Saki is considered a master of the short story and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. His stories are always short but 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. He also wrote several plays; a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington (1912); and two novella-length satires, the episodic The Westminster Alice (1902, a Parliamentaryparody 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). It may, however, be a reference to the South American primate of the same name, "a small, long-tailed monkey from the Western Hemisphere" that is a central character in "The Remoulding of Groby Lington" and that, like Munro himself, hid a vicious streak beneath a gentle exterior. 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 the pets they keep.
Le Clezio, Portrait Of A Gentle Writer Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:19:00 -0400 Though born in France, Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustav Le Clezio is a nomadic writer, whose work has been defined by his life of travel around the world. For him, storytelling means melting into the background. Memoir Lives Life As A Widow Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0400 Anne Roiphe was so dependent on her husband she literally didn't know how to open the front door without him. In her memoir of widowhood, she also remembers how he told her, years before he died, that he felt their marriage had been so strong, she would be able to find happiness again. A Furious Voice, Forged In The 'Fire' Of Prejudice Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:03:00 -0400 Jamaican-American novelist Michelle Cliff's essays — urgent, stripped of lyrical excess, discomfiting but illuminating — bear witness to a rough life that has shaped a radical, powerful and essential artist. French Novelist Awarded Nobel Literature Prize Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:08:00 -0400 French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio has been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature. Antoine Compagnon, a professor of French Literature at Columbia University, says there are two periods in Le Clezio's work: it was more experimental in the 1960s and '70s, and later it featured traveling and exoticism. Celebrating Grace Paley's Uniquely Feminine Voice Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:35:00 -0400 Writer Alix Kates Shulman remembers the 1960s as an age where men dominated the literary scene — that is, until Grace Paley's quirky urban voice and modernist short stories began to challenge the notion of what constituted great reading. Chef Jeff's Redemption Story Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:00:00 -0400 Jeff Henderson rose from Los Angeles' mean streets to become the executive chef at two top Las Vegas hotels, and wrote a best selling memoir. Now he aims to pass on what he's learned to other struggling young adults in a new reality TV show titled The Chef Jeff Project.
Reginald in Russia, and other stories by Saki - Download the Project Gutenberg eBook of Reginald in Russia, and other stories by Saki.
Meta Description: [ Download the free eBook: Reginald in Russia, and other stories by Saki ]
Saki Bibliography - Comprehensive bibliography of Saki's works as well as of secondary literature on H.H. Munro.
Meta Description: [ A bibliography for Saki ]
Saki Biography - Features a short biography of writer Saki, the pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro.
Six Uncollected Saki Stories - Six previously uncollected stories by Saki taken from an appendix to A.J. Langguth's A Life of H.H. Munro (1982).
Meta Description: [ Unpublished Stories by Saki ]
The WORLD - Nightmare
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