Saki’s writings convey an ambivalent attitude to upper-class practices and conventions. He tends to see the upper classes as guardians of civilization, but at the same time he understands how corrupt civilization is and how often its guardians fall short of their own ideals. While the English upper classes were the primary target of Saki’s satire, he was also international in his outlook. By the time he wrote “The Interlopers,” he had already published When William Came, a novel sending up German militarism. He may well have written “The Interlopers” while fighting against Germany in the First World War.

The nationality of Ulrich von Gradowitz and Georg Znaeym is never revealed. Although they are probably not German, they are clearly from the part of Central Europe that is heavily influenced by Germanic culture. This culture was widely seen in the nineteenth and early twentieth century as a highly militarized one, obsessed with physical courage, honor, and the continuation of ancient feuds. Above all, it was a culture of dueling. In Three Men on the Bummel, a relatively sympathetic humorous 1900 work about a trip around Germany, British author Jerome K. Jerome describes the bloodthirsty nature of German duels and the hideous scars worn as badges of honor by members of the upper classes. This is the background against which Ulrich and Georg’s feud takes place. They have hated each other since boyhood—not for any personal reason but as the result of a culture of ritualized militarism and family honor. Saki shows how false this culture is by depicting how it breaks down almost immediately when these antagonists are forced by happenstance to spend time in one another’s company.