[fantasyfan]

Paola noted:
"Perhaps my problem is that I read the stories all in one go, but after a while all I could see is the common theme of lashing out at the upper middle classes - and I found he stretched the distance between the gullibility of those at the wrong end of the stick and the wit of the character mastering the situation far too much. Also some wiff of intellectual/class elitism came across: for instance in the Schartz-Metterklume method Lady Carlotta is punishing Mrs. Quabarl (I note a Lady vs a Mrs) for being too pretentious, as she is not the real article, which she would be only by birth. "

Yes, there certainly does seem to be a feature of that sort in his writing. Particularly perceptive is Paola's insight about "Mrs" vs "Lady". In a similar vein, I found "The Romancers" to be an unnecesarily cruel jibe at beggars in general.

On the other hand, in the story "The Philanthropist and the Happy Cat" we see just the opposite. Here we have a woman comfortably well off who pities the deluded, boring and stupid lives of the middle classes. In one of his more memorable moments Saki pulls the rug out from under this self-appointed "fairy godmother" and demonstrates that in fact it is her life that is empty . . . .