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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9781603121996
ISBN: 1603121994
Label: Aegypan
Manufacturer: Aegypan
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 148
Publication Date: 2007-04-01
Publisher: Aegypan
Studio: Aegypan

The charming, beloved master of short fiction known as "Saki" was born Hector Hugo Munro in 1870 in Akyab, Myanmar, which was then known as Burma. Hector was the youngest child of the Inspector-General of the Burmese police -- H.H. Munro was a child of the British Empire at its fullest glory. The children were soon sent to live with maiden aunts and their grandmother in Devon. The eccentric aunts and favorite childhood stories, including Robinson Crusoe, Alice in Wonderland, and Johnnykin and the Goblins, proved inspirational for later stories. As an adult, Saki served in the Burmese police, and later, became a London political satirist, and then journalist posted to Warsaw, Moscow and St. Petersburg. As with most of his generation, Saki enlisted in military service at the outbreak of the First World War. Stationed with the Royal Fusiliers, his battalion was sent to France in September, 1915. The Chronicles of Clovis is Saki's third book of short fiction, published in 1911. Influenced by his travels in eastern Europe and Russia, most of the stories feature Clovis Sangrail, a rich young man with a wicked sense of humor. The Chronicles of Clovis contains the classic "Sredni Vashtar," the story of Conradin, a spoiled, sickly ten-year old boy who's not expected to survive long. Brief, sharp, and ironic, as fresh today as the day it was written, "Sredni Vashtar" is Conradin's pet ferret, the most important "god" in an isolated boy's imaginary world of power and vengeance that may, just possibly, be absolutely real. Saki's brilliant talent was cut short by a sniper's bullet on the Western Front in November, 1916.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Proofreader's Nightmare
Review: I love Saki. These are some of the best, most biting, hilarious gems ever written in the English language. However, the Kindle edition is so hard to read, that I must subtract two stars for the formatting.

The Kindle edition is very hard to read because of the awkward line breaks and kerning. I believe the digitization of this book to have been untouched by human hands, with no proofreading at all. Some lines have four words evenly spaced out to each margin. In other instances, a hyphenated word will have an additional hyphen inserted midway to make a line break. Other pages have "widows or orphans", a solitary word on one page. Each time I encounter one of these, the eye and the brain go "Ker-thunk!" an it spoils the sense and rhythm of the story.

Not worth even the low Kindle price; too many aggravations.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Wonderful stories. Unblemished prose.
Review: These short stories constitute some of the best in the English language. They have quite a range in tone, from the extreamely humorous Unrest Cure to the mystery of Sredni Vashtar. Only The Easter Egg diappoints. Written in an Edwardian prose that never disappoints, read it like it was one of life's little luxuries.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: excellent
Review: black comedy at its best. not for everyone. read only one story at any given sitting, or the flavor and the impact goes away. One of the Best short storie collections ever printed.

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