[fantasyfan]

I nominate The short stories of Saki {H. H. Munro,18 December 1870 – 13 November 1916} with the central text being Beasts and Super-Beasts. I would choose that as the core volume because it is the most famous of his short-story collections, but anyone would be free to bring in a story from another of his collections if they wished. For instance “Sredni Vashtar”--one of his most powerful works--is in The Chronicles of Clovis.

Munro was born in Burma but after the death of his mother he and his brother and sister were sent home to be raised by a grandmother and two maiden aunts. This was a Disaster. The aunts were totally unsuited to bringing up three lively children. Ridiculous, stupid, and often contradictory restrictions on their wards were constantly applied by the aunts; hence, Charles, Hector, and Ethel were united in hating their "guardians" with a passion. As a result of this experience, Saki wrote a number of brilliant stories featuring a conflict between intelligent, imaginative children and repressive hypocritical adults. The horrible women that dominate many of these stories {such as “The Lumber Room” and “Sredni Vashtar”} are based directly on the two aunts.

Saki was quite happy to criticize the self-satisfied assumptions and morals of Victorian and Edwardian society. Frequently authority figures and conventional attitudes are portrayed as foolish and futile. Nature, on the other hand is "red of tooth and claw" making a mockery of human civilised behaviour patterns.

Saki is one of the most imaginative writers of short fiction in his era and a master of the ironic, macabre and unsettling ending.

All of the works of Saki are in the public domain and available free of charge as e-books through Project Gutenberg. In addition, there are inexpensive collected editions easily obtainable.