was no flood. When something
unusual happens it is just
human nature that you want
to see what is going on.
story which I love and find
absolutely hilarious.
The only thing that bothers
me is that I can't believe that
that guy wouldn't have had the
brains to look outside during
the night and see that there
was no flood. When something
unusual happens it is just
human nature that you want
to see what is going on.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews