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Laura
(...)"“Oh, I daresay the wrongness has been on my part,” admitted Laura dispassionately; “he has merely been the extenuating circumstance. He made a thin, peevish kind of fuss, for instance, when I took the collie puppies from the farm out for a run the other day.”
“They chased his young broods of speckled Sussex and drove two sitting hens off their nests, besides running all over the flower beds. You know how devoted he is to his poultry and garden.”
“Anyhow, he needn’t have gone on about it for the entire evening and then have said, ‘Let’s say no more about it’ just when I was beginning to enjoy the discussion. That’s where one of my petty vindictive revenges came in,” added Laura with an unrepentant(...)".
“They chased his young broods of speckled Sussex and drove two sitting hens off their nests, besides running all over the flower beds. You know how devoted he is to his poultry and garden.”
“Anyhow, he needn’t have gone on about it for the entire evening and then have said, ‘Let’s say no more about it’ just when I was beginning to enjoy the discussion. That’s where one of my petty vindictive revenges came in,” added Laura with an unrepentant(...)".
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About the author
Saki
1,744 books592 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 - 30 of 33 reviews
November 15, 2023
Story 11/72 from Black Water 1 (The Anthology of Fantastic Literature) read together with The Short Story Club
Saki is a British writer named Hector Hugh Munro. He writes funny, bitter and sometimes fantastic/horror stories. The humor usually hides a social commentary or other. I listened to this one for the Short Story Club but I liked it so much that I searched in all my anthologies for Saki and read all the mentioned titles. He writes great stories, I have to tell you. I've barely heard of the writer before but I will not stop reading him now that i started.
In this story, Laura finds out from her doctor that she will die the next day. She confesses to her friend, Amanda, that she believes she will be reincarnated in a lower life form, such as an otter, because she was mischievous to other people, including Amanda's husband. As predicted, Laura dies and when an otter starts to break havoc in Amanda's household things get surreal. Funny.
November 21, 2023
I love Saki’s stories. My father read them aloud from when I was a small child, and I’ve returned to them regularly over the years, especially around the time of his sudden death a few years ago.
I’d forgotten this one, and I didn't enjoy it quite as much as many of his. It has the signature mix of waspish satire, animals, humour, and a dash of non-Christian beliefs (reincarnation, in this case), but “A little beast of a naked brown Nubian boy” jars to modern eyes and ears.
The characters' names are not as strange as those in many of his stories, but I'm sure it's no coincidence that the character who is very fond of his hens is called Egbert.
All the narrative is in the past tense.
Except for the final sentence, which is in the present.
The circle of life - and death?
Image: A European otter (common in the UK), in autumnal leaves (Source)
Quotes
“‘You are not really dying, are you?’ asked Amanda.
‘I have the doctor's permission to live till Tuesday,’ said Laura.”
“As a matter of fact Laura died on Monday.
‘So dreadfully upsetting,’ Amanda complained to her uncle-in-law, Sir Lulworth Quayne. ‘I've asked quite a lot of people down for golf and fishing, and the rhododendrons are just looking their best.’
‘Laura always was inconsiderate,’ said Sir Lulworth; ‘she was born during Goodwood week, with an Ambassador staying in the house who hated babies.’”
See also
The Best of Saki, in which I reviewed many of his stories, HERE.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
I’d forgotten this one, and I didn't enjoy it quite as much as many of his. It has the signature mix of waspish satire, animals, humour, and a dash of non-Christian beliefs (reincarnation, in this case), but “A little beast of a naked brown Nubian boy” jars to modern eyes and ears.
The characters' names are not as strange as those in many of his stories, but I'm sure it's no coincidence that the character who is very fond of his hens is called Egbert.
All the narrative is in the past tense.
Except for the final sentence, which is in the present.
The circle of life - and death?
Image: A European otter (common in the UK), in autumnal leaves (Source)
Quotes
“‘You are not really dying, are you?’ asked Amanda.
‘I have the doctor's permission to live till Tuesday,’ said Laura.”
“As a matter of fact Laura died on Monday.
‘So dreadfully upsetting,’ Amanda complained to her uncle-in-law, Sir Lulworth Quayne. ‘I've asked quite a lot of people down for golf and fishing, and the rhododendrons are just looking their best.’
‘Laura always was inconsiderate,’ said Sir Lulworth; ‘she was born during Goodwood week, with an Ambassador staying in the house who hated babies.’”
See also
The Best of Saki, in which I reviewed many of his stories, HERE.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
November 22, 2023
Saki's "Laura", another great amuse-bouche tale, with its blend of wit and a touch of suspense, has just tickled my funny bone. Like a delectable hors d'oeuvre, this short story whets the appetite for more, leaving me eager to devour the next course of literary delights.
To capture the essence of my amusement with this clever tale, I present a little à propos verse:
Laura's soul, free-spirit and bold,
Her words like arrows, sharp and cold.
She challenges the norms with grace and wit,
With modern women, she'll always fit.
Laura, the otter, sprightly and free,
Her pranks and mischief a charm to see.
Amanda's bond, loyal and blue,
Their friendship antics, a joy pursue.
Upon the garden's gentle bloom,
Speckled Sussex chicks did fume,
An otter joined the playful chase,
Egbert's flowers cease embrace.
In Saki's world, where humour holds sway,
Laura's escapades light up the day.
A tale of satire, sharp and bright,
A timeless classic, a short delight.
Read with the Short Story Club
Week starting 20th Nov. 2023. - Story 11
from Black Water 1 (The Anthology of Fantastic Literature)
Read in English
December 2, 2023
Not an author I had read before although I have come across his name many times. I will certainly read more after sampling his work in Laura.
This is a short story which has everything I like in it. There is a lot of humour which is witty, sarcastic and sometimes quite dark. Considering it is short the characters are excellently drawn and you have to love Laura with her firm belief in reincarnation and then all that ensues from this.
I have always liked otters and I like them more than ever now. I walked away from reading this story with a smile.
This is a short story which has everything I like in it. There is a lot of humour which is witty, sarcastic and sometimes quite dark. Considering it is short the characters are excellently drawn and you have to love Laura with her firm belief in reincarnation and then all that ensues from this.
I have always liked otters and I like them more than ever now. I walked away from reading this story with a smile.
July 2, 2024
4★
‘ “I never said I was going to die. I am presumably going to leave off being Laura, but I shall go on being something. An animal of some kind, I suppose. You see, when one hasn’t been very good in the life one has just lived, one reincarnates in some lower organism. And I haven’t been very good, when one comes to think of it.’ ”
Today is Saturday, and sisters Amanda and Laura are discussing the doctor’s diagnosis, or rather what Laura calls his 'permission' for her to live until Tuesday. Amanda is aghast.
Laura seems more curious than worried. She rather fancies coming back as an otter.
“‘I shall be an animal of some kind. On the other hand, I haven’t been a bad sort in my way, so I think I may count on being a nice animal, something elegant and lively, with a love of fun. An otter, perhaps.’
‘I can’t imagine you as an otter,’ said Amanda.
‘Well, I don’t suppose you can imagine me as an angel, if it comes to that,’ said Laura.
Amanda was silent. She couldn’t.”
This amusing story was a selection from the Goodreads Short Story Club Group, which you can join here.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
You can read the story here. If you do, remember it was written in 1914, so some of the language would not be acceptable today.
https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-st...
‘ “I never said I was going to die. I am presumably going to leave off being Laura, but I shall go on being something. An animal of some kind, I suppose. You see, when one hasn’t been very good in the life one has just lived, one reincarnates in some lower organism. And I haven’t been very good, when one comes to think of it.’ ”
Today is Saturday, and sisters Amanda and Laura are discussing the doctor’s diagnosis, or rather what Laura calls his 'permission' for her to live until Tuesday. Amanda is aghast.
Laura seems more curious than worried. She rather fancies coming back as an otter.
“‘I shall be an animal of some kind. On the other hand, I haven’t been a bad sort in my way, so I think I may count on being a nice animal, something elegant and lively, with a love of fun. An otter, perhaps.’
‘I can’t imagine you as an otter,’ said Amanda.
‘Well, I don’t suppose you can imagine me as an angel, if it comes to that,’ said Laura.
Amanda was silent. She couldn’t.”
This amusing story was a selection from the Goodreads Short Story Club Group, which you can join here.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
You can read the story here. If you do, remember it was written in 1914, so some of the language would not be acceptable today.
https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-st...
November 18, 2023
“'Death is always serious,’ said Amanda.”
How fun! A satirical story of death and reincarnation, that had me laughing out loud. I have never read Saki, AKA Hector Hugh Munro, but will definitely read more. He has been compared to Dorothy Parker, and I can see that.
The story can be read here as part of a Saki collection:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/269/2...
How fun! A satirical story of death and reincarnation, that had me laughing out loud. I have never read Saki, AKA Hector Hugh Munro, but will definitely read more. He has been compared to Dorothy Parker, and I can see that.
The story can be read here as part of a Saki collection:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/269/2...
November 27, 2023
““You are not really dying, are you?” asked Amanda.
“I have the doctor’s permission to live till Tuesday,” said Laura.”
We can tell by these opening lines that Laura will be a humorous short story. It is by the British author Hector Hugh Munro, who wrote under the pseudonym of “Saki”. The story first appeared in the “Morning Post”, and was later collected in the 1914 anthology “Beasts and Super-Beasts”. It has since appeared in many anthologies.
Saki was known for his witty and sometimes macabre short stories, which satirised Edwardian society and culture. One critic has noted: “In many of his stories, stuffy authority figures are set against forces of nature—polecats, hyenas, tigers. Even if they are not eaten, the humans rarely have the best of it.” Such is the case here, up to a point.
Laura tells her friend Amanda that her doctor has informed her she has only a few days to live. Amanda is shocked, but Laura herself appears unconcerned. She believes she will not simply die but will be reincarnated. However, because she has been rather vindictive and vengeful in this life, Laura thinks she will be reborn into a lower life form in her next incarnation. She discusses this belief with Amanda, whose husband has been an unfortunate victim of Laura’s mischievous antics.
Like many of Saki’s other well-known stories, Laura blurs the lines between the human and the animal. By means of a tongue in cheek tale, modern “civilised” people are linked to a primitive past, and we are reminded that we are also part of the animal kingdom. We see that it is the pomposity and hypocritical upper class characters, such as who are deemed fair game by the mischievous Laura.
It is an entertaining story, as we see that Laura shows little regard for the niceties of civilised society. She revels in the idea of coming back as a more “primitive” life form, which will grant her greater freedom from Edwardian convention. Breaking with society’s conventions is also one of Saki’s favourite themes.
Interestingly enough, Amanda appears to side more with Laura than with her own husband. Perhaps in this story, Saki is casting women against the overbearing and controlling males in their world. By the time Saki wrote Laura—the early twentieth century—newly independent women had been around for a number of years. Some (often male) commentators viewed these women who smoked, and bicycled, as a threat to their established, patriarchal world. We also see that .
So it this a story affirming the rights of women? Laura certainly represents a challenge to her husband’s conventions. Edgar represents conformity and a rather dull, stolid upper class, as does Sir Lulworth Quayne. They both represent white male British upper-class privilege, and are both remarkably unpleasant.. However, it is Laura herself who mentions the . Perhaps the end of the story represents other races and cultures striking back at Egbert, and the British Empire.
Another possible interpretation could be to do with animals’ treatment by society. In the story we see that
Are we then being invited to reflect on our attitudes to animals, and the way they are treated? Here we see humans as a part of nature: men hunt otters and catch fish, just as otters catch fish and kill chickens. On the other hand, only men view animals as their playthings to do with as they please. In real life Hector Hugh Munro’s mother died after being frightened by a charging cow, which could explain his preoccupation with animals in so many of his dark and mischievous stories, where quite often the “moral”, if there is one, is ambiguous.
But this may be overanalytical. Hector Hugh Munro was a man of his time: a conservative Edwardian gentleman (although he is now known to have been secretly homosexual, at a time when it was illegal in Britain). As a writer, in his persona as Saki he enjoyed writing quirky comic stories, which disturbed the society to which he belonged. In Laura we see themes of freedom, reincarnation, conformity, acceptance, revenge, mortality and connection.
Or we could just enjoy it as a quick jokey diversion.
“I have the doctor’s permission to live till Tuesday,” said Laura.”
We can tell by these opening lines that Laura will be a humorous short story. It is by the British author Hector Hugh Munro, who wrote under the pseudonym of “Saki”. The story first appeared in the “Morning Post”, and was later collected in the 1914 anthology “Beasts and Super-Beasts”. It has since appeared in many anthologies.
Saki was known for his witty and sometimes macabre short stories, which satirised Edwardian society and culture. One critic has noted: “In many of his stories, stuffy authority figures are set against forces of nature—polecats, hyenas, tigers. Even if they are not eaten, the humans rarely have the best of it.” Such is the case here, up to a point.
Laura tells her friend Amanda that her doctor has informed her she has only a few days to live. Amanda is shocked, but Laura herself appears unconcerned. She believes she will not simply die but will be reincarnated. However, because she has been rather vindictive and vengeful in this life, Laura thinks she will be reborn into a lower life form in her next incarnation. She discusses this belief with Amanda, whose husband has been an unfortunate victim of Laura’s mischievous antics.
Like many of Saki’s other well-known stories, Laura blurs the lines between the human and the animal. By means of a tongue in cheek tale, modern “civilised” people are linked to a primitive past, and we are reminded that we are also part of the animal kingdom. We see that it is the pomposity and hypocritical upper class characters, such as who are deemed fair game by the mischievous Laura.
It is an entertaining story, as we see that Laura shows little regard for the niceties of civilised society. She revels in the idea of coming back as a more “primitive” life form, which will grant her greater freedom from Edwardian convention. Breaking with society’s conventions is also one of Saki’s favourite themes.
Interestingly enough, Amanda appears to side more with Laura than with her own husband. Perhaps in this story, Saki is casting women against the overbearing and controlling males in their world. By the time Saki wrote Laura—the early twentieth century—newly independent women had been around for a number of years. Some (often male) commentators viewed these women who smoked, and bicycled, as a threat to their established, patriarchal world. We also see that .
So it this a story affirming the rights of women? Laura certainly represents a challenge to her husband’s conventions. Edgar represents conformity and a rather dull, stolid upper class, as does Sir Lulworth Quayne. They both represent white male British upper-class privilege, and are both remarkably unpleasant.. However, it is Laura herself who mentions the . Perhaps the end of the story represents other races and cultures striking back at Egbert, and the British Empire.
Another possible interpretation could be to do with animals’ treatment by society. In the story we see that
Are we then being invited to reflect on our attitudes to animals, and the way they are treated? Here we see humans as a part of nature: men hunt otters and catch fish, just as otters catch fish and kill chickens. On the other hand, only men view animals as their playthings to do with as they please. In real life Hector Hugh Munro’s mother died after being frightened by a charging cow, which could explain his preoccupation with animals in so many of his dark and mischievous stories, where quite often the “moral”, if there is one, is ambiguous.
But this may be overanalytical. Hector Hugh Munro was a man of his time: a conservative Edwardian gentleman (although he is now known to have been secretly homosexual, at a time when it was illegal in Britain). As a writer, in his persona as Saki he enjoyed writing quirky comic stories, which disturbed the society to which he belonged. In Laura we see themes of freedom, reincarnation, conformity, acceptance, revenge, mortality and connection.
Or we could just enjoy it as a quick jokey diversion.
November 17, 2023
"You see," resumed Laura, "I really have some grounds for supposing that my next incarnation will be in a lower organism. I shall be an animal of some kind. On the other hand, I haven't been a bad sort in my way, so I think I may count on being a nice animal, something elegant and lively, with a love of fun. An otter perhaps."
Laura, a mischievous free spirit, has only a few days to live, and she's telling Amanda that she thinks she'll be reincarnated. Laura and Amanda's husband, Egbert, are not friendly and she likes to irritate him. This is a humorous story that pokes fun at the rigid upper class (Egbert) in Edwardian England. It's a light, fun story, although someone who believes in reincarnation might view it differently.
Laura, a mischievous free spirit, has only a few days to live, and she's telling Amanda that she thinks she'll be reincarnated. Laura and Amanda's husband, Egbert, are not friendly and she likes to irritate him. This is a humorous story that pokes fun at the rigid upper class (Egbert) in Edwardian England. It's a light, fun story, although someone who believes in reincarnation might view it differently.
November 21, 2023
I read this for the Short Story Club here on GR. We are reading one story a week (which I am very bad at keeping up with) from the Anthology, Black Water (links will be added later).
How have I never heard of Saki before?!? I am mystified. Maybe he’s a British thing and we Americans generally spurn his fiction? I don’t know.
This story is quick, funny and easy to read (you can also find it for free on Project Gutenberg). Unfortunately, the story is marred by a racist element, which is even repeated twice (it’s essential to the essence of the story, but definitely could’ve been something else!): “A little beast of a naked brown Nubian boy!” Otherwise, it would’ve been a 5-star story.
How have I never heard of Saki before?!? I am mystified. Maybe he’s a British thing and we Americans generally spurn his fiction? I don’t know.
This story is quick, funny and easy to read (you can also find it for free on Project Gutenberg). Unfortunately, the story is marred by a racist element, which is even repeated twice (it’s essential to the essence of the story, but definitely could’ve been something else!): “A little beast of a naked brown Nubian boy!” Otherwise, it would’ve been a 5-star story.
March 11, 2018
If you were to pass away, what would you come back as?
November 15, 2023
Very good. Very funny.
November 10, 2015
On her deathbed, a woman muses lightheartedly about how she maybe hasn't been the most angelic sort (considering her enjoyment of plaguing her insufferable husband), and will probably come back as a 'lower' type of creature. The way things play out is quite amusing.
November 18, 2023
I encountered "Laura" previously in The Collected Short Stories of Saki and this was not one of the pieces that stood out for me. I'm a little surprised that it was included in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature.
Saki generally has a droll, satirical bent that amuses me, but this story feels half-baked and mildly unpleasant. Some of the "witty" plot points have not aged well.
Two stars, because I'm comparing this story to the best of Saki, and this is not that.
Saki generally has a droll, satirical bent that amuses me, but this story feels half-baked and mildly unpleasant. Some of the "witty" plot points have not aged well.
Two stars, because I'm comparing this story to the best of Saki, and this is not that.
June 13, 2022
Behind the humor of the storyline, the sarcastic tone of its title character, and the whole idea of resurrection, Saki outlines here a matter of great importance, namely the social standing of women at the time.
The female characters in the plot represent the two poles of the Woman question with Amanda as a conventional prototype of her sex, and Laura as a dangerous New woman. As such, the latter spent most of her life as well as after-life in an ongoing conflict with Egbert, Amanda's husband and the symbolic personification of the patriarchal regime. Under such a regime, Laura's value, as an unmarried woman, was so low that even her death was considered as an obstacle and an impediment in the face of a previously planned entertainment.
What is more, her life as an otter (that is to say a mere animal) or a Nubian boy (which according to the imperialist standpoints of the era was just as low and primitive) was much more productive and free. Saki's idea here is that women enjoyed so little freedom and had so little value as unmarried and independent beings as an otter or a "racially inferior" person would. At the same time, the relentlessness of Laura's attacks on Egbert suggests the true power of woman regardless of their shaky standing in the patriarchal model of society.
The female characters in the plot represent the two poles of the Woman question with Amanda as a conventional prototype of her sex, and Laura as a dangerous New woman. As such, the latter spent most of her life as well as after-life in an ongoing conflict with Egbert, Amanda's husband and the symbolic personification of the patriarchal regime. Under such a regime, Laura's value, as an unmarried woman, was so low that even her death was considered as an obstacle and an impediment in the face of a previously planned entertainment.
What is more, her life as an otter (that is to say a mere animal) or a Nubian boy (which according to the imperialist standpoints of the era was just as low and primitive) was much more productive and free. Saki's idea here is that women enjoyed so little freedom and had so little value as unmarried and independent beings as an otter or a "racially inferior" person would. At the same time, the relentlessness of Laura's attacks on Egbert suggests the true power of woman regardless of their shaky standing in the patriarchal model of society.
July 6, 2024
It is always difficult to now how to rate Saki's less successful stories - they should be judged on their own merits but I can't help judging them against works like 'The Unrest Cure' works that are simply exquisite, clever and thought provoking. But Laura is a rather problematic bouillabaisse in which there are appetizing morsels but they don't really come together in any satisfactory way. I still give it three stars because it is funny and well written but it is definitely a part of Saki's canon which if lost I would not shed many tears.
November 18, 2023
Amusing subversive story on reincarnation and revenge with some fabulous one liners that had me chuckling over my weetabix . Any story featuring the sonorous sounding "otter hound" along with "...the speckled Sussex in the seeding shed" gets my vote .
October 21, 2020
[Suggest you NOT read my review until you've read the story, e.g., at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Beasts..., which has links to others in the same collection, and other collections, for that matter. But if I can't persuade you, try the next paragraph now.]
Only Saki could, or would want to, write a hilarious short story of which the punchline is "".
And then there's "The East Wing" at https://artinfiction.wordpress.com/20..., which never made it into any collection.
Only Saki could, or would want to, write a hilarious short story of which the punchline is "".
And then there's "The East Wing" at https://artinfiction.wordpress.com/20..., which never made it into any collection.
October 17, 2018
A funny and weird reincarnation story.
December 16, 2025
This is one of Saki’s most unsettling studies of emotional complacency. It explores the cost of emotional distance, not through melodrama but through understatement. The horror here is social, not supernatural.
Saki presents a world governed by convenience, where empathy is selective and attention fleeting. The narrative does not accuse; it observes. The effect is far more disturbing.
Postmodern in tone, Laura resists closure. It refuses to tidy emotional loose ends. Instead, it leaves the reader with an ethical residue—a sense that something vital has been missed, ignored, or deferred too long.
The prose is restrained, almost cold. That coldness mirrors the emotional climate of the story. Saki’s refusal to guide the reader’s feelings becomes the story’s most radical gesture.
Laura endures because it implicates.
It asks not what happened, but who noticed—and who didn’t.
Go for this enjoyable read.
Saki presents a world governed by convenience, where empathy is selective and attention fleeting. The narrative does not accuse; it observes. The effect is far more disturbing.
Postmodern in tone, Laura resists closure. It refuses to tidy emotional loose ends. Instead, it leaves the reader with an ethical residue—a sense that something vital has been missed, ignored, or deferred too long.
The prose is restrained, almost cold. That coldness mirrors the emotional climate of the story. Saki’s refusal to guide the reader’s feelings becomes the story’s most radical gesture.
Laura endures because it implicates.
It asks not what happened, but who noticed—and who didn’t.
Go for this enjoyable read.
November 7, 2024
Me dio penita que sabía que iba a morir pero la tenia clara queria reencarnar en nutria 🦦 me parecen tiernas. Su amiga Amanda estaba seria pero se sentía triste por su muerte.
Al morir, al parecer, Laura reencarnó en nutria y molestaba mucho al esposo de Amanda ...esto no la disgustaba ni le agradaba, creía era ella y la dejaba ser.
Me deja de enseñanza que uno debe tener esperanza hasta cuando va a morir, ser resilente y tomarse la vida con humor .
Al morir, al parecer, Laura reencarnó en nutria y molestaba mucho al esposo de Amanda ...esto no la disgustaba ni le agradaba, creía era ella y la dejaba ser.
Me deja de enseñanza que uno debe tener esperanza hasta cuando va a morir, ser resilente y tomarse la vida con humor .
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 17, 2020
“Laura” by Saki
Vengeful female perpetuates her sadistic personality through multiple reincarnations. **
Vengeful female perpetuates her sadistic personality through multiple reincarnations. **
September 28, 2020
A hilarious story about a reincarnating girl who comes back again and again to trouble the same man.
June 17, 2021
Laura is seriously ill. A funny story about reincarnation. Audible edition.
January 21, 2022
Who can say nay?
July 13, 2023
Eine sehr kurze, und doch interessante Geschichte
November 23, 2023
2,5*
(Sugestão do The Short Story Club)
Uma pequena história com laivos sobrenaturais (reencarnação), que se torna divertida sobretudo pelos diálogos, muito britânicos.
(Sugestão do The Short Story Club)
Uma pequena história com laivos sobrenaturais (reencarnação), que se torna divertida sobretudo pelos diálogos, muito britânicos.
January 1, 2024
Uno de los mejores cuentos de fantasía que he leído en muchísimo tiempo. Y ese humor medio negro que presenta es sublime.
December 20, 2024
A playful and unsettling little tale that puts a sinister spin on reincarnation.
June 18, 2025
The one about the otter... and the skinny Nubian boy :D
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