Novelist and short-story writer, born in Akyab, W Myanmar (formerly Burma). Educated in England at Bedford Grammar School, he returned to Burma and joined the police force in 1893. He went to London in 1896, took up writing for the Westminster Gazette, and from 1902 was the Balkans correspondent for the Morning Post. He is best known for his short stories, humorous, satiric, supernatural, and macabre, which are highly individual, full of eccentric wit and unconventional situations. Collections include Reginald (1904) and Beasts and Superbeasts (1914). His novels The Unbearable Bassington (1912) and When William Came (1913) show his gifts as a social satirist of his contemporary upper-class Edwardian world. He was killed near Beaumont-Hamel in France during World War 1, having volunteered for active service despite being over 40.
Saki (December 18, 1870 – November 14, 1916) was the pen name of British author Hector Hugh Munro, whose witty and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture.
Saki is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. His stories are always short and the good ones are exquisitely memorable, with delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. His story "The Open Window" may be his most famous, with a closing line ("Romance at short notice was her speciality") that has entered the lexicon. and two novella-length satires, the episodic The Westminster Alice (1902, a Parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland), and When William Came (1914), subtitled "A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns".
The name Saki is often thought to be a reference to the cupbearer in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, a poem mentioned disparagingly by the eponymous character in "Reginald on Christmas Presents" (see quote below). This story is the only one of Saki's to begin with a quotation: "A man is known by the company he keeps", and plays on the idea of humans becoming like their pets.
Biography
H.H. He used the severity of these domestic arrangements in many stories, notably "Sredni Vashtar", in which a young boy keeps a pet polecat without the knowledge of his spiteful and domineering female guardian, who, to the boy's great satisfaction, is eventually killed by the animal.
Munro was educated at Pencarwick School in Exmouth and the Bedford Grammar School.
In 1900 Munro's first book appeared, The Rise of the Russian Empire, a historical study modelled upon Edward Gibbon's famous The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It was followed in 1902 by Not-So-Stories, a collection of short stories and a clear reference to Rudyard Kipling's Just-So Stories.
From 1902 to 1908 Munro worked as a foreign correspondent for The Morning Post in the Balkans, Russia, and Paris, then settled in London. Many of the stories from this period feature the elegant and effete Reginald and Clovis, young men-about-town who take heartless and cruel delight in the discomfort or downfall of their conventional and pretentious elders. In addition to his well-known short stories, Saki also turned his talents for fiction into novels.
At the start of World War I, although officially over age, Munro joined the Army as an ordinary soldier, refusing a commission.
He never married.
In recognition of his contribution to literature, a blue plaque has been affixed to a building in which he once lived on Mortimer Street in central London.
Controversy
Some believe that Munro wrote misogynistic and anti-Semitic stories.
Rather than the blanket term 'misogyny', it might be more correct to say that he disliked and disapproved of childless women, probably from his own negative experience of growing up in the care of his strict aunts.
Despite his lampooning of suffragettes and aunts, several of his stories feature sympathetic portrayals of admirably cool and self-possessed schoolgirls.
Short stories
Saki's world contrasts the effete conventions and hypocrisies of Edwardian England with the ruthless but straightforward life-and-death struggles of nature.
Saki's work is now in the public domain, and all or most of these stories are on the Internet.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.Some of his best-known short stories include:
The Interlopers
"The Interlopers," a short story by Saki is about two families fighting over a forest located on the eastern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains. After a brief period of time they see what they think are rescuers, but the story ends with a one word realization of who is really coming: "Wolves."
The Schartz-Metterklume Method
At a train station, an arrogant and overbearing woman mistakes the mischievous Lady Carlotta for the governess she expected.
The Toys of Peace
Rather than giving their young boys toy soldiers and guns, a couple decides to give their sons "peace toys".
The Storyteller
An old aunt along with three children is travelling by train. The aunt starts telling a story. The good girl , who has won three medals for her goodness, in the end of the story is devoured by a wolf, but the children feel delighted . Thus the short story "The Story Teller" provides an antidote to crude didacticism and expresses an attitude of cynicism.
The Unrest-Cure
Saki's recurring hero Clovis Sangrail, a sly young man, overhears the complacent middle-aged Huddle complaining of his own addiction to routine and aversion to change.
Esmé
In a hunting story with a difference, the Baroness tells Clovis of a hyena she and her friend Constance encountered alone in the countryside, who cannot resist the urge to stop for a snack. The story is a perfect example of Saki's delight in setting societal convention against uncompromising nature.
Quotations
From "Reginald on Besetting Sins":
From "Reginald on the Academy":
From "The Jesting of Arlington Stringham":
From "Reginald on Christmas Presents":
User Comments Add a comment…