Saki

In Saki's short story "Fur," two friends find out who is true and who is not. Suzanne and Eleanor are friends. Eleanor seems to be the true friend. She agrees to meet with Suzanne's cousin Bertram...

The theme of this story is betrayal and deception: Eleanor is a false friend who uses her friend Suzanne's confidences to stab her in the back. Eleanor pretends to be Suzanne's friend but treats...

Saki (H. H. Munro) succeeds in his fiction because of his inimitable blend of satire, irony, startling endings, clever dialogue, sparkling wit, psychological insight, unconventional settings,...

The moral of "The Seven Cream Jugs" can be summarized with the statement “Do not judge others if you cannot stand others judging you.” In this story, the Pigeoncotes, a wealthy couple, have just...

Wilfrid has a reputation of being a kleptomaniac. This is someone who has a compulsion to steal, and even though he's just inherited the title of baron and all the phenomenal wealth that goes with...

The irony of Saki's "The Lumber Room" is in the twists of events. Instead of the self-appointed aunt being successful in punishing Nicholas and rewarding the other children by sending them to the...

For Saki, satire is the tool with which he is most proficient; in addition satire serves Saki's purposes as an author. For satire, while providing humor in its ridiculing of human foolishness or...

This line that you are citing comes from "The Open Window," by Saki. The narrator says this with reference to Framton Nuttel. The narrator uses these lines to describe Nuttel when Nuttel starts...

Mr. and Mrs. Pigeoncote have always been reluctant to invite cousin Wilfrid to stay with them, as he's an incorrigible kleptomaniac. This means that he has an uncontrollable impulse to steal...

Following Saki's signature style, even the singularly ridiculous name of the Pigeoncotes hints at their similarly peculiar personalities. A parody of the shallow English upper classes, the...

There are two main images found in Saki's "The Image of the Lost Soul": the little bird and the Lost Soul. Both images represent the idea of the solitary, exiled, and embraced. The little bird is...

Saki's written style is perfectly matched to his choice of settings. He often sets his stories in the kind of respectable social environments with which he was all-too familiar. One thinks of the...

"The Lumber Room," like Saki's "Open Window" is a little more lighthearted than his darker tales such as "The Interlopers." At first glance, "The Lumber Room" seems to be about a clever boy who...

One clue that this story is set in the past and was written in the past is that Bertie is fishing for money and only comes up with a sixpence, which the author refers to earlier as a sixpenny. The...

"Tobermory" is a half-comical, half-sinister story published in 1911 in the Chronicles of Clovis. It is, primarily, the story of an incident concerning a cat named Tobermory, who has the curious...

In "The Blind Spot," by Saki, Egbert has just come from his Aunt Adelaide's funeral. He has been named executor and principal heir of her belongings. Egbert is having lunch with his Uncle Lulworth....

It is ironic that Mr. Appin is killed by one of the animals he is working with, since working with the elephant was suggested as safer for people than having house cats and other household pets....

In "A Shot in the Dark," as is often the case in his short stories, Saki is satirizing the upper echelons of the British class system. The hapless Philip Sletherby is off to Brill Hall, hoping to...

Only two characters appear in the story: Egbert and his Uncle Lulworth. They discuss three other characters: the married couple Peter and Alexandra, who were Egbert's aunt and uncle, now both...

"The Music on the Hill" is very ambiguous, with a lot of room for interpretation. Was Sylvia's death all a terrible accident of a hunt gone wrong? Was it the work of the nature god Pan? Might Pan...

Cornelius Appin has done the impossible: he has trained a regular cat to talk and make full use of human speech. While his deed is, in fact, quite amazing, it is very hard for those who surround...

Hello! In Mrs. Packletide's Tiger, Loona Bimberton did not shoot a tiger; her chief accomplishment was being flown by an Algerian aviator eleven miles in an airplane. Mrs. Packletide and Loona...

To persuade a reader that satire is a valuable form of literature, first define what is “valuable” to a reader. It could be an enjoyable reading experience, a lesson from literature that can affect...

A blind spot is defined as "an area where a person's view is obstructed." This is the literal definition. In daily life, people often talk about having a figurative "blind spot" for someone; by...

In the enotes biography on Saki, this is written, Saki came to the short story as a satirist and never averted his eye from the darker side of human nature, a place where not only social...

H. H. Munro (1870–1916), generally known by his pen name, Saki, originally wrote as a journalist, then turned to short fiction and novels—often satirical—as well as nonfiction. Born into an English...

As with most of Saki's short stories, the rationale behind the motivation and actions of many of his characters is often as shallow, empty, and senseless as the characters are themselves. Mrs....

1909.

If you have used any of the study guide aids such as the essays and criticisms, character analysis, of summary, for instance, there is an icon on the page that you can click which will provide you...

"A certain German art expert, who had obtained from the municipality of Bergamo permission to inspect the famous masterpiece, declared it to be a spurious Pincini, probably the work of some...