Saki - Classic or Dud?

it makes reading the Unrest-cure even more sinister:

"But what is this mystery all about?...And isn't the Bishop going to have tea?"
"The Bishop is out for blood, not tea."
"Blood?" gasped Huddle...
"Tonight is going to be a great night in the history of Christendom," said Clovis, "We are going to massacre every Jew in the neighborhood."
"To massacre the Jews!"said Huddle indignantly. "Do you mean to tell me there's a general rising against them?"
"No it's the Bishops own idea. He's in there arranging all the details now."

the unrest-cure is probably in every saki anthology as it is one of his classic stories, where clovis takes on one of his most elobarate practical jokes.

God I love the short stories though.

I found my Penguin Collected in the closet and have read nine of the stories at a fast clip -- the first writer who seduced me, and tried to imitate.

The comparisons at the start of this thread are weird. In mood and style, Firbank, Saki and Wodehouse don't have much to do with each other. Thread title is clearly a rhetorical question.

I was thinking more about this and I realized that British society is to Firbank what Martians are to Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Yeah, not sure what I meant by the opening post - I don't even remember having read any Firbank! Saki's still classic, of course.

Far be it from me to judge this guy on the basis of one single story, but Hermann The Irascible - The Story Of The Great Weep - ugh. What a dick.

Saki had the uncanny knack of presenting his misanthropy with a halo of irrepressible charm. The misanthropy and disgust is there in most of the tales, but at the story's end the charm is all you can recall. This is strangely typical of most humorists. The sunny disposition of a Wodehouse is the exception and not the rule.

As for his anti-semitism, it was a general defect of his time and place, and no doubt it chimed well with his overall distaste for humanity. It's not really foregiveable, but its relevance to his art is practically non-existant.

Slalom round a Munro (4)

In the early eighties, in a Cheshire secondary school, we had an English teacher called Tyrone, who I remember as inspiring. He encouraged people to read Saki. Tyrone didn't teach there for long (I've a vague memory that he just "disappeared" - I suspect related to his sexuality) but he's one of those teachers of whom I think "He was good".

A few years later, I had an English teacher (well, he was Irish) who loved Heaney and Hughes. As the token Northerner in a Hampshire school by this point, I was often made to read their poems out loud despite my aversion to public speaking.

I'd happily buy both of them a pint, to say thanks. There's a small chance both are alive.

so Cozen's poem upthread, attributed to Rachel Rabinovitch, is actually by Cozen, no?

Saki should be taken daily like vitamins.

I read a biography of Saki a few years ago, he wasn't a raving proto-Nazi anti-semite as posited upthread, more just an old school Tory. His biography did read almost like a caricature of a certain type of English writer - love-starved Victorian childhood, mother died young and brought up by maiden aunts (surprise surprise), deeply closeted yet also a reactionary, seemed to have a death wish and enlisted in WW1 even though he was too old to do so, and went out of his way to put himself in dangerous situations at the front. T.E Lawrence and a half a dozen other closed writers from the period come to mind...

closed = closeted, thanks autocorrect

Reading NYRB’s selected with Gorey illustrations which I’ve had for a few years now and not gotten to, all quite droll and impeccable style of course but Sredni Vashtar is a story, damn.

There's a video (or maybe just audio) somewhere of it being read out loud by Tom Baker, brilliantly of course. I've been looking for the link to post it, but it seems to have been taken down.

That whole Chronicles of Clovis is masterful misanthropy (some of which borders on misogyny tbf) - a Selected seems the way to go. And with Gorey illustrations! Perfect soulmates

'borders on' is very generous.

Sredni Vashtar is a story, damn.

otm