A Quartet of Saki

Mrs Packletide's Tiger, Reginald on Besetting Sins, Sredni Vashtar, The Recessional

By: Saki

Narrated by: Helen Elizabeth G

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 four of his finest short stories:

'Mrs Packletide's Tiger' - in this story, Saki tackles the Victorian-Edwardian fascination with wild-game hunting, as well as the timeless drive to keep up with the Joneses. In this case Mrs Packletide has been outshone by her rival Mrs Bimberton and decides to get ahead - by hunting a tiger.

'Reginald on Besetting Sins' - Reginald tells the unfortunate story of a woman who found problems with being completely truthful at all times.

'Sredni Vashtar' - The story of a young, sickly child, Conradin. When his guardian, Mrs. De Ropp, finds his Houdan hen, it is sold and taken away, but she is unaware of the pet polecat-ferret, called Sredni Vashtar, which Conradin worships as a god. Just before tea, Mrs. De Ropp enters the shed in which the ferret lies in his hutch. As the time slips by without a stirring from the shed, Conradin begins to pray to Sredni Vashtar - and receives his darkest wish.

'The Recessional' - Clovis discusses with Bertie the progress of his 'recessional'; a poem he was challenged to write and get published by Loona Bimberton. He hopes, with the assistance of Mrs Packletide, to win the bet.

©2009 Summersdale Publishers Ltd (P)2009 Summersdale Publishers Ltd

reading needs improvement

This really has some problems. A good reading requires some kind of interpretation - I mean that the whole book is understood and read in big chunks of meaning. Helen Elizabeth reads sentence by sentence - you can hear the recording clicks in the beggining and end of each sentence - and, as a result, she reads all the sentences with exactly the same intonation, with no sense of the whole. It is worst than a reading by an electronic device such as 'text to speech'. I wouldn't advise this audio-book.