Showing results by author "Saki" in All Categories

When Mr. Cornelius Appin announces that he has succeeded in teaching the cat, Tobermory, to speak, nobody in the house party believes him. But when Tobermory makes his entrance and begins to reveal the kind of personal secrets only a cat can know about the assembled company, chaos breaks out. Tobermory must be destroyed at all costs. Hector Hugh Munro at his most masterful!

Conradin is a sickly and introverted child who hates his guardian, Mrs. De Ropp. When she takes away his pet hen and threatens to do the same with his pole-cat, whom he worships like a god, Conradin makes a special prayer and his sinister wish is answered. Hector Hugh Munro (aka Saki) at his most sinister and macabre. Superb!

A quartet of short stories by the mastermind of practical jokes, Hector Hugh Munro, better known under his pseudonym “Saki”. This collection brings together four of his most ingenious tales, all of which involve one character playing a prank on the others. The results range from the comic to the macabre… but all are brilliantly narrated with Saki’s superb ironic wit. The Stampeding of Lady Bastable.

Unknowingly, a man arrives on the anniversary of the “Great Tragedy” that led to his host having her large French window wide open onto the lawn on an October afternoon in the vain hope that her husband and brothers - whom he learns have been dead three years - will return through it. To his horror, the man shares in the terrors of the day.

Mrs. Sangrail is determined to offload her wayward son Clovis onto Lady Bastable for six days while she takes a trip to Scotland. Is desperation she resorts to cunning bribery, but Clovis has other ideas and devises an ingenious scheme to thwart his mother’s plans. Another piece of genius humour writing by Hector Hugh Munro, peppered with his humorous observations on British Edwardian society.

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.

In this selection of some of Saki's best short stories, we enter a fictional world in which the Edwardian gently are pitched against the rude forces of nature and maiden aunts struggle unsuccessfully to contain the merciless antics of children in their charge. Saki is perhaps the ultimate master of writing complete stories in just a few pages and his sublime craftsmanship is accompanied by a wicked black humour.

When the prematurely middle-aged J.P. Huddle is recommended to take an “unrest-cure” by a friend, he little realizes that the other passenger in the railway compartment, the prank-loving Clovis, will take this as a personal challenge. The havoc which Clovis’s macabre and at times shocking practical joke causes is beyond anything that the sleepy hamlet of Tilfield has seen before. Hector Hugh Munro at his most macabre.

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 together three more of his finest short stories.

Finding himself trapped in a compartment with a set of unruly children, the Storyteller decides to take revenge by narrating a tale with a most immoral twist. This is a wonderful example of Hector Hugh Munro’s witty and multi-layered storytelling, satirizing British Edwardian society. The listener is drawn into the story along with the children and is equally horrified and delighted by the unexpected ending.

This collection contains the best of classic horror writing, with the atmospheric genius of Edgar Allan Poe, the invention and eeriness of Bram Stoker, and the suspense of Wilkie Collins amongst the terrifying gems. In this veritable schooling in the origins of modern-day horror and fantasy, some of the best minds in the history of English literature take on the world of vampires, werewolves, and the supernatural.

Saki was the pen-name of Hector Hugh Munro. One of the wittiest of all short-story writers, he was born in 1870 in Burma where his father, a Scots army officer, was stationed. He was one when the family returned to England to live in North Devon. When his mother died his father, returning to serve in India, put Hector and his brothers and sisters into the care of his own mother and two sisters. The children’s childhood with their aunts was miserable. The aunts hated each other, quarrelled fiercely, and bullied the children mentally.

Saki's popularity and reputation continue to thrive. This collection of unusual stories from the master storyteller all feature animals.

Narrator Nigel Hawthorne's exceptional talents as an actor bring comedy to the fore in this collection, extracting every nuance of humour from these seven great stories. Featuring "Brugglesmith" by Rudyard Kipling, "The Cricket Match" (from England, Their England) by A.G. Macdonell, "Reginald on House Parties" by Saki, "Winglebury Duel" by Charles Dickens, and more.

A collection of some of the greatest short stories ever written, including works by Kate Chopin, Franz Kafka, Saki, and Katherine Mansfield. Includes: 'A Pair of Silk Stockings', 'A Hunger Artist', 'The Yellow Paint', 'The Model Millionaire', 'The Singing Lesson', 'The Ambitious Guest', 'Tobermory', 'Up in the Gallery', 'Wakefield', and 'The Quince Tree'.

When the Momeby family’s baby goes missing, their neighbour Miss Gilpet undertakes to find the child. Her immediate success turns out to be less of a miracle and more of an embarrassment for all.

A spine-tingling collection of classic ghost stories – a perfect way to pass those long winter nights! This set contains "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Horla" by Guy de Maupassant, "Sredni Vashtar" by Saki, "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling, "Lost Hearts" by M.R. James and "The Furnished Room" by O. Henry.

When Theodoric Voler boards a train he finds he is not alone in the compartment. Not only is there a female companion asleep in one corner, there is a mouse which has hidden itself inside his clothes. Can the sensitive and prudish young man manage to undress and extricate the mouse without his female companion waking up? Hector Hugh Munro (Saki) at his most satirical. A superb and witty observation on the sensibilities and mores of British Edwardian society.

Rats and mice, and beetles and creaky doors, and loose slates, and broken panes, and stiff drawer handles, that stay out when you pull them and then fall down in the middle of the night...Rats is bogeys, I tell you, and bogeys is rats, and don't you get to think anything else! Ghosts, vampires, werewolves and even rats, all make an appearance in this collection of frighteningly good classic stories from Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling and more!

When Henri Deplis comes into a small inheritance and celebrates his new found wealth by getting an elaborate tattoo, he little realizes what a series of catastrophic events will ensue. The tattoo is recognized as a masterpiece of modern art and given to the city of Bergamo. This is the start of a series of restrictions on Henri Deplis’ lifestyle which gradually but inevitably lead to his downfall.