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Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)


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Anyone read his work?

 

"The Storyteller" was the short story that made me want to write in the first place. I loved it and I still read it nowadays. I also like Sredni Vashtar, Open Window and several of the Reginald stories.

 

I have his entire collection in an omnibus but I only lack his "only novel with a serious vein" the Rise and Fall of the Russian Empire. I hope to find it some day. He's one of my favourite writers. Too bad he died so young.

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I'm so glad to see another fan of this superb writer, vinay87! :console:

 

I was going to start a thread about him myself once-upon-a-time, but failed to do so. Well, chose not to, actually. My reading tastes are firmly in the past, and I'm aware that's a sparsely populated locale. It can be an asset at times since I never have to rush to book-clearance sales before everything's gone. Once they are well and truly picked-over, what I would be inclined to want is still there. Actually, I purposely wait. Fewer books I have to dig through, you see.

 

I have the Penguin version of the 'Complete Saki' which I've read many times. Often I'll just open it anywhere and start reading in the middle of a story for a page or two since it never fails to elevate my prevailing disposition. Frequently a single paragraph accomplishes the required levity. Mine doesn't include an introduction, unfortunately, which I prefer having for enlightenment on story origins and the author's background, though I've found elucidation by other sources.

 

A few of his stories are a tad macabre, but he's the type of writer that I hold at the apex of my style preference. Innovative word usage, dexterous analogies, facetious badinage tinged with snide dismissal, and the requisite pathos for characters just as one begins to wish they'd sidle off a pier and stop annoying everyone. I truly lament the masterpieces he would have created had he survived the war.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 5 years later...

I read some of his short stories a while back, I think it was The Chronicles of Clovis, he's hilariously funny and very witty. It may even have been you, Itsme, who introduced me to them, if so, thank you very much! :friends3: If I remember rightly he has a similar humour to Wodehouse.

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  • 4 months later...

Saki's one of my newest favorite authors. Genuinely hilarious. I have the The Complete Saki, but I haven't quite finished all of it yet. My general opinion so far is that Reginald is his worst collection, Reginald in Russia is an improvement but still not amazing, and everything else is incredible. I've tried getting the guys at my neighborhood theater to do a production of one of his plays but they're not having it, lol. 

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I love Saki's short stories, especially Beasts and Super-Beasts. I bought The Complete Saki nearly 30 years ago, and loved the short stories, but the novels and plays were dry and dull, after the sparkling, wickedly good ones.

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Saki's one of my newest favorite authors. Genuinely hilarious. I have the The Complete Saki, but I haven't quite finished all of it yet. My general opinion so far is that Reginald is his worst collection, Reginald in Russia is an improvement but still not amazing, and everything else is incredible. I've tried getting the guys at my neighborhood theater to do a production of one of his plays but they're not having it, lol. 

 

Ooh, I didn't know he did plays. I haven't read anything by Saki yet, but the others above said that his humour is Wodehouse-esque. Are his plays the same? I'd love to put on a Wodehouse play with my local theatre group, but it doesn't seem possible. Could Saki be a good alternative?

 

ETA: Oh, I just saw Marie's response:

I love Saki's short stories, especially Beasts and Super-Beasts. I bought The Complete Saki nearly 30 years ago, and loved the short stories, but the novels and plays were dry and dull, after the sparkling, wickedly good ones.

 

 

I guess that's a no to humorous plays then? :(

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Ooh, I didn't know he did plays. I haven't read anything by Saki yet, but the others above said that his humour is Wodehouse-esque. Are his plays the same? I'd love to put on a Wodehouse play with my local theatre group, but it doesn't seem possible. Could Saki be a good alternative?

 

ETA: Oh, I just saw Marie's response:

 

 

I guess that's a no to humorous plays then? :(

 

Haven't read any Wodehouse yet, sorry. Saki's done three plays, or at least there are three plays in my copy of The Complete Saki. I thought they were hilarious. -shrug- Opinions, and all that. They're really short, though. One is longer than the other two, but still probably not long enough for a whole full production. My neighborhood theater is known for doing stuff like "TEN" where they do ten ten-minute plays, so that's the sort of thing I was pitching it for. 

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Haven't read any Wodehouse yet, sorry.

 

David, if you're a fan of Saki and British humour, you MUST try some Wodehouse :blush2:  I believe he was influenced by Saki's writing and you can certainly see similarities. Jeeves and Wooster stories I think are his best work and the Blandings series is very funny as well.

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David, if you're a fan of Saki and British humour, you MUST try some Wodehouse :blush2:  I believe he was influenced by Saki's writing and you can certainly see similarities. Jeeves and Wooster stories I think are his best work and the Blandings series is very funny as well.

He's already on my radar, don't worry. I've got the librivox audibook of My Man Jeeves on my phone, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

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Well there is are different opinions on Saki's works :D .

I still think his short stories are the best way to start reading Saki's work.  :smile:

 

His animal related short stories are utterly hilarious I must say.
Overall the Clovis tales are really good too.

How could I forget Clovis Sangrail? :doh:  He is wonderful!

 

I guess that's a no to humorous plays then? :(

Nowhere near as good as the beasts/superbeasts stories, for me.

And the Clovis collection are very good. I tried to describe the story telling of Saki to a friend once, and the closest I could come to was "imagining filming P G Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster, but directed by David Lynch :giggle2: . Saki has a very dry sense of humour, but with  a certain macabre.

I recently read some reviews, and the best description of Saki as a mix of Oscar Wilde and Roald Dahl (I would refer to the Tales of the Unexpected rather the childrens books)

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  • 2 years later...
On 03/07/2016 at 10:38 PM, Kylie said:

 

Ooh, I didn't know he did plays. I haven't read anything by Saki yet, but the others above said that his humour is Wodehouse-esque. Are his plays the same? I'd love to put on a Wodehouse play with my local theatre group, but it doesn't seem possible. Could Saki be a good alternative?

 

 

I just read back over this thread and found this post of mine from over two years ago. Guess what?! I'll be directing a Wodehouse play at my local community theatre group next year! It was possible after all. I'm so excited. :D 

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13 hours ago, Kylie said:

 

I just read back over this thread and found this post of mine from over two years ago. Guess what?! I'll be directing a Wodehouse play at my local community theatre group next year! It was possible after all. I'm so excited. :D 

 

Congratulations Kylie, and I'm sure it will be huge fun. Which one will it be?

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On 10/12/2018 at 11:16 AM, poppy said:

 

Congratulations Kylie, and I'm sure it will be huge fun. Which one will it be?

 

Thanks @poppy! It's largely based on The Code of the Woosters (with the cow creamer and all that) but it's also a play within a play. So Bertie breaks the fourth wall a lot and relates the story to the audience. :)

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19 hours ago, Kylie said:

 

Thanks @poppy! It's largely based on The Code of the Woosters (with the cow creamer and all that) but it's also a play within a play. So Bertie breaks the fourth wall a lot and relates the story to the audience. :)

 

Does the play include all the wonderful characters from the book? Gussy, Madeleine, Stiffie and Harold? And the detestable Spode? Such fun to play. I love the dippy Madeleine and her belief that the stars are God's daisy chains, particularly played by Elizabeth Morton :lol:

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