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The Complete Short Stories
Saki is perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England's 'Golden Afternoon' - the slow and peaceful years before the First World War. Although, like so many of his generation, he died tragically young, in action on the Western Front, his reputation as a writer continued to grow long after his death. The stories are humorous, satiric, supernatural, and macabre, highly individual, full of eccentric wit and unconventional situations. With his great gift as a social satirist of his contemporaryupper-class Edwardian world, Saki is one of the few undisputed English masters of the short story.
563 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1930
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4816 people want to read
About the author
Saki
1,733 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 178 reviews
July 28, 2015
Reading Saki made me feel like a palaeontologist uncovering some critical part of the fossil record. Here it is! The missing link between Kipling and Wodehouse, in that very dry, deadpan and distinctly English tradition of narrative wit. It's a humour that comes not from comical misunderstandings or elaborate set-pieces, but rather that inheres purely in the absolute precision of the descriptions, the deadly irony of conversational rejoinders. A wife giving her husband the silent treatment, for instance, gets described like this:
At other times the bons mots are given to characters from among Saki's cast of Edwardian caricatures.
Or again, to more obviously Wildean effect:
Sometimes too there are admirable flourishes of simile, as when someone consults a restaurant wine list ‘with the blank embarrassment of a schoolboy suddenly called on to locate a Minor Prophet in the tangled hinterland of the Old Testament’.
These stories were published in the first couple of decades of the twentieth century, and Saki's heroes are young, rich, bored, brilliant men, who lounge in Edwardian drawing-rooms, mixing with baronesses and Gräfinnen, and making it a point of honour never to get emotionally invested in anything. They would be distinctly unlikeable if they weren't so funny.
What I was not expecting, though, was that alongside the drawing-room wit runs a parallel theme of almost Gothic unease related to the wildness at large outside civilised society. ‘Gabriel-Ernest’, for instance, is a creepy early werewolf story; in ‘Sredni Vashtar’, a 10-year-old boy invents a new religion devoted to a wild polecat; while ‘The Music on the Hill’ imagines the Greek god Pan roaming through the forests around an English country estate, and in the process endows these comfortable places with fantastic menace. This is the necessary counterpart to the witty banter, the other side of the coin – the strand of English paganism that crops up in so many writers. Other tales again range beyond England – dark parables about hunted men and night in the Carpathians.
Saki can be very macabre, very unsettling – an effect that his humour only accentuates. He reminds me of Pinter's famous phrase about ‘the weasel under the cocktail cabinet’. These are brilliant sketches of people swapping witty remarks in sparkling dining rooms: but outside the windows, the night is very dark, and when the laughter dies down you can hear noises coming from the woods….
As a rule Lady Anne's displeasure became articulate and markedly voluble after four minutes of introductory muteness.
At other times the bons mots are given to characters from among Saki's cast of Edwardian caricatures.
‘Thank you for your sympathy all the same. I daresay it was well meant. Impertinence often is.’
Or again, to more obviously Wildean effect:
‘When one is sixteen,’ said Mrs. Bebberly Cumble severely, ‘one talks of things being impossible which are merely uncongenial.’
Sometimes too there are admirable flourishes of simile, as when someone consults a restaurant wine list ‘with the blank embarrassment of a schoolboy suddenly called on to locate a Minor Prophet in the tangled hinterland of the Old Testament’.
These stories were published in the first couple of decades of the twentieth century, and Saki's heroes are young, rich, bored, brilliant men, who lounge in Edwardian drawing-rooms, mixing with baronesses and Gräfinnen, and making it a point of honour never to get emotionally invested in anything. They would be distinctly unlikeable if they weren't so funny.
What I was not expecting, though, was that alongside the drawing-room wit runs a parallel theme of almost Gothic unease related to the wildness at large outside civilised society. ‘Gabriel-Ernest’, for instance, is a creepy early werewolf story; in ‘Sredni Vashtar’, a 10-year-old boy invents a new religion devoted to a wild polecat; while ‘The Music on the Hill’ imagines the Greek god Pan roaming through the forests around an English country estate, and in the process endows these comfortable places with fantastic menace. This is the necessary counterpart to the witty banter, the other side of the coin – the strand of English paganism that crops up in so many writers. Other tales again range beyond England – dark parables about hunted men and night in the Carpathians.
Saki can be very macabre, very unsettling – an effect that his humour only accentuates. He reminds me of Pinter's famous phrase about ‘the weasel under the cocktail cabinet’. These are brilliant sketches of people swapping witty remarks in sparkling dining rooms: but outside the windows, the night is very dark, and when the laughter dies down you can hear noises coming from the woods….
June 26, 2016
I read 75 - 80% (not 100% if you're the sort that needs to keep score) of the wonderful stories in this collection. It was a library book, so I thought I'd be a good citizen for a change and give someone else a chance to experience Saki's superlative writing. I can't read more than 5 - 6 of Saki's stories in a row, but any day on which I read 5 - 6 of them sparkled a bit more for having done so.
*Note: the "n" word appears on occasion in Saki's stories, as do references to "gypsy" children as though they were fungible animals. Representative of the times, as it were, and the upper classes from which his characters are drawn, but nonetheless abhorrent. I would prefer not to be surprised when I encounter them in literature, or surprise my friends, so consider yourself warned. In truth, though, these references are reasonably rare.
*Note: the "n" word appears on occasion in Saki's stories, as do references to "gypsy" children as though they were fungible animals. Representative of the times, as it were, and the upper classes from which his characters are drawn, but nonetheless abhorrent. I would prefer not to be surprised when I encounter them in literature, or surprise my friends, so consider yourself warned. In truth, though, these references are reasonably rare.
February 5, 2015
I do not know how popular Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) is nowadays. During my college days, short stories by him and O. Henry were mandatory in almost all college textbooks. I think “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry and “The Open Window” by Saki might be two of the most anthologised stories. The difference between the two authors is that while O. Henry directly appeals to our emotions and the twist at the end strikes with the power of a jack-hammer, Saki is more subtle and his stories appeal to our intellect. Saki’s stories are more enjoyable in retrospect, the mull over; whereas O. Henry can become jaded after a while.
I had been on the lookout for a collection of Saki’s short stories, and stumbled upon this cheap edition quite serendipitously. I believe it contains all of his work; I had read quite a few of them in my teens and twenties, and savouring them again along with many which were fresh to me was a rare treat. I took this book very slowly, relishing the taste, like a single-malt whisky on a rainy evening: you get a pleasant high which stays with you for a long time.
Read the rest on my BLOG.
I had been on the lookout for a collection of Saki’s short stories, and stumbled upon this cheap edition quite serendipitously. I believe it contains all of his work; I had read quite a few of them in my teens and twenties, and savouring them again along with many which were fresh to me was a rare treat. I took this book very slowly, relishing the taste, like a single-malt whisky on a rainy evening: you get a pleasant high which stays with you for a long time.
Read the rest on my BLOG.
March 16, 2016
Beautifully written... Loved the delicate humor throughout the stories.
November 18, 2023
Saki at his best is a master of the droll, the witty, the slightly absurd. The names of his characters are so British they are perfect.
The stories at the end of this collection were written during the Balkan War and are of a different flavour. All in all, this volume has a lot of Saki, and is best consumed in smaller doses. One can overdose on Saki, and wake up with an attitude — feeling mildly peeved.
If one reads The Best of Saki one will have had enough; burrowing through these 500 pages is too much.
Five stars because — because Saki.
The stories at the end of this collection were written during the Balkan War and are of a different flavour. All in all, this volume has a lot of Saki, and is best consumed in smaller doses. One can overdose on Saki, and wake up with an attitude — feeling mildly peeved.
If one reads The Best of Saki one will have had enough; burrowing through these 500 pages is too much.
Five stars because — because Saki.
July 31, 2018
Saki es la sonrisa en medio de la tormenta, la carcajada entre explosiones. Siento supo mirar bien y escribir mejor. Su prosa, llena de humor y vitalidad, es flexible y elástica en un contexto donde todo se hacía cada vez más rígido, más tieso, más propenso a quebrarse con el menor golpe. Saki no golpea, su fuerza no depende de la violencia, sino de convertir la carne de su escritura en un espejo donde las ropas se caen: su visión desnuda, y elogia la piel colgante en los pellejos, y se ríe de nuestros conflictos y nuestros dolores y nuestros sueños heroicos.
Saki es un hurón blanco bebiendo agua en el arroyo, es una gallina anabaptista, es un toro ejemplar en medio de una habitación, y un niño, y una manada de lobos, y un gato capaz del lenguaje humano, y, sobre todo, un cuentista. Un cuentista capaz de emocionar al niño destructor acunado dentro de cada uno de nosotros, y hacerse su cómplice desde el secreto compartido: en el fondo, sobre todas las capas de civilidad del mundo, yace ese primitivo espíritu cuyo único interés es bailar al rededor de la fogata y escuchar historias mientras mira las estrellas en el firmamento infinito.
Saki es la voz de esas historias. Antigua, nueva, latiente.
Saki es un hurón blanco bebiendo agua en el arroyo, es una gallina anabaptista, es un toro ejemplar en medio de una habitación, y un niño, y una manada de lobos, y un gato capaz del lenguaje humano, y, sobre todo, un cuentista. Un cuentista capaz de emocionar al niño destructor acunado dentro de cada uno de nosotros, y hacerse su cómplice desde el secreto compartido: en el fondo, sobre todas las capas de civilidad del mundo, yace ese primitivo espíritu cuyo único interés es bailar al rededor de la fogata y escuchar historias mientras mira las estrellas en el firmamento infinito.
Saki es la voz de esas historias. Antigua, nueva, latiente.
April 11, 2009
Cool, bitter, bitter humour. These tales belonging the genre called the "Butler's Revenge". Saki's favourite people, however, are children and domestic animals. These, like Saki himself, are imprisioned outsiders, who bite back at the dull, complacent people who control them.
December 19, 2022
Compared to Wilde and Wodehouse, Saki is to my taste better than either. My only problem with his writings is that they are too short. It's like seeing an incredibly striking detail in a minuture, and wondering how complex a full canvas would be. He may start in the English country house, the early Reginald stories are dull, but when he gets out into the grounds, among the animals and the children, things get interesting. They are his shards of retribution that disrupt the orderly composition which society has drawn of human nature. Then he gets onto a train and travels to Central and Eastern Europe. That bigger canvas becomes tantalising; Saki in my my neck of the woods. If only he had written a counterpoint to Between the Woods and the Water. Unfortunately Saki never made it through the Great War. His last writings are not stories, but essays - the reaction of birds to that war, the particulars of the domestication of the cat, an introduction to the Russia town of Pskov - essays or introductory passages to novels that never saw the light of day. When I read Kipling, I had the suspicion that he couldn't sustain a story over the longer form, I suspect it might also be true of Saki. Only one way to find out, read When William Came.
unfinished
December 12, 2019This was a follow-up bibliotherapy prescription for reading aloud with my husband. We read “Tobermory,” “Sredni Vashtar,” “The Easter Egg,” “Laura,” and “Tea.” The stories are very short and quite witty, but the language so advanced/old-fashioned that I found them rather like tongue-twisters. I’ll hang onto the book, even though it has a dreadful cover, just in case I’m tempted to try again with Saki someday.
July 6, 2014
I'm going to have to dissuade anyone from actually reading this gargantuan compendium front to back. While it's well written, it's incredibly repetitive and the stories bleed into each other to create a dense and sludgy tread through Edwardian society as seen by a cynic. Recommended for completists and masochists only; casual readers may wish to opt for a Best Of selection instead.
October 23, 2014
Witty, elegant and twisted tales of many types. JS
December 12, 2012
Christopher Hitchens writes in an article on Saki "Wodehouse happily admitted to being influenced by Saki, and it would be interesting to know to what extent Saki was himself influenced by Wilde. There is a good deal of evidence to suggest that he was, because some of his epigrams (“Beauty is only sin deep”) betray an obvious indebtedness, and one (“To lose an hotel and a cake of soap in one afternoon suggests willful carelessness”) is an almost direct appropriation from The Importance of Being Earnest.
As a great fan of both Wodehouse and Saki, I must say I was overjoyed to discover this in Saki's short story The Seventh Pullet, "Invent something," said Gorworth. Since winning a prize for excellence in Scriptural knowledge at a preparatory school he had felt licensed to be a little more unscrupulous than the circle he moved in. Much might surely be excused to one who in early life could give a list of seventeen trees mentioned in the Old Testament.
And who else won a prize for excellence in Scripture knowledge at school? Bertie Wooster.
As a great fan of both Wodehouse and Saki, I must say I was overjoyed to discover this in Saki's short story The Seventh Pullet, "Invent something," said Gorworth. Since winning a prize for excellence in Scriptural knowledge at a preparatory school he had felt licensed to be a little more unscrupulous than the circle he moved in. Much might surely be excused to one who in early life could give a list of seventeen trees mentioned in the Old Testament.
And who else won a prize for excellence in Scripture knowledge at school? Bertie Wooster.
August 28, 2024
همهچیز خیلی نرمال و عادی پیش میرود تا با خواندن آخرین پاراگراف هر قصه، یا حتی آخرین جمله، زلزلهای مهیب این آرامش رو بر هم میزند.
نویسنده اتفاقات متنوع و عادی زندگی را دستمایهی موضوعات داستانهایی بانمک با پایانهای خرق عادت و آغشته به طنزی باهوش و غیراغراقشده کرده و در هر موقعیتی ستونهای پارادایمها و ارزشهای پذیرفتهشده در جامعه را لرزانده؛ پاکدامنی، تعهد، نفی جنگ، انصاف، حرفشنوی و حتی صلح در داستانهای ساکی هنرمندانه به سخره گرفته میشود و ذهن خواننده را درگیر فضیلتهایی که در رندی، خیانت، جنگ، ستیز، زندگی غیرمتمدن، شوخیهای ناموجه و بیانصافی نهفته است میکند.
نسخهی فارسی کتاب را نشر نو با عنوان “گرگهای سرنوگراتس” منتشر کرده است.
Super brilliant 👌🏻
نویسنده اتفاقات متنوع و عادی زندگی را دستمایهی موضوعات داستانهایی بانمک با پایانهای خرق عادت و آغشته به طنزی باهوش و غیراغراقشده کرده و در هر موقعیتی ستونهای پارادایمها و ارزشهای پذیرفتهشده در جامعه را لرزانده؛ پاکدامنی، تعهد، نفی جنگ، انصاف، حرفشنوی و حتی صلح در داستانهای ساکی هنرمندانه به سخره گرفته میشود و ذهن خواننده را درگیر فضیلتهایی که در رندی، خیانت، جنگ، ستیز، زندگی غیرمتمدن، شوخیهای ناموجه و بیانصافی نهفته است میکند.
نسخهی فارسی کتاب را نشر نو با عنوان “گرگهای سرنوگراتس” منتشر کرده است.
Super brilliant 👌🏻
May 22, 2023
Some of the stories were really good. Most were okay-good.
December 31, 2014
I am an Author who envies the ability of certain writers whose works tend to transcend the vagaries of time.
By this I do not mean that I agree or support all the literary academics views on what is, or what is not, a great ‘classic’.
Here I am speaking purely from my own personal perspective with regards to books which have had a great impact on my life.
One author has tickled my funny bone with such satirical wit that I cannot pass the opportunity to write this review.
The author in question is Hector Hugo Monroe, HH Monroe, or more commonly known by his single name pseudonym ‘Saki’.
Saki was born Hector Hugh Munro in Akyab, Burma (now Myanmar), the son of Charles Augustus Munro, an inspector-general in the Burma police. Munro's mother, the former Mary Frances Mercer, died in 1872 – she was killed by a runaway cow in an English country lane.
Munro was killed by a sniper's bullet on November 14, 1916 in France, near Beaumont-Hamel, while sheltering in a shell crater. Among the writers involved in the Battle of the Somme were also Robert Graves, who was wounded, and A.A. Milne, who contacted trench fever and was sent home.
Saki’s last words, according to several sources, were: ‘Put that damned cigarette out’!
I have just finished reading ‘The Collected Short Stories of Saki’ (Wordsworth Classics), once again.
This book contains a great deal, if not all of his works. I had read much of Saki’s work in my teens and early twenties, so reading this book was like returning to an old friend.
This book contains more than one hundred short stories. Many would possibly classed as flash fiction nowadays!
The author’s tone is one of the delighted rebellion, like that of a naughty child, at an orderly universe. Saki’s stories satirize the Edwardian social scene, often in a macabre and cruel way.
Saki’s stories are black humour, of a satirical nature. As is the case with most Englishmen, Saki revelled in ridiculing the hypocrisies of his fellow countrymen – notably those of the well-heeled, aristocrats. Saki’s writing is crisp, funny and perfectly targeted.
Two of his creations, Reginald and Clovis Sangrail, are young, ‘men about town’ who do not do anything other than flit about from one country house to another, getting into scrapes and helping others to get into scrapes.
‘Tobermory’ is about a cat that learns to talk and cannot be made to shut up.
In ‘The Hounds of Fate’, a man who thinks he has outwitted his destiny finds it closing in on him, but from an unexpected direction.
While ‘The Music on the Hill’, is about a woman who offends the god Pan and suffers the consequences.
Saki’s writing is black comedy at its best. Possibly a little too dark for many Edwardian tastes. But the world changed, possibly into one which may have suited Saki better.
It takes a special gift to make a reader feel the way Saki manages to do. Maybe only I really understand his warped sense of humour?
By this I do not mean that I agree or support all the literary academics views on what is, or what is not, a great ‘classic’.
Here I am speaking purely from my own personal perspective with regards to books which have had a great impact on my life.
One author has tickled my funny bone with such satirical wit that I cannot pass the opportunity to write this review.
The author in question is Hector Hugo Monroe, HH Monroe, or more commonly known by his single name pseudonym ‘Saki’.
Saki was born Hector Hugh Munro in Akyab, Burma (now Myanmar), the son of Charles Augustus Munro, an inspector-general in the Burma police. Munro's mother, the former Mary Frances Mercer, died in 1872 – she was killed by a runaway cow in an English country lane.
Munro was killed by a sniper's bullet on November 14, 1916 in France, near Beaumont-Hamel, while sheltering in a shell crater. Among the writers involved in the Battle of the Somme were also Robert Graves, who was wounded, and A.A. Milne, who contacted trench fever and was sent home.
Saki’s last words, according to several sources, were: ‘Put that damned cigarette out’!
I have just finished reading ‘The Collected Short Stories of Saki’ (Wordsworth Classics), once again.
This book contains a great deal, if not all of his works. I had read much of Saki’s work in my teens and early twenties, so reading this book was like returning to an old friend.
This book contains more than one hundred short stories. Many would possibly classed as flash fiction nowadays!
The author’s tone is one of the delighted rebellion, like that of a naughty child, at an orderly universe. Saki’s stories satirize the Edwardian social scene, often in a macabre and cruel way.
Saki’s stories are black humour, of a satirical nature. As is the case with most Englishmen, Saki revelled in ridiculing the hypocrisies of his fellow countrymen – notably those of the well-heeled, aristocrats. Saki’s writing is crisp, funny and perfectly targeted.
Two of his creations, Reginald and Clovis Sangrail, are young, ‘men about town’ who do not do anything other than flit about from one country house to another, getting into scrapes and helping others to get into scrapes.
‘Tobermory’ is about a cat that learns to talk and cannot be made to shut up.
In ‘The Hounds of Fate’, a man who thinks he has outwitted his destiny finds it closing in on him, but from an unexpected direction.
While ‘The Music on the Hill’, is about a woman who offends the god Pan and suffers the consequences.
Saki’s writing is black comedy at its best. Possibly a little too dark for many Edwardian tastes. But the world changed, possibly into one which may have suited Saki better.
It takes a special gift to make a reader feel the way Saki manages to do. Maybe only I really understand his warped sense of humour?
June 15, 2020
Perhaps better than any other Edwardian author I have read, Saki distils what I take to be the obvious truth of the 1900s middle-class. He is not, importantly, a great social reformer or revolutionary – at least on the page – but instead unveils by mockery, by aggressive satire. He would be sneery if he wasn’t so smug; but a smugness of a particularly English breed that is all but encouraged by the language. One requires such clever brats as Reginald or Clovis to unweave what is a closely matrixed neurosis of British suppositions; they are the agents of chaos that pull back the wizard’s curtain, even if they remain very much guarded by its garish fabric. Being a ‘complete works’ the wheat is necessarily sorted with the chaff, but Saki’s very best stories more than make up for his very worst, which seem rather dull than especially heinous.
March 4, 2022
Saki is one of those writers that everyone used to know about on the basis of one story, The Open Window. Some might know of others but that was the one that always got anthologised and, to be fair, it's a little gem. It's also pretty representative of practically all his output: very short, humorous stories written by and about upper middle class Edwardians. In short, it's the sort of book Bertie Wooster would read, though he'd doubtless find it intellectually taxing.
So, fine for dipping into but nothing to really hold the interest, especially if you're intent on reading them all. A "best of" with 10 or 15 of the best stories would be a far more worthwhile investment of one's time. Either that or keep it in the bathroom to dip into once or twice a year.
So, fine for dipping into but nothing to really hold the interest, especially if you're intent on reading them all. A "best of" with 10 or 15 of the best stories would be a far more worthwhile investment of one's time. Either that or keep it in the bathroom to dip into once or twice a year.
March 6, 2018
The was a very enjoyable read. I really liked the writing, the form, and the characters - especially Clovis, he's basically the turn-of-the-last-century Sheldon (from Big Bang Theory).
What I did not like as much were the novellas and the repetitiveness of the story structures - the 'turns' at the end became predictable, and there was often little differentiation in the types of characters he made fun of. Definitely of the same literary line as Thackery and Wilde though.
What I did not like as much were the novellas and the repetitiveness of the story structures - the 'turns' at the end became predictable, and there was often little differentiation in the types of characters he made fun of. Definitely of the same literary line as Thackery and Wilde though.
October 21, 2009
I really love this book, but it took me so long to read it... Something about the stories generally made me unable to finish one and just launch into the next one, and there are a lot of stories. Some of them are so funny it hurt. I would recommend this book, but if you are like me, be sure you aren't expecting to finish it quickly.
June 11, 2008
At the time my mother gave this as a gift, she may or may not have seen how like this volume's central character I had already become (a snippy queer), but I thank her just the same. Saki's stories chronicle Clovis as he dishes out pre-Roald Dahl, sitcomesque lesson-teaching to the pompous elite.
August 31, 2012
The best stories in this collection are master-works: perfectly paced with strong characterisation and decidedly anti-establishment themes. Brilliant book which you can pick up on a whim and jump immediately into a bygone age.
March 11, 2023
I sent a postcard of SAKI (who has an uncanny resemblance to actor/comedian, Bob Hope). I was curious about him. He was a British writer and has been referred to as the Master short-story writer. He would repeat certain subjects and seemed to have a thing for discussing wolves, forests, Parliament and just plain gossip with a touch of humor. So, what better than to purchase his complete book of short stories. I was in for a surprise. He has this Old English way of writing. I found it fun, amusing and sometimes boring. I got through it in-between my other books. And as I look back at all that I encompassed from him I have to say that I am impressed by his way of words. I think my favorite story was “DUSK”. You can bing or google ‘Dusk by Saki’ and you can immediately read it. I must give some honorable mention to these stories: THE PHANTOM LUNCHEON and THE INTERLOPERS.
I started this book in late November 2022 and have been reading one of his short stories now and then. I’m happy my experience with SAKI is over—if that provides an indication about the book; however, I do appreciate the lines that followed that did capture me along the way:
REGINALD ON CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
There ought to be technical education classes on the science of present-giving. No one seems to have the faintest notion of what anyone else wants.
REGINALD ON THE ACADEMY
“The art of life was the avoidance of the unattainable”
REGINALD’s CHOIR TREAT
In the country people rise early to see if a new strawberry has happened during the night.
REGINALD ON WORRIES
Over here the trouble is that so many people who have money to throw about seem to have such vague ideas where to throw it.
REGINALD’s RUBAIYAT
It might be taken as an endorsement of deplorable methods.
THE INNOCENCE OF REGINALD
“I am just in the mood to have my portrait painted by someone with an unmistakable future.”
“I love people who do unexpected things.”
“I had an idea that I’d like to write a book. It was to be a book of personal reminiscences and was to leave out nothing.”
REGINALD IN RUSSIA
“A life of pleasure-seeking and card-playing and dissipation brings only dissatisfaction. You will find that out some day.”
Reginald felt that there is some privacy which should be sacred from intrusion.
THE RETICENCE OF LADY ANNE
In matters artistic they had a similarity of taste. They leaned towards the honest and explicit in art, a picture, for instance, that told its own story, with generous assistance from its title.
“After all, I’m only human, you know. You seem to forget that I’m only human.”
“I am willing, if I can thereby restore things to a happier standpoint, to undertake to lead a better life.”
GABRIEL-ERNST
He was a great walker. It was his custom to take mental notes of everything he saw during his walks, not so much for the purpose of assisting contemporary science as to provide topics for conversation afterwards.
THE BAG
“Be as bright and lively as you can; the poor man’s got a fit of the glooms.”
THE BAKER’s DOZEN
“Time has only added ripeness to your charms.”
“You’ve got to educate him first. You can’t expect a boy to be vicious till he’s been to a good school.”
THE MATCH-MAKER
“All decent people live beyond their incomes nowadays, and those who aren’t respectable live beyond other people’s. A few gifted individuals manage to do both.”
“If one wants a thing done in a hurry one must see to it oneself.”
THE STAMPEDING OF LADY BASTABLE
Lost dignity is not a possession which can be restored at a moment’s notice...the process of returning to normal conditions is almost as painful as a slow recovery from drowning.
ADRIAN
“Well, there is a strong strain of madness in our family. If you haven’t noticed it yourself all your friends must have.”
“And be surrounded by Americans trying to talk French? No, thank you. I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English.”
THE CHAPLET
One cannot discount the unpleasant things of this world merely by looking the other way.
THE QUEST
“When love is over, how little of love even the lover understands.”
FILBOID STUDGE, THE STORY OF A MOUSE THAT HELPED
People will do things from a sense of duty which they would never attempt as pleasure. There are thousands of respectable middle-class men who, if you found them unexpectedly in a Turkish bath, would explain in all sincerity that a doctor had ordered them to take Turkish baths; if you told them in return that you went there because you liked it, they would stare in pained wonder at the frivolity of your motive.
THE STORY OF ST. VESPALUUS
“Tell me a story.”
“What sort of a story?”
“One just true enough to be interesting and not true enough to be tiresome.”
“Every profession has its secrets. If it hadn’t it wouldn’t be a profession.”
THE WAY TO THE DAIRY
“Travel enlarges the mind.”
THE PEACE OF MOWSLE BARTON
Time and space seemed to lose their meaning and their abruptness; the minutes slid away into hours, and the meadows and fallows sloped away into middle distance, softly and imperceptibly.
Now and then she would break off into a shrill laugh, with a note of malice in it that was not pleasant to hear.
“Very bad for our nerves, all this rush and hurry. Give me peace and quiet of the country.”
An exuberant rendering of “1812” was being given by a strenuous orchestra, came nearest to his ideal of a nerve sedative.
MINISTERS OF GRACE
A large black swan, which had recently shown signs of a savage and dangerous disposition, had suddenly attacked a young gentleman who was walking by the water’s edge, dragged him down under the surface, and drowned him before anyone could come to his assistance...
THE REMOULDING OF GROBY LINGTON
“A man is known by the company he keeps.”
What, after all, did his daily routine amount to but a sedate meandering and pecking and perching, in his garden, among his fruit trees, in his wicker chair on the lawn, or by the fireside in his library.
THE HEN
“That’s just the trouble. It’s when servants have been with you for years that they become a really serious nuisance.”
“It is not always wise to humor people when they get these ideas into their heads. There’s no knowing to what lengths they may go if you encourage them.”
THE LULL
“One occasionally has to do things one does not like.”
THE SCHARTZ-METTERKLUME METHOD
“I wish them not only to be taught but interested in what they learn.”
THE BLIND SPOT
“People don’t always weigh the consequences of their rash acts, otherwise there would be very few murders committed. He is a man of a hot temper.”
DUSK
At Hyde Park Corner, his imagination pictured things as he sat on this bench in the almost deserted walk. He was not disinclined to take a certain cynical pleasure in observing and labelling his fellow wanderers as they went their ways in the dark stretches between the lamplights.
“I suppose you think I’ve spun you rather an impossible yarn.”
THE QUINCE TREE
“I often do things that I oughtn’t to do. And I am always swayed by the last person who speaks to me.”
THE STAKE
“He suffers quite a lot from neuralgia.”
“The cook must be preparing something unusually sumptuous in your honor.”
CLOVIS ON PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES
“You must have noticed that it’s always the important things that one forgets, while the trivial, unnecessary facts of life stick in one’s memory.”
TEA
“Now tell me hundreds of things.”
THE WOLVES OF CERNOGRATZ
“My father used to tell me many stories...I knew all the family legends and stories. When one has nothing left but memories, one guards and dusts them with special care.”
THE GUESTS
“Now, perhaps, you can understand my appreciation of a sleepy countryside where things don’t happen.”
THE PHANTOM LUNCHEON
“...you can pass yourself off as me. People say that we are so alike that they can hardly tell us apart.”
A BREAD AND BUTTER MISS
A flutter, indicative of general boredom; went round the table. Other people’s dreams are about as universally interesting as accounts of other people’s gardens, or chickens, or children.
“I dreamt about the winner of the Derby,” said Lola.
A swift reaction of attentive interest set in.
“Do tell us what you dreamt,” came in a chorus.
THE INTERLOPERS
“...you offered me your wine flask...I will be your friend.”
QUAIL SEED
To go directly from a shopping expedition to a tea party was what was known locally as “living in a whirl”.
EXPECTING MRS. PENTHERBY
“Women will quarrel. You can’t prevent it; it’s I the nature of the sex. A woman will endure discomforts, and make sacrifices, and go without things to a heroic extent, but the one luxury she will not go without is her quarrels.”
MARK
“Time with you is a commodity of considerable importance. Minutes, even have their value.”
“No one ought to travel without one or two novels in their luggage as stand-by.”
THE MAPPINED LIFE
“To some people a restricted income doesn’t matter a bit, in fact it often seems to help as a means for getting a lot of reality out of life: I am sure there are men and women who do their shopping in little back streets of Paris, buying four carrots and a shred of beef for their daily sustenance, who lead a perfectly real and eventful existence.”
FATE
There are occasions when one must take one’s Fate in one’s hands.
SHOCK TACTICS
“One never realizes one’s blessing while one enjoys them.”
I started this book in late November 2022 and have been reading one of his short stories now and then. I’m happy my experience with SAKI is over—if that provides an indication about the book; however, I do appreciate the lines that followed that did capture me along the way:
REGINALD ON CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
There ought to be technical education classes on the science of present-giving. No one seems to have the faintest notion of what anyone else wants.
REGINALD ON THE ACADEMY
“The art of life was the avoidance of the unattainable”
REGINALD’s CHOIR TREAT
In the country people rise early to see if a new strawberry has happened during the night.
REGINALD ON WORRIES
Over here the trouble is that so many people who have money to throw about seem to have such vague ideas where to throw it.
REGINALD’s RUBAIYAT
It might be taken as an endorsement of deplorable methods.
THE INNOCENCE OF REGINALD
“I am just in the mood to have my portrait painted by someone with an unmistakable future.”
“I love people who do unexpected things.”
“I had an idea that I’d like to write a book. It was to be a book of personal reminiscences and was to leave out nothing.”
REGINALD IN RUSSIA
“A life of pleasure-seeking and card-playing and dissipation brings only dissatisfaction. You will find that out some day.”
Reginald felt that there is some privacy which should be sacred from intrusion.
THE RETICENCE OF LADY ANNE
In matters artistic they had a similarity of taste. They leaned towards the honest and explicit in art, a picture, for instance, that told its own story, with generous assistance from its title.
“After all, I’m only human, you know. You seem to forget that I’m only human.”
“I am willing, if I can thereby restore things to a happier standpoint, to undertake to lead a better life.”
GABRIEL-ERNST
He was a great walker. It was his custom to take mental notes of everything he saw during his walks, not so much for the purpose of assisting contemporary science as to provide topics for conversation afterwards.
THE BAG
“Be as bright and lively as you can; the poor man’s got a fit of the glooms.”
THE BAKER’s DOZEN
“Time has only added ripeness to your charms.”
“You’ve got to educate him first. You can’t expect a boy to be vicious till he’s been to a good school.”
THE MATCH-MAKER
“All decent people live beyond their incomes nowadays, and those who aren’t respectable live beyond other people’s. A few gifted individuals manage to do both.”
“If one wants a thing done in a hurry one must see to it oneself.”
THE STAMPEDING OF LADY BASTABLE
Lost dignity is not a possession which can be restored at a moment’s notice...the process of returning to normal conditions is almost as painful as a slow recovery from drowning.
ADRIAN
“Well, there is a strong strain of madness in our family. If you haven’t noticed it yourself all your friends must have.”
“And be surrounded by Americans trying to talk French? No, thank you. I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English.”
THE CHAPLET
One cannot discount the unpleasant things of this world merely by looking the other way.
THE QUEST
“When love is over, how little of love even the lover understands.”
FILBOID STUDGE, THE STORY OF A MOUSE THAT HELPED
People will do things from a sense of duty which they would never attempt as pleasure. There are thousands of respectable middle-class men who, if you found them unexpectedly in a Turkish bath, would explain in all sincerity that a doctor had ordered them to take Turkish baths; if you told them in return that you went there because you liked it, they would stare in pained wonder at the frivolity of your motive.
THE STORY OF ST. VESPALUUS
“Tell me a story.”
“What sort of a story?”
“One just true enough to be interesting and not true enough to be tiresome.”
“Every profession has its secrets. If it hadn’t it wouldn’t be a profession.”
THE WAY TO THE DAIRY
“Travel enlarges the mind.”
THE PEACE OF MOWSLE BARTON
Time and space seemed to lose their meaning and their abruptness; the minutes slid away into hours, and the meadows and fallows sloped away into middle distance, softly and imperceptibly.
Now and then she would break off into a shrill laugh, with a note of malice in it that was not pleasant to hear.
“Very bad for our nerves, all this rush and hurry. Give me peace and quiet of the country.”
An exuberant rendering of “1812” was being given by a strenuous orchestra, came nearest to his ideal of a nerve sedative.
MINISTERS OF GRACE
A large black swan, which had recently shown signs of a savage and dangerous disposition, had suddenly attacked a young gentleman who was walking by the water’s edge, dragged him down under the surface, and drowned him before anyone could come to his assistance...
THE REMOULDING OF GROBY LINGTON
“A man is known by the company he keeps.”
What, after all, did his daily routine amount to but a sedate meandering and pecking and perching, in his garden, among his fruit trees, in his wicker chair on the lawn, or by the fireside in his library.
THE HEN
“That’s just the trouble. It’s when servants have been with you for years that they become a really serious nuisance.”
“It is not always wise to humor people when they get these ideas into their heads. There’s no knowing to what lengths they may go if you encourage them.”
THE LULL
“One occasionally has to do things one does not like.”
THE SCHARTZ-METTERKLUME METHOD
“I wish them not only to be taught but interested in what they learn.”
THE BLIND SPOT
“People don’t always weigh the consequences of their rash acts, otherwise there would be very few murders committed. He is a man of a hot temper.”
DUSK
At Hyde Park Corner, his imagination pictured things as he sat on this bench in the almost deserted walk. He was not disinclined to take a certain cynical pleasure in observing and labelling his fellow wanderers as they went their ways in the dark stretches between the lamplights.
“I suppose you think I’ve spun you rather an impossible yarn.”
THE QUINCE TREE
“I often do things that I oughtn’t to do. And I am always swayed by the last person who speaks to me.”
THE STAKE
“He suffers quite a lot from neuralgia.”
“The cook must be preparing something unusually sumptuous in your honor.”
CLOVIS ON PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES
“You must have noticed that it’s always the important things that one forgets, while the trivial, unnecessary facts of life stick in one’s memory.”
TEA
“Now tell me hundreds of things.”
THE WOLVES OF CERNOGRATZ
“My father used to tell me many stories...I knew all the family legends and stories. When one has nothing left but memories, one guards and dusts them with special care.”
THE GUESTS
“Now, perhaps, you can understand my appreciation of a sleepy countryside where things don’t happen.”
THE PHANTOM LUNCHEON
“...you can pass yourself off as me. People say that we are so alike that they can hardly tell us apart.”
A BREAD AND BUTTER MISS
A flutter, indicative of general boredom; went round the table. Other people’s dreams are about as universally interesting as accounts of other people’s gardens, or chickens, or children.
“I dreamt about the winner of the Derby,” said Lola.
A swift reaction of attentive interest set in.
“Do tell us what you dreamt,” came in a chorus.
THE INTERLOPERS
“...you offered me your wine flask...I will be your friend.”
QUAIL SEED
To go directly from a shopping expedition to a tea party was what was known locally as “living in a whirl”.
EXPECTING MRS. PENTHERBY
“Women will quarrel. You can’t prevent it; it’s I the nature of the sex. A woman will endure discomforts, and make sacrifices, and go without things to a heroic extent, but the one luxury she will not go without is her quarrels.”
MARK
“Time with you is a commodity of considerable importance. Minutes, even have their value.”
“No one ought to travel without one or two novels in their luggage as stand-by.”
THE MAPPINED LIFE
“To some people a restricted income doesn’t matter a bit, in fact it often seems to help as a means for getting a lot of reality out of life: I am sure there are men and women who do their shopping in little back streets of Paris, buying four carrots and a shred of beef for their daily sustenance, who lead a perfectly real and eventful existence.”
FATE
There are occasions when one must take one’s Fate in one’s hands.
SHOCK TACTICS
“One never realizes one’s blessing while one enjoys them.”
December 12, 2018
I merely told her with engaging simplicity that the art of life was the avoidance of the unattainable.
(page 8)
Even the Hooligan was probably invented in China centuries before we thought of him.
(page 18)
He classified the Princess with that distinct type of woman that looks as if it habitually went out to feed hens in the rain.
(page 35)
If there is any truth in the theory of transmigration, this particular mouse must certainly have been in a former state a member of the Alpine Club.
(page 82)
And be surrounded by Americans trying to talk French? No, thank you. I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English.
(page 122)
One cannot discount the unpleasant things of this world merely by looking the other way.
(page 124)
“Who are those depressed-looking young women who have just gone by?” asked the Baroness; “they have the air of people who have bowed to destiny and are not quite sure whether the salute will be returned.”
(page 150)
“The trouble is,” said Clovis to his aunt, “all these days of intrusive remembrance harp so persistently on one aspect of human nature and entirely ignore the other; that is way they become so perfunctory and artificial. At Christmas and New Year you are emboldened and encourage by convention to send gushing messages of optimistic goodwill and servile affection to people whom you would scarcely ask to lunch unless some one else had failed you at the last moment; if you are supping at a restaurant at New Year’s Eve you are permitted and expected to join hands and sing “For Auld Land Syne” with strangers whom you have never seen before and never want to see again. But no licence is allowed in the opposite direction.”
(pages 278-9)
Susan Lady Beanford was a vigorous old woman who had coquetted with imaginary ill-health for the greater part of a lifetime; Clovis Sangrail irreverently declared that she had caught a chill at the Coronation of Queen Victoria and had never let it go again.
(page 347)
(page 8)
Even the Hooligan was probably invented in China centuries before we thought of him.
(page 18)
He classified the Princess with that distinct type of woman that looks as if it habitually went out to feed hens in the rain.
(page 35)
If there is any truth in the theory of transmigration, this particular mouse must certainly have been in a former state a member of the Alpine Club.
(page 82)
And be surrounded by Americans trying to talk French? No, thank you. I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English.
(page 122)
One cannot discount the unpleasant things of this world merely by looking the other way.
(page 124)
“Who are those depressed-looking young women who have just gone by?” asked the Baroness; “they have the air of people who have bowed to destiny and are not quite sure whether the salute will be returned.”
(page 150)
“The trouble is,” said Clovis to his aunt, “all these days of intrusive remembrance harp so persistently on one aspect of human nature and entirely ignore the other; that is way they become so perfunctory and artificial. At Christmas and New Year you are emboldened and encourage by convention to send gushing messages of optimistic goodwill and servile affection to people whom you would scarcely ask to lunch unless some one else had failed you at the last moment; if you are supping at a restaurant at New Year’s Eve you are permitted and expected to join hands and sing “For Auld Land Syne” with strangers whom you have never seen before and never want to see again. But no licence is allowed in the opposite direction.”
(pages 278-9)
Susan Lady Beanford was a vigorous old woman who had coquetted with imaginary ill-health for the greater part of a lifetime; Clovis Sangrail irreverently declared that she had caught a chill at the Coronation of Queen Victoria and had never let it go again.
(page 347)
March 23, 2022
A thoroughly chortlesome binding of mordant British wit. Saki can be seen as a precursor to the greatest humourist of them all, P.G. Wodehouse, in that he has a similar aloof and poetically marvellous manner of eyeing things humorously from a distance. His turn of phrase is exquisite and it is evident that he was a perspicacious person, when it comes to observing the manners of his age. What sets him apart from Wodehouse is the surprise element: sometimes, his stories might take a dark or even supernatural turn, and at times they might even turn out to be altogether un-comical. He is also much more involved with the real world (for example, he simply would not let the Suffragettes rest).
Not everything in this collection is 24-carat, though, and Saki sometimes has difficulties in wrapping up his stories in any meaningful manner. He is a master of description and vicious British humour, but at times he struggles to find a proper form for his brilliant wit. This means that stories come and go, they might touch upon something thoroughly uninteresting, and end in a sort of try-hard punchline that's more redolent of today's films than Edwardian humour. It seems pretty inevitable that the reader's interest will flag eventually, when they are presented with a hundred-something short stories by an author who is not particularly adventurous—and this is the case with Saki's compendium as well. This is so even if I read the book very slowly indeed, sometimes but one story a day.
But as a choice treat every once in a while, Saki is the bee's knees, ranking vertiginously high in the canon of British gutbusters. As a valediction, allow me to present his contribution to the immortal utterances of the Great God of Laughter:
Waldo is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.
Not everything in this collection is 24-carat, though, and Saki sometimes has difficulties in wrapping up his stories in any meaningful manner. He is a master of description and vicious British humour, but at times he struggles to find a proper form for his brilliant wit. This means that stories come and go, they might touch upon something thoroughly uninteresting, and end in a sort of try-hard punchline that's more redolent of today's films than Edwardian humour. It seems pretty inevitable that the reader's interest will flag eventually, when they are presented with a hundred-something short stories by an author who is not particularly adventurous—and this is the case with Saki's compendium as well. This is so even if I read the book very slowly indeed, sometimes but one story a day.
But as a choice treat every once in a while, Saki is the bee's knees, ranking vertiginously high in the canon of British gutbusters. As a valediction, allow me to present his contribution to the immortal utterances of the Great God of Laughter:
Waldo is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.
June 26, 2025
Okay, it's a short story collection so it's automatically a mixed bag. Saki is clearly known as a master of the short story but even he wrote some duds. Time hasn't always been kind to these stories either. There are a few that are about things so far removed from my understanding that whatever might have been funny about them 100+ years ago is lost to me.
That said, there were a surprising number of them that hold up really well. They are on more mundane subjects, or ones that are as true now as they were then. I also really appreciate getting this new link in my knowledge chain of British comedy. I can see more than a few things here that lead directly towards British comedy as we know it today and as it's evolved over the last century. I can remember stories that remind me of all sorts of classics from Terry Thomas to Beyond the Fringe and Monty Python, backwards to PG Wodehouse, and forwards even to Eddie Izzard or Mitchell and Webb. There's a direct line through the culture of their comedy from Saki (and probably before as well, but I don't know that as well yet) and it's really cool to realize that through reading his stories.
This is another audiobook where I have to give high praise to the narrator as well. This guy can really cover the full range of British voices to give these stories life, adding a lot of the experience that isn't always obvious when reading in print.
So yeah, definitely a great read and one of those authors I'd recommend checking out if you like older British comedy or poking fun at upper class people, since that's a big part of the humor here.
That said, there were a surprising number of them that hold up really well. They are on more mundane subjects, or ones that are as true now as they were then. I also really appreciate getting this new link in my knowledge chain of British comedy. I can see more than a few things here that lead directly towards British comedy as we know it today and as it's evolved over the last century. I can remember stories that remind me of all sorts of classics from Terry Thomas to Beyond the Fringe and Monty Python, backwards to PG Wodehouse, and forwards even to Eddie Izzard or Mitchell and Webb. There's a direct line through the culture of their comedy from Saki (and probably before as well, but I don't know that as well yet) and it's really cool to realize that through reading his stories.
This is another audiobook where I have to give high praise to the narrator as well. This guy can really cover the full range of British voices to give these stories life, adding a lot of the experience that isn't always obvious when reading in print.
So yeah, definitely a great read and one of those authors I'd recommend checking out if you like older British comedy or poking fun at upper class people, since that's a big part of the humor here.
February 2, 2018
It took me a while to read all of the stories in this collection and I think that is how they were meant to be read, four to five stories at a time.
Most of the stories were humorous as they satirized the British society of their time. Some stories were distinctly macabre.
It's easy to see how these stories would later influence Wodehouse. As it is, many if Saki's stories are like a Wodehouse novel condensed into the length of a short story. Overall, a witty and pretty humorous collection that short story lovers would love.
Most of the stories were humorous as they satirized the British society of their time. Some stories were distinctly macabre.
It's easy to see how these stories would later influence Wodehouse. As it is, many if Saki's stories are like a Wodehouse novel condensed into the length of a short story. Overall, a witty and pretty humorous collection that short story lovers would love.
February 8, 2018
If there is one book I want with me on that forsaken lost island, then it's this one.
I have read it cover to cover thrice already, but I find myself visiting the individual stories ever so often, they soothe my pain, bring me to laugh and feel like I have viewed something keenly fantastic that resonates so well with my sense of humour.
His satire, his attention to detail and disdain for the tenets of "good" society make him a personal favourite, he's part of the trifecta of Wilde and Wodehouse style of subversive humour.
I have read it cover to cover thrice already, but I find myself visiting the individual stories ever so often, they soothe my pain, bring me to laugh and feel like I have viewed something keenly fantastic that resonates so well with my sense of humour.
His satire, his attention to detail and disdain for the tenets of "good" society make him a personal favourite, he's part of the trifecta of Wilde and Wodehouse style of subversive humour.
December 25, 2020
Beautiful stories that touch the soul. Filled with Eastern mysticism, each story is a little shining light.
I was given this book by an English professor at a college in Minnesota where I spent a winter.
He and I shared our mutual love of poetry and prose. He gave me an old copy of this book, dedicated to "The one who came to visit and stayed."
I was given this book by an English professor at a college in Minnesota where I spent a winter.
He and I shared our mutual love of poetry and prose. He gave me an old copy of this book, dedicated to "The one who came to visit and stayed."
February 12, 2023
This kind if chicanery is enough to make Slippin’ Jimmy blush
Favourite stories: Morlvera and The Image of the Lost Soul
Favourite stories: Morlvera and The Image of the Lost Soul
September 12, 2013
Saki artinya adalah pembawa cangkir dalam bahasa Persia. Kata yang diambil dari kumpulan syair karya Omar Khayam (salah satu kumpulan syair terbagus yang pernah gue baca) tersebut akhirnya diambil seorang sastrawan Inggris bernama H.H Munro sebagai nama pena (Kalau kita mengetikkan kata Saki di pencarian Google, seringkali yang muncul justru judul sebuah anime :D ). Saki dikenal sebaga penulis cerita pendek, dengan gaya yang menurut gue merupakan campuran gaya penulis O Henry dan Oscar Wilde. Keduanya adalah penulis hebat dan Saki berhasil menggabungkan keduanya.
Saki bayak mengeluarkan karya terbaiknya dalam masa yang disebut ‘Golden Evening of 20th Century’. Masa-masa sebelum Perang Dunia I yang di Barat ditandai dengan kemakmuran, keeleganan gaya hidup, dan situasi politik yang relatif stabil. Dalam cerpennya kita bisa merasakan rasa puas diri dari suatu masyarakat yang merasa mapan dan seringkali kekonyolan yang dihasilkannya. Saki seringkali memparodikan hal tersebut sekaligus tidak munafik mengakui bahwa ia sendiri adalah bagian dari masyarakat itu. Ia tidak benar-benar membenci mereka, mungkin pada satu titik ia bahkan mencintai mereka. Dalam karya-karyanya yang paling politis, sikap tersebut tetaplah hadir (Saki memiliki ketertarikan terhadap kehidupan politik di zamannya dan sering menjadikannya sebagai tema).
Dalam buku ini gue menemukan ada 2 cerpennya yang ‘meledek’ gerakan Suffragate (Gerakan para perempuan yang menuntut hak pilih dan oleh para cendekiawan disebut sebagai gerakan feminis gelombang pertama) tetapi dengan cara-cara yang mungkin akan membuat seorang suffrgate pada zaman itu sendiri tersenyum. Saki tampaknya tidak pernah serius dalam menanggapi suatu fenomena, baginya seperti tidak pernah ada konteks yang benar-benar penting untuk diambil pusing.
Kehidupannya sendiri sama menariknya dengan cerpen-cerpennya. Ia adalah seorang homoseksual di era yang sangat restriktif terhadap seksualitas, ia bersikeras maju sebagai prajurit pada Perang Dunia I walaupun sebenarnya sudah melewati batas umur, ia akhirnya meninggal tertembak dalam perang pada usia relatif muda. Gue yakin jika ada film tentang dirinya,Saki akan sangat girang. Pembakaran jurnal pribadi Saki pasca kematiannya oleh saudarinya tampak konyol sekarang. Waktu membuat karya ‘main-main’ Saki menjadi khazanah sastra dunia, waktu pula yang membuat kehidupan pribadinya sama tragis dan lucunya seperti cerpennya.
Saki bayak mengeluarkan karya terbaiknya dalam masa yang disebut ‘Golden Evening of 20th Century’. Masa-masa sebelum Perang Dunia I yang di Barat ditandai dengan kemakmuran, keeleganan gaya hidup, dan situasi politik yang relatif stabil. Dalam cerpennya kita bisa merasakan rasa puas diri dari suatu masyarakat yang merasa mapan dan seringkali kekonyolan yang dihasilkannya. Saki seringkali memparodikan hal tersebut sekaligus tidak munafik mengakui bahwa ia sendiri adalah bagian dari masyarakat itu. Ia tidak benar-benar membenci mereka, mungkin pada satu titik ia bahkan mencintai mereka. Dalam karya-karyanya yang paling politis, sikap tersebut tetaplah hadir (Saki memiliki ketertarikan terhadap kehidupan politik di zamannya dan sering menjadikannya sebagai tema).
Dalam buku ini gue menemukan ada 2 cerpennya yang ‘meledek’ gerakan Suffragate (Gerakan para perempuan yang menuntut hak pilih dan oleh para cendekiawan disebut sebagai gerakan feminis gelombang pertama) tetapi dengan cara-cara yang mungkin akan membuat seorang suffrgate pada zaman itu sendiri tersenyum. Saki tampaknya tidak pernah serius dalam menanggapi suatu fenomena, baginya seperti tidak pernah ada konteks yang benar-benar penting untuk diambil pusing.
Kehidupannya sendiri sama menariknya dengan cerpen-cerpennya. Ia adalah seorang homoseksual di era yang sangat restriktif terhadap seksualitas, ia bersikeras maju sebagai prajurit pada Perang Dunia I walaupun sebenarnya sudah melewati batas umur, ia akhirnya meninggal tertembak dalam perang pada usia relatif muda. Gue yakin jika ada film tentang dirinya,Saki akan sangat girang. Pembakaran jurnal pribadi Saki pasca kematiannya oleh saudarinya tampak konyol sekarang. Waktu membuat karya ‘main-main’ Saki menjadi khazanah sastra dunia, waktu pula yang membuat kehidupan pribadinya sama tragis dan lucunya seperti cerpennya.
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