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Short Stories by Saki

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Short Stories by Saki

By: H. H. Munro
Narrated by: Frederick Davidson, Nadia May
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About this listen

 Hector Munro, writing under the pseudonym of Saki, is justly renowned for his urbane and witty short stories. His eccentric characters, humorous dialogue and engaging domestic situations all reveal a penetrating and sometimes disturbing insight into human nature. As a quixotic tour guide, Saki leads the reader from garden party to pig sty to political convention with the ease of one who is intimately familiar with the cares and foibles of the human condition, showing us this vista of life through the well tempered lens of his gentle, British irony. In this definitive collection of stories we can browse and sightsee at our leisure, cross borders of fresh insight, admire and enjoy each whimsical tale as we journey through the imaginative landscape of a truly artful writer.(P)1997 by Blackstone Audiobooks Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Short Stories Funny Witty
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The short stories by Saki are simply wonderful. Some are sadly poignant, some mystical and macabre, most of funny. The character of Clovis deserves to be more widely known as he is a triumph of literature! Darker than Wodehouse, funnier than Wilde, sharper than Coward. Listen to one at a time or gorge on a lot in an afternoon, you are bound to enjoy it.

Simply brilliant.

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Imagine a drawing room in an Oscar Wilde play, with the atmosphere crackling with epigrams. And underneath that there is an untamed world of nature, amoral and cruel but liberated. That is the effect of Saki’s typical short stories. Anyone who enjoys The Importance of Being Ernest will enjoy the wit of Saki, although there is a quite distinctive character to his writing. Every word counts.



The stories are read alternately by a male and female reader. Their accents are highly mannered, which is completely appropriate for the material and its Edwardian upper class background (viewed highly ironically) but some may find this irritating. The author’s attitudes to trade unions and suffragettes are frankly reactionary, but this is apparent in only a few of the least typical stories.



They are very short and about six stories are included in each chapter of the audiobook.

Lady Bracknell meets the Hound of the Baskervilles

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These stories are great. If you’ve read any of Roald Dahl’s tales of the unexpected, this is where he got the idea from. They’re somewhat dark, ironic, twisted, and mostly very funny, although it might not be everybody’s kind of humour.

Yes, the narration is annoying, but it’s entirely the way it should be. The characters are posh edwardians, deal with it.

Clovis is such a great character, he’s like a trickster god for posh people. And Sredni Vashtar is one of my all time favourites - polecat god ftw!

The one big problem for me is the chapters, there’s about 5 or 6 stories in each chapter so it’s difficult to find the end of a story if you’re not enjoying it, but that’s no big deal. I’d advise listening to this in small doses to avoid going mad, but overall this is pretty good.

Darkly hilarious (mostly)

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I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this... The wit and humour... I laughed out loud many times. The narrators did an amazing job...their voices adapting to each very story .... loved it !

brilliant !

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Any additional comments?

Wonderfully English in the traditional aristocratic sense. There are a lot of stories here and my only criticism would be that despite the wit and invention of them, there is little variation in the style and arc. It's a minor problem though.

Saki Saki long time ...

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