Another Trio of Saki: The Elk, The Holiday Task, The Schartz-Metterklume Method
Saki
May 2008 · Matrix · Narrated by Joy Gelardi
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Audiobook
34 min
Unabridged
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Eligible
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About this audiobook
Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro (December 18, 1870 - November 13, 1916), a British writer, whose witty and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. This audiobook collects three more of his finest short stories:
"The Elk" - The grandmother of Bertie Thropplestance is intent on making sure he marries the right woman, and it would seem that their tame elk would have a large part to play in the charade!
"A Holiday Task" - a lady has lost her memory and acquires the help of Kenelm Jerton to help her eliminate all the possibilities from her inquiries. A bout of mischievous methods lead to a surprising conclusion.
"The Schartz-Metterklume Method" - At a railway station, an arrogant and overbearing woman mistakes the mischievous Lady Carlotta for the governess she expected. Lady Carlotta, deciding not to correct the mistake, presents herself as a proponent of "the Schartz-Metterklume method" of making children understand history by acting it out themselves. She chooses a rather unsuitable historical episode for her first lesson.
"The Elk" - The grandmother of Bertie Thropplestance is intent on making sure he marries the right woman, and it would seem that their tame elk would have a large part to play in the charade!
"A Holiday Task" - a lady has lost her memory and acquires the help of Kenelm Jerton to help her eliminate all the possibilities from her inquiries. A bout of mischievous methods lead to a surprising conclusion.
"The Schartz-Metterklume Method" - At a railway station, an arrogant and overbearing woman mistakes the mischievous Lady Carlotta for the governess she expected. Lady Carlotta, deciding not to correct the mistake, presents herself as a proponent of "the Schartz-Metterklume method" of making children understand history by acting it out themselves. She chooses a rather unsuitable historical episode for her first lesson.
About the author
H. H. Munro, better known as "Saki," was born in Burma, the son of an inspector-general for the Burmese police. Sent to England to be educated at the Bedford Grammar School, he returned to Burma in 1893 and joined the police force there. In 1896, he returned again to England and began writing first for The Westminster Gazette and then as a foreign correspondent for The Morning Post. Best known for his wry and amusing stories, Saki depicts a world of drawing rooms, garden parties, and exclusive club rooms. His short stories at their best are extraordinarily compact and cameolike, wicked and witty, with a careless cruelty and a powerful vein of supernatural fantasy. They deal, in general, with the same group of upper-class Britishers, whose frivolous lives are sometimes complicated by animals---the talking cat who reveals their treacheries in love, the pet ferret who is evil incarnate. The nom de plume "Saki" was borrowed from the cupbearer in Omar Khayyam's (see Vol. 2) The Rubaiyat. Munro used it for political sketches contributed to the Westminster Gazette as early as 1896, later collected as Alice in Westminster. The stories and novels were published between that time and the outbreak of World War I, when he enlisted as a private, scorning a commission. He died of wounds from a sniper's bullet while in a shell hole near Beaumont-Hamel. One of his characters summed up Saki's stories as those that "are true enough to be interesting and not true enough to be tiresome."
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