― Cathy (Cathy), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 16:19 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― erik, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 16:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― erik, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 21:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 24 February 2005 02:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 24 February 2005 03:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 24 February 2005 04:18 (nineteen years ago) link
God I love the short stories though.
― Matt (Matt), Thursday, 24 February 2005 07:35 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 01:31 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― bamcquern, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 03:18 (twelve years ago) link
I was thinking more about this and I realized that British society is to Firbank what Martians are to Edgar Rice Burroughs.
― bamcquern, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 06:40 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― trapdoor fucking spiders (dowd), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 06:57 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― antiautodefenestrationism (ledge), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 08:52 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 5 October 2011 15:33 (twelve years ago) link
Slalom round a Munro (4)
― Leaghaidh am brón an t-anam bochd (dowd), Monday, 24 December 2018 19:10 (five years ago) link
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.
― djh, Wednesday, 26 December 2018 20:51 (five years ago) link
so Cozen's poem upthread, attributed to Rachel Rabinovitch, is actually by Cozen, no?
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, 26 December 2018 22:19 (five years ago) link
Saki should be taken daily like vitamins.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 December 2018 22:33 (five years ago) link
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...
― Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 26 December 2018 23:12 (five years ago) link
closed = closeted, thanks autocorrect
― Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 26 December 2018 23:13 (five years ago) link
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.
― Canon in Deez (silby), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 06:04 (three years ago) link
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.
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 07:10 (three years ago) link
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
― imago, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 09:39 (three years ago) link
'borders on' is very generous.
― ledge, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 09:55 (three years ago) link
Sredni Vashtar is a story, damn.
otm
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 10:29 (three years ago) link