Literary The MobileRead Literary Book Club December 2011 Discussion: The short stories of Saki

[caleb72]

I'll contribute, but I need to skim the stories mentioned again as I'm having trouble remembering the details now.

[paola]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

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 . . . .

I definitely have to agree - in fact it is probably one of the stories I liked best, and also very contemporary in spirit.

I have a general question: I did find all the names (and surnames) quite bizarre and at times funny, but as a non native speaker I am not quite sure how they sound to more trained ears, and wonder whether they convey any specific nuances in tone to those of you whose first language is English.

[hpulley]

Love the ending of that one.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by paola

I have a general question: I did find all the names (and surnames) quite bizarre and at times funny, but as a non native speaker I am not quite sure how they sound to more trained ears, and wonder whether they convey any specific nuances in tone to those of you whose first language is English.

I think Saki is using a similar technique with names that we see frequently in Dickens. Their very weirdness gives the characters themselves a quality of silliness that makes it easy for us to mock them. Sometimes, as in the case of Frampton Nuttel, the name seems to convey a stuffy, boring character who is maybe a bit of a "nut".

[issybird]

I noticed that some of the names were in pig Latin!

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by issybird

I noticed that some of the names were in pig Latin!

OMG! I never noticed that!

BTW--That's a great avatar.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

BTW--That's a great avatar.

Thanks, Antasyfanfay!

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by paola

I definitely have to agree - in fact it is probably one of the stories I liked best, and also very contemporary in spirit.

I have a general question: I did find all the names (and surnames) quite bizarre and at times funny, but as a non native speaker I am not quite sure how they sound to more trained ears, and wonder whether they convey any specific nuances in tone to those of you whose first language is English.

The names were definitely silly sounding. I knew that some of that was intentional, but I also wondered how much of that was common to British typical names and of that time-period compared to American modern names. So it wasn't just an English as a first language question.

Actually, I was initially concerned about the content of the short stories just because of the title Beasts and Super-Beasts, and the fact that animals is a common theme. Not that I don't like animals (says she with the cat avatar)... I didn't know what to expect since I wasn't sure how the title and animals were going to relate to high society in Edwardian England. Well, the animals weren't gun-toting, vodka-drinking, talking cats like Behemoth in The Master and Margarita. I liked that the stories really focused on the humans, and the animals were a device to help advance the satire. Sometimes the animals were minor in the background, and sometimes they were more prominent.

I need to refresh myself with the stories because it's been too long since I read them. I enjoyed the stories more than I expected to, although I read them just a few at a time. I even recommended them to a friend. I started to read The Chronicles of Clovis, and I'll go more slowly with that collection. The ones that stick that I particularly remember are The Open Window, The Story-Teller, The Byzantine Omelette and Tobermory (although I did not like the ending of that one!).

I also made the mistake of reading all of Beasts and Super Beasts (and Sredni Vashtar) straight through and completed too early. So I wanted to at least go back and read again the three stories that made the largest impression on me. As a pure comic satire of upper class Edwardian England I really liked Beasts and Super Beasts (title story). Such beliefs in mysticism a spirituality were big back then (seances, Ouija Boards, etc.) and it was fun to see all that mocked. I found Sredni Vashtar the most disturbing story. Conradin warrants some intense psychiatric help under involuntary commitment. In the Boar-Pig it is funny read how Mrs. Philidore Stossen and daughter get their comeuppance for trying to sneak into the party uninvited. That brat Matilda Cuvering deserved to be slapped silly though.

So I liked that stories as relatively uncomplicated reading. I will probably return to Chronicles of Clovis to read the remaining stories there from time to time.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

I found Sredni Vashtar the most disturbing story. Conradin warrants some intense psychiatric help under involuntary commitment.

While I think Saki's most brilliant story is "The Lumber Room" I would agree that "Sredni Vashtar" is truly deeply disturbing, despite it's superb construction and undoubted emotional impact.

Perhaps it begins to become moving rather than horrifying when one puts it into the context of Saki's life. The "woman" is modelled on the more dominant of the two horrible aunts who "raised" the three Munro children. Conradin is undoubtedly an alter-ego for Saki himself and it is quite possible that Conradin's actions mirror the deeply felt desires and poisonous anger that Saki himself experienced when he was a sickly little boy.

For those who are interested in Saki's life a reasonable biography is:

Saki:
A Life of Hector Munro
by
A.J.Langguth
Hamish Hamilton Ltd.,
London,
1981
366 pages including 6 unpublished stories

I don't think this is available as an e-book, though it should be available at a library. I imagine one could get a copy from ABE.

I think Saki was a deeply conflicted person. He was educated in the "right" public schools and was thus eligible to be a member of the "elite". Yet he refused a commission when he entered the army and insisted on joining the men in the trenches--something his peers felt was demeaning. Many writers who served, were emotionally deepened by the experience of the horrors of WWI and I have often wondered what he might have contributed to literature after the war if his life had not been cut short by a sniper's bullet.

[fantasyfan]

Just a quick note: if anyone wants to read "Sredni Vashtar" without going through The Chronicles of Clovis here's a quick link directly to the story:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/sk-vashtar.html