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Title: Saki: The Complete Saki by H.H. Munro, Saki ISBN: 0-14-118078-1 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.9 (21 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Edwardian British Humor
Comment: Like many people who came from the upper-class, Hector Hugh Munro (pen-name Saki) was very "old school" right-wing and conservative in his political views, which would come under criticism in our more enlightened age. There's an underlying cruelty and lack of compassion and sympathy in his work, as these views and outlook of his influenced his literary work. But an author's work should be judged on the work itself, not on the man. Saki's great achievement is his short stories, which were published in a newspaper and then collected into volumes. He was enjoying his literary success when the First World War broke out. He enlisted immediately in 1914. In 1916, he was shot dead in the head by an enemy sniper while hiding in a shallow shell-hole or trench. It was this single sporadic shot in the dusk that silenced one of England's finest writers. Two more volumes of his stories were published posthumously.
To appreciate Saki, one must apreciate witty, sophisticated humor and "old world" dialogue. This author is a master of dialogue, and his short stories (often very short) are full of upper-class types who are portrayed with a delicious malice as Saki shows us their follies, eloquence, and foibles. Wit, satire, and a sort of macabre humor are characteristic of this author's work. Wickedly amusing. You won't soon forget his characters, like the opinionated and divinely dressed Reginald, or the acid-tongued and refined Clovis.
David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"
Rating: 5
Summary: Perfectly Written, Mordantly Witty, Astonishing
Comment: No one writes as Saki did. The only writers even vaguely similar are Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and such columnists as Russell Baker and Maureen Dowd. He is a true genius in compression, wild imagination, wicked humor. In virtually each line, there is a twist, an extraordinary turn of phrase. I imagine the Clovis and Reginald stories being read by John Gielgud or Rex Harrison in high dudgeon. His stories with surprise endings are simply better and more sophisticated than O. Henry. He is a true master of the extreme short story genre that he seems to have created (far superior to say, Bruce Jay Friedman whose work I do like). I haven't read A.J. Liebling or S.J. Perelman, but cannot imagine the exquisite touch of Saki. They are a true joy - each little story a gem of 3-7 pages. Have fun.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the best short story writers in the English Language
Comment: Saki is good, you may not like his politics, but he is good. He is anti-altruistic, through and through, as he despises do gooders as self-serving and self-martyring and having no real good in mind. The "good" lays in good food, done by a good cook. Saki, interestingly, mocks futurism (the art form of Italian fascism) and Wagnerians and Nietzschians (the not unjustly adopted composer and unjustly misconstrued philosophical guru of the Nazis). He was also anti-suffragette and one of his stories is pathetic in his denounciations of them; but he was not misogynist as he has many smart female charaters in his stories. He is a joy to read, maybe the antithesis of Charles Dickens who one could claim is way too verbose and a dreamer on the virtues of strangers (although I like Dickens), Saki is concise and holds little value in the supposed goodness of strangers. One of the books one should read in their late teens. His novels are interesting and moderately entertaining but lack a sense of completion and posssibly nimbus a show at some limit to his depth. Of his plays only the last in the book was decent.
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Title: The Happy Cat: Beasts, Super-Beasts, and Monsters by Saki, H. H. Munro ISBN: 1587157012 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: The Best Short Stories of O. Henry by O. Henry, Bennett Cerf, Van H. Cartmell ISBN: 0679601228 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 22 March, 1994 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Best of Saki: H.H. Munro by Saki, Tom Sharpe ISBN: 0330247328 Publisher: Pan Books Ltd Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.99 |
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Title: Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain by Mark Twain ISBN: 0553211951 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1984 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: 41 Stories by O. Henry by O. Henry, Burton Raffel ISBN: 0451522540 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: April, 1991 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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