The Complete Short Stories

By: Saki

Narrated by: Rupert Degas

H.H. Munro (Saki) is one of the undisputed masters of the short story. In this complete compendium, the full gamut of his subjects and themes is experienced. His stories are imbued with humorous satire, biting irony, and often the macabre, all of which have one target: the stupidities and hypocrisies of Edwardian upper-class society.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2021 Naxos Audiobooks

A lovely and entertaining book

This is true art it is a lovely entertaining and perfect book and the reading performance is top notch.

Condensed Wilde

Another reviewer called this collection of gems, “Wodehouse with Teeth”, an appraisal with which I heartily agree. Where Bertie shrinks from doing the things that aren’t done, the comedy here begins when Reginald or Clovis (or any of the other myriad characters) spring to the task.

But there’s another aspect of these stories that struck me: though the longest of them clocks in at just over 22 minutes, most of the situations would present Oscar Wilde with enough material for a full-length play. As a result, these brief stories are so jam-packed with lines you don’t want to miss, that after two or three I had to stop to catch my breath.

The final stories reveal another string to Saki’s bow. More serious and reflective, they deal with current events, from the Balkan Wars or 1912-1913 to the trenches where he served until his death on the Somme in 1916. Yet even on the Western Front, he could find grist for his delightfully sardonic mill.

Whoever cast Rupert Degas for this assignment knew their business. Be the tone of the story what it may, he's spot-on perfect.

Some stories are better than others

I have not listened to this collection in one session but in several.

I loved most of the stories and I found some a little weak.

At the end of the collection there are a couple that must have been written when Saki was in the trenches, they are darkly beautiful and much harder to forget than the amusing ones.

On the whole I loved this book, which I bought because the Penguin edition of the complete stories is too old and frail to be open and read often.