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British writer (1870–1916) Not to be confused with Sake. For other uses, see Saki (disambiguation). Hector Hugh MunroHector Hugh Munro by E. O. Hoppé (1913)Born(1870-12-18)18 December 1870Akyab, Burma, British IndiaDied14 November 1916(1916-11-14) (aged 45)Beaumont-Hamel, FrancePen nameSakiOccupationAuthor, playwrightNationalityBritishMilitary careerAllegiance United KingdomService/branch British ArmyYears of service1914–1916RankLance SergeantUnit22nd Battalion, Royal FusiliersBattles/warsFirst World War Battle of the Somme Battle of the Ancre  † Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered by English teachers and scholars a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward and P. G. Wodehouse.[1] Besides his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was customary at the time, and then collected into several volumes), he wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude; two one-act plays; a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire (the only book published under his own name); a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington; the episodic The Westminster Alice (a parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland); and When William Came, subtitled A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns, a fantasy about a future German invasion and occupation of Britain. Life[edit] Early life[edit] Hector Hugh Munro was born in Akyab (now Sittwe), British Burma, which was then part of British India. Saki was the son of Charles Augustus Munro, an Inspector General for the Indian Imperial Police, and his wife, Mary Frances Mercer (1843–1872), the daughter of Rear Admiral Samuel Mercer. Her nephew Cecil William Mercer became a novelist under the name Dornford Yates. In 1872, on a home visit to England, Mary Munro was charged by a cow, and the shock caused her to miscarry. She never recovered and soon died.[2] After his wife's death Charles Munro sent his three children, Ethel Mary (born April 1868), Charles Arthur (born July 1869) and two-year-old Hector, home to England. The children were sent to Broadgate Villa, in Pilton near Barnstaple, North Devon, to be raised by their grandmother and paternal maiden aunts, Charlotte and Augusta, in a strict and puritanical household. It is said that his aunts were most likely models for some of his characters, notably the aunt in "The Lumber Room" and the guardian in "Sredni Vashtar": Munro's sister Ethel said that the aunt in "The Lumber Room" was an almost perfect portrait of Aunt Augusta. Munro and his siblings led slightly insular lives during their early years and were educated by governesses. At the age of 12 the young Hector Munro was educated at Pencarwick School in Exmouth and then as a boarder at Bedford School. In 1887, after his retirement, his father returned from Burma and embarked upon a series of European travels with Hector and his siblings. Hector followed his father in 1893 into the Indian Imperial Police and was posted to Burma, but successive bouts of fever caused his return home after only fifteen months. Writing career[edit] In 1896 he decided to move to London to make a living as a writer. Munro started his writing career as a journalist for newspapers such as The Westminster Gazette, the Daily Express, The Morning Post, and magazines such as the Bystander and Outlook. His first book, The Rise of the Russian Empire, a historical study modelled upon Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, appeared in 1900, under his real name, but proved to be something of a false start. While writing The Rise of the Russian Empire, he made his first foray into short story writing and published a piece called "Dogged" in St Paul's on February 18, 1899. (Munro's sketch "The Achievement of the Cat" appeared the day before in The Westminster Budget.[3]) He then moved into the world of political satire in 1900 with a collaboration with Francis Carruthers Gould entitled "Alice in Westminster". Gould produced the sketches, and Munro wrote the text accompanying them, using the pen name "Saki" for the first time. The series lampooned political figures of the day (Alice in Downing Street begins with the memorable line, "'Have you ever seen an Ineptitude?'" – referring to a zoomorphised Arthur Balfour[4]), and was published in the Liberal Westminster Gazette. In 1902 he moved to The Morning Post, described as one of the "organs of intransigence" by Stephen Koss,[5] to work as a foreign correspondent, first in the Balkans, and then in Russia, where he was witness to the 1905 revolution in St. Petersburg. He then went on to Paris, before returning to London in 1908, where "the agreeable life of a man of letters with a brilliant reputation awaited him".[6] In the intervening period Reginald had been published in 1904, the stories having first appeared in The Westminster Gazette, and all this time he was writing sketches for The Morning Post, the Bystander and The Westminster Gazette. He kept a place in Mortimer Street, wrote, played bridge at the Cocoa Tree Club, and lived simply. Reginald in Russia appeared in 1910, The Chronicles of Clovis was published in 1911, and Beasts and Super-Beasts in 1914, along with other short stories that appeared in newspapers not published in collections in his lifetime. He also produced two novels, The Unbearable Bassington (1912) and When William Came (1913). Death[edit] At the start of the First World War Munro was 43 and officially over-age to enlist, but he refused a commission and joined the 2nd King Edward's Horse as an ordinary trooper. He later transferred to the 22nd (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (Kensington), in which he was promoted to lance sergeant. More than once he returned to the battlefield when officially too sick or injured. In November 1916 he was sheltering in a shell crater near Beaumont-Hamel, France, during the Battle of the Ancre, when he was killed by a German sniper. According to several sources, his last words were "Put that bloody cigarette out!"[7] Legacy[edit] Munro has no known grave. He is commemorated on Pier and Face 8C 9A and 16A of the Thiepval Memorial.[8] In 2003 English Heritage marked Munro's flat at 97 Mortimer Street, in Fitzrovia with a blue plaque.[9] After his death, his sister Ethel destroyed most of his papers and wrote her own account of their childhood, which appeared at the beginning of The Square Egg and Other Sketches (1924). Rothay Reynolds, a close friend, wrote a relatively lengthy memoir in The Toys of Peace (1919), but aside from this, the only other biographies of Munro are Saki: A Life of Hector Hugh Munro (1982) by A. J. Langguth, and The Unbearable Saki (2007) by Sandie Byrne. All later biographies have had to draw heavily upon Ethel's account of her brother's life. In late 2020 two Saki stories, "The Optimist" (1912) and "Mrs. Pendercoet's Lost Identity" (1911), which had never been republished, collected, or noted in any academic publication on Saki, were rediscovered; they are now available online.[10] In 2021, Lora Sifurova, looking through the Morning Post and other London periodicals in Russian archives, rediscovered seven sketches and stories attributed to Munro or Saki.[11] In 2023, Bruce Gaston rediscovered a Clovis sketch, "The Romance of Business", published as part of an advertisement for Selfridge's in a 1914 issue of the Daily News and Leader.[12] Sexuality[edit] See also: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom Munro was homosexual at a time when in Britain sexual activity between men was a crime. The Cleveland Street scandal (1889), followed by the downfall of Oscar Wilde (1895), meant "that side of [Munro's] life had to be secret".[1] Pen-name[edit] The pen name "Saki" is a reference to the cupbearer in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam. Both Rothay Reynolds and Ethel Munro confirm this. Emlyn Williams states as much in his introduction to a Saki anthology published in 1978.[13] Selected works[edit] Much of Saki's work contrasts the conventions and hypocrisies of Edwardian England with the ruthless but straightforward life-and-death struggles of nature.[14] Writing in The Guardian to mark the centenary of Saki's death, Stephen Moss noted, "In many of his stories, stuffy authority figures are set against forces of nature—polecats, hyenas, tigers. Even if they are not eaten, the humans rarely have the best of it".[15] "The Interlopers"[edit] "The Interlopers" is a story about two men, Georg Znaeym and Ulrich von Gradwitz, whose families have fought over a forest in the eastern Carpathian Mountains for generations. Ulrich's family legally owns the land and so considers Georg an interloper when he hunts in the forest. But Georg, believing that the forest rightfully belongs to his family, hunts there often and believes that Ulrich is the real interloper for trying to stop him. One winter night, Ulrich catches Georg hunting in the forest. Neither man can shoot the other without warning, as they would soil their family's honour, so they hesitate to acknowledge one another. In an "act of God", a tree branch suddenly falls on each of them, trapping them both under a log. Gradually they realize the futility of their quarrel, become friends and end the feud. They then call out for their men's assistance and, after a brief period, Ulrich makes out nine or ten figures approaching over a hill. The story ends with Ulrich's realization that the approaching figures on the hill are actually hungry wolves. The wolves who hunt in packs as opposed to rivalries, it seems, are the true owners of the forest, while both humans are interlopers. "Gabriel-Ernest"[edit] "Gabriel-Ernest" starts with a warning: "There is a wild beast in your woods …" Gabriel, a naked boy sunbathing by the river, is "adopted" by well-meaning townspeople. Lovely and charming, but also rather vague and distant, he seems bemused by his "benefactors." Asked how he managed by himself in the woods, he replies that he hunts "on four legs," which they take to mean that he has a dog. The climax comes when a small child disappears while walking home from Sunday school. A pursuit ensues, but Gabriel and the child disappear near a river. The only items found are Gabriel's clothes, and the two are never seen again. The story includes many of the author's favourite themes: good intentions gone awry, the banality of polite society, the attraction of the sinister, and the allure of the wild and the forbidden. There is also a recognition of basic decency, upheld when the story's protagonist 'flatly refuses' to subscribe to a Gabriel-Ernest memorial, for his supposedly gallant attempt to save a drowning child, and drowning himself, as well. Gabriel-Ernest was actually a werewolf who had eaten the child, then run off. "The Schartz-Metterklume Method"[edit] At a railway station an arrogant and overbearing woman, Mrs Quabarl, mistakes the mischievous Lady Carlotta, who has been inadvertently left behind by a train, for the governess, Miss Hope, whom she has been expecting, Miss Hope having erred about the date of her arrival. Lady Carlotta decides not to correct the mistake, acknowledges herself as Miss Hope, a proponent of "the Schartz-Metterklume method" of making children understand history by acting it out themselves, and chooses the Rape of the Sabine Women (exemplified by a washerwoman's two girls) as the first lesson. After creating chaos for two days, she departs, explaining that her delayed luggage will include a leopard cub. "The Toys of Peace"[edit] Preferring not to give her young sons toy soldiers or guns, and having taken away their toy depicting the Siege of Adrianople, Eleanor instructs her brother Harvey to give them innovative "peace toys" as an Easter present. When the packages are opened young Bertie shouts "It's a fort!" and is disappointed when his uncle replies "It's a municipal dustbin." The boys are initially baffled as to how to obtain any enjoyment from models of a school of art and a public library, or from little figures of John Stuart Mill, Felicia Hemans and Sir John Herschel. Youthful inventiveness finds a way, however, as the boys combine their history lessons on Louis XIV with a lurid and violent play-story about the invasion of Britain and the storming of the Young Women's Christian Association. The end of the story has Harvey reporting failure to Eleanor, explaining "We have begun too late.", not realising he was doomed to failure whenever he had begun. "The Open Window"[edit] Framton Nuttel, a nervous man, has come to stay in the country for his health. His sister, who thinks he should socialise while he is there, has given him letters of introduction to families in the neighbourhood whom she got to know during her stay. Framton goes to visit Mrs. Sappleton and, while waiting for her to come down, is entertained by her witty, fifteen-year-old niece. The niece tells him that the French window is kept open, even though it is October, because Mrs. Sappleton believes that her husband and her brothers, who drowned in a bog three years before, will come back one day. When Mrs. Sappleton comes down she talks about her husband and her brothers, and how they are going to come back from shooting soon; Framton, believing that she is deranged, tries to distract her by explaining his health condition. Then, to his horror, Mrs. Sappleton points out that her husband and her brothers are coming, whom he sees walking towards the window with their dog. He thinks he is seeing ghosts and flees. Mrs. Sappleton cannot understand why he has run away and, at her husband and brothers' arrival, tells them about the odd man who has just left. The niece explains that Framton ran away because of the spaniel: he is afraid of dogs ever since he was hunted by a pack of stray dogs in India and had to spend a night in a newly dug grave with creatures grinning and foaming just above him. The last line summarizes the situation, saying of the niece, "Romance at short notice was her speciality." "The Unrest-Cure"[edit] Saki's recurring hero Clovis Sangrail, a clever, mischievous young man, overhears the complacent middle-aged Huddle complaining of his own addiction to routine and aversion to change. Huddle's friend makes the wry suggestion that he needs an "unrest-cure" (the opposite of a rest cure), to be performed, if possible, in the home. Clovis takes it upon himself to "help" the man and his sister by involving them in an invented outrage that will be a "blot on the twentieth century". Photo from The War Illustrated, 31 July 1915 "Esmé"[edit] A baroness tells Clovis a story about a hyena that she and her friend Constance encountered while out fox hunting. Later, the hyena follows them, stopping briefly to eat a gypsy child. Shortly after this, the hyena is killed by a motorcar. The baroness immediately claims the corpse as her beloved dog Esmé, and the guilty owner of the car gets his chauffeur to bury the animal and later sends her an emerald brooch to make up for her loss.[16] "Sredni Vashtar"[edit] Main article: Sredni Vashtar A sickly child named Conradin is raised by his aunt and guardian, Mrs De Ropp, who "would never... have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him 'for his good' was a duty which she did not find particularly irksome". Conradin rebels against his aunt and her choking authority. He invents a religion in which his polecat ferret is imagined as a vengeful deity, and Conradin prays that "Sredni Vashtar" will deliver retribution upon De Ropp. When De Ropp attempts to dispose of the animal, it attacks and kills her. The entire household is shocked and alarmed; Conradin calmly butters another piece of toast. "Tobermory"[edit] At a country-house party, one guest, Cornelius Appin, announces to the others that he has perfected a procedure for teaching animals human speech. He demonstrates this on his host's cat, Tobermory. Soon it is clear that animals are permitted to view and listen to many private things on the assumption that they will remain silent, such as the host Sir Wilfred's commentary on one guest's intelligence and the hope that she will buy his car, or the implied sexual activities of some of the other guests. The guests are angered, especially when Tobermory runs away to pursue a rival cat, but plans to poison him fail when Tobermory is instead killed by the rival cat. "An archangel ecstatically proclaiming the Millennium, and then finding that it clashed unpardonably with Henley and would have to be indefinitely postponed, could hardly have felt more crestfallen than Cornelius Appin at the reception of his wonderful achievement." Appin is killed shortly afterwards when attempting to teach an elephant in a zoo in Dresden to speak German. His fellow house party guest, Clovis Sangrail (Saki's recurring hero), remarks that if he was teaching "the poor beast" irregular German verbs, he deserved no pity. "The Bull"[edit] Tom Yorkfield, a farmer, receives a visit from his half-brother Laurence. Tom has no great liking for Laurence or respect for his profession as a painter of animals. Tom shows Laurence his prize bull and expects him to be impressed, but Laurence nonchalantly tells Tom that he has sold a painting of a different bull, which Tom has seen and does not like, for three hundred pounds. Tom is angry that a mere picture of a bull should be worth more than his real bull. This and Laurence's condescending attitude give him the urge to strike him. Laurence, running away across the field, is attacked by the bull, but is saved by Tom from serious injury. Tom, looking after Laurence as he recovers, feels no more rancour because he knows that, however valuable Laurence's painting might be, only a real bull like his can attack someone. "The East Wing"[edit] This is a "rediscovered" short story that was previously cited as a play.[17] A house party is beset by a fire in the middle of the night in the east wing of the house. Begged by their hostess to save "my poor darling Eva—Eva of the golden hair," Lucien demurs, on the grounds that he has never even met her. It is only on discovering that Eva is not a flesh-and-blood daughter but Mrs Gramplain's painting of the daughter she wished that she had had, and which she has faithfully updated with the passing years, that Lucien declares a willingness to forfeit his life to rescue her, since "death in this case is more beautiful," a sentiment endorsed by the Major. As the two men disappear into the blaze, Mrs Gramplain recollects that she "sent Eva to Exeter to be cleaned". The two men have lost their lives for nothing. Publications[edit] 1899 "Dogged" (short story, ascribed to H. H. M., in St. Paul's, 18 February) 1900 The Rise of the Russian Empire (history) 1902 "The Woman Who Never Should" (political sketch in The Westminster Gazette, 22 July) 1902 The Not So Stories (political sketches in The Westminster Annual) 1902 The Westminster Alice (political sketches with illustrations by F. Carruthers Gould) 1904 Reginald (short stories) 1910 Reginald in Russia (short stories) 1911 The Chronicles of Clovis (short stories) 1912 The Unbearable Bassington (novel) 1913 When William Came (novel) 1914 Beasts and Super-Beasts (short stories, including "The Lumber-Room") 1914 "The East Wing" (short story, in Lucas's Annual / Methuen's Annual) Posthumous publications 1919 The Toys of Peace (short stories) 1924 The Square Egg and Other Sketches (short stories) 1924 The Watched Pot (play, co-authored with Charles Maude) 1926–27 The Works of Saki (8 volumes) 1930 The Complete Short Stories of Saki 1933 The Complete Novels and Plays of Saki (including The Westminster Alice) 1934 The Miracle-Merchant (in One-Act Plays for Stage and Study 8) 1950 The Best of Saki (edited by Graham Greene) 1963 The Bodley Head Saki 1976 The Complete Saki 1976 Short Stories (edited by John Letts) 1981 Six previously uncollected stories in Saki, a biography by A. J. Langguth 1988 Saki: The Complete Saki[18] 1995 The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope, and Other Stories 2006 A Shot in the Dark (a compilation of 15 uncollected stories) 2010 Improper Stories, Daunt Books (18 short stories) 2016 Alice Wants to Know (limited edition reprint[19] of the final instalment of The Westminster Alice, originally published in Picture Politics, but not included in the collected edition). 2023 A Little Red Book of Wit & Shudders Borderlands Press Radio[edit] The 5th broadcast of Orson Welles' series for CBS Radio, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, from 8 August 1938, dramatizes three short stories rather than one long story. The second of the three stories is "The Open Window." "The Open Window" is also adapted (by John Allen) in the 1962 Golden Records release Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Ghost Stories for Young People, a record album of six ghost stories for children. Television[edit] A dramatisation of "The Schartz-Metterklume Method" was an episode in the series Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1960. Saki: The Improper Stories of H. H. Munro (a reference to the ending of "The Story Teller") was an eight-part series produced by Philip Mackie for Granada Television in 1962. Actors involved included Mark Burns as Clovis, Fenella Fielding as Mary Drakmanton, Heather Chasen as Agnes Huddle, Richard Vernon as the Major, Rosamund Greenwood as Veronique and Martita Hunt as Lady Bastable. A dramatisation of "The Open Window" was an episode in the series Tales of the Unexpected in 1984. The same story was also adapted as "Ek Khula Hua Darwaza" by Shyam Benegal as an episode in the 1986 Indian anthology television series Katha Sagar, which also included the episode "Saboon Ki Tikiya" an adaptation of Munro's "Dusk" by Benegal.[20] Who Killed Mrs De Ropp?, a BBC TV production in 2007, starring Ben Daniels and Gemma Jones, showcased three of Saki's short stories, "The Storyteller", "The Lumber Room" and "Sredni Vashtar".[21] Theatre[edit] The Playboy of the Week-End World (1977) by Emlyn Williams, adapts 16 of Saki's stories. Wolves at the Window (2008) by Toby Davies, adapts 12 of Saki's stories.[22] Saki Shorts (2003) is a musical based on nine stories by Saki, with music, book and lyrics by John Gould and Dominic McChesney. Miracles at Short Notice (2011) by James Lark is another musical based on short stories by Saki.[23] Life According to Saki (2016) by Katherine Rundell is a play inspired by the life and work of Saki.[24] References[edit] ^ a b Hibberd, Dominic (2004). "Munro, Hector Hugh [Saki] (1870–1916)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35149. Retrieved 9 May 2015. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) ^ "Saki: A Life of Hector Hugh Munro, with six short stories never before collected" Archived 17 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1981), extract at AJLangguth.com ^ "The Westminster Budget from London . . . Page 17". newspapers.com. Ancestry. 17 February 1899. Retrieved 9 July 2022. ^ Munro, Hector H. ("Saki") (1902). The Westminster Alice. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ^ Koss, Stephen (1984). The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain, Volume Two: The Twentieth Century. London. p. 80.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ^ Munro, H. H. ("Saki"); Reynolds, Rothay (1919). "A Memoir of H. H. Munro". The Toys of Peace. London. pp. xiv.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ^ "The Square Egg", p. 102 ^ Reading Room Manchester. "CWGC – Casualty Details". cwgc.org. ^ "MUNRO, HECTOR HUGH (1870–1916) a.k.a. Saki". English Heritage. Retrieved 29 April 2015. ^ Gibson, Brian. "Rediscovered Saki". Rediscovered Saki. Retrieved 3 January 2021. ^ Sifurova, Lora. "Lora A. Sifurova (Academia.edu)". Academia.edu. Academia. Retrieved 20 November 2021. ^ Gaston, Bruce. "'The Romance of Business': a newly discovered Clovis story". The Annotated Saki. WordPress. Retrieved 4 May 2022. ^ Saki: Short Stories I (1978, ISBN 0-460-01105-7) Williams cites Rothay Reynolds, "his friend". ^ "In praise of ... Saki". The Guardian. London. 31 May 2008. Retrieved 22 November 2016. ^ Moss, Stephen (14 November 2016). "Why Saki's stories are due a revival". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 November 2016. ^ Saki, Esme, at eastoftheweb.com, accessed 2 July 2017 ^ Perhaps because of its subtitle: "A Tragedy in the Manner of the Discursive Dramatists". It was included only in later printings (1946 onwards) of The Complete Short Stories of Saki (John Lane The Bodley Head Limited) ^ Penguin editions ISBN 978-0-14-118078-6 ^ "Saki Does Alice". callumjames.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 15 May 2017.[permanent dead link] ^ "Katha Sagar EP 19". Cinevistaas. 26 April 2012. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. ^ "Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? (2007)". bfi.org.uk. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2016. ^ Tripney, Natasha (2 June 2008). "Wolves at the Window review at Arcola London". The Stage. London. Retrieved 18 November 2016. ^ "Miracles at Short Notice". www.comedy.co.uk. British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 18 November 2016. ^ McElroy, Steven (26 August 2016). "'Life According to Saki,' a Play Set in World War I, Wins Edinburgh Award". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved 18 November 2016. Literary criticism and biography[edit] "Mappining London: Urban Participation in Sakian Satire" — by Lorene Mae Birden. Literary criticism focusing on the role of London. "People Dined Against Each Other: Social Practices in Sakian Satire" — by Lorene Mae Birden. Literary criticism focusing on social mannerisms. The Satire of Saki by George James Spears — A 127-page book encompassing a dissection of satire in Saki's works, with a bibliography and overview of all of Saki's works in relation to satire. Biography by Ethel M. Munro — A brief biography written by Saki's sister. Saki: A Life of Hector Hugh Munro by A. J. Langguth — Includes six uncollected stories and various photographs. Pamela M. Pringle 'Wolves by Jamrach': the Elusive Undercurrents in Saki's Short Stories (unpublished M.Litt. dissertation, University of Aberdeen, 1993). "An Asp Lurking in An Apple-Charlotte: Animal Violence in Saki's The Chronicles of Clovis" by Joseph S. Salemi – Literary criticism about the recurrence of animals in The Chronicles of Clovis, suggesting that the animals represent the characters' primal instincts and true vicious mannerisms. Available in Student Research Center of EbscoHost Database. "The Unrest Cure According to Lawrence, Saki, and Lewis" by Christopher Lane, Modernism/modernity 11.4 (2004): 769–96 "Saki/Munro: Savage Propensities; or, The Jungle-Boy in the Drawing-room" by Christopher Lane, in The Ruling Passion (Duke University Press, 1995), pp. 212–28 Stern, Simon (1994), "Saki's Attitude", GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 1 (3): 275–98, doi:10.1215/10642684-1-3-275, OCLC 42671765 Van Leer, David (1995), The queening of America: gay culture in straight society, Routledge, pp. 31–37, ISBN 978-0-415-90336-3 Sandie Byrne, Dr (2007), The unbearable Saki : the work of H.H. Munro, Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-922605-4, OCLC 163312071 Christopher Hitchens (June 2008), Where the Wild Things Are — Review of The Unbearable Saki in Atlantic Monthly Brian Gibson (2014), Reading Saki: The Fiction of H.H. Munro, McFarland, ISBN 978-0-786-47949-8 External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to Saki. Wikisource has original works by or about:Saki Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hector Hugh Munro. The Annotated Saki Rediscovered Saki Saki at the Literature Network Audiobooks—The Complete Short Stories of Saki Archived 31 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine Works by Saki at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Saki at Internet Archive Works by Saki at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Saki at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Saki on Diffusion.org.uk – 36 Short stories from 'Beasts and Super Beasts' Six by Saki — six uncollected stories included as an appendix to A.J. Langguth's biography of Saki Saki stories on the 19 Nocturne Boulevard podcast, including Quail Seed, Tobermony, and The Phantom Luncheon The East Wing Saki's 'rediscovered' short story Bibliography including lost stories rediscovered by Lora A. Sifurova seven stories and sketches rediscovered by Lora A. 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"How Doth the Little Crocodile" "The Mouse's Tale" "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" "You Are Old, Father William" "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster" "Jabberwocky" Vorpal sword "The Walrus and the Carpenter" "Haddocks' Eyes" "The Mock Turtle's Song" The Hunting of the Snark Related Alice Liddell Alice syndrome Alice's Shop Illustrators John Tenniel Theophilus Carter The Annotated Alice Mischmasch Translations Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass AdaptationsStage Alice in Wonderland (1886 musical) Alice in Wonderland (1979 opera) But Never Jam Today (1979 musical) Through the Looking Glass (2008 opera) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2011 ballet) Wonderland (2011 musical) Peter and Alice (2013 play) Wonder.land (2015 musical) Alice's Adventures Under Ground (2016 opera) Alice by Heart (2019 musical) Film 1903 1910 1915 Alice Comedies (1923–1927) 1931 1933 1949 1951 Alice of Wonderland in Paris (1966) 1972 1976 1976 (Spanish) Alice or the Last Escapade (1977) 1981 1982 The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987) 1988 (Czechoslovak) 1988 (Australian) Malice in Wonderland (2009) 2010 Alice in Murderland (2010) Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) Come Away (2020) Alice and the Land that Wonders (2020) Alice, Through the Looking (2021) Television Alice in Wonderland (1962) Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid like You Doing in a Place like This? (1966) Alice in Wonderland (1966) Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966) 1983 (TV film) Fushigi no Kuni no Alice (1983) 1985 (TV film) Adventures in Wonderland (1992) Alice through the Looking Glass (1998) Alice in Wonderland (1999) Alice (2009) Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (2013) Alice's Wonderland Bakery (2022) Music "White Rabbit" (1967 song) "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985 music video) Alice in Wonderland (2010) Almost Alice (2010) "Alice" "Follow Me Down" "Tea Party" Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) "Just Like Fire" "Alice" (2020 song) Video games Through the Looking Glass (1984) Alice in Wonderland (1985) Märchen Maze (1988) Wonderland (1990) Alice: An Interactive Museum (1991) Alice no Paint Adventure (1995) Alice in Wonderland (2000) American McGee's Alice (2000) Kingdom Hearts (2002) Alice in the Country of Hearts (2007) Alice in Wonderland (2010) Alice: Madness Returns (2011) Kingdom Hearts χ (2013) Inverse Ninjas VS. The Public Domain (2023) Sequels A New Alice in the Old Wonderland (1895) New Adventures of Alice (1917) Alice Through the Needle's Eye (1984) Automated Alice (1996) Retellings The Nursery "Alice" (1890) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Retold in Words of One Syllable (1905) American McGee's Alice (2000) Alice in Verse: The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland (2010) Alice: Madness Returns (2011) Parodies The Westminster Alice (1902) Clara in Blunderland (1902) Lost in Blunderland (1903) John Bull's Adventures in the Fiscal Wonderland (1904) Alice in Blunderland: An Iridescent Dream (1904) The Looking Glass Wars 2004 2007 2009 Imitations Mopsa the Fairy (1869) Davy and the Goblin (1884) The Admiral's Caravan (1891) Gladys in Grammarland (1896) Rollo in Emblemland (1902) Alice in Orchestralia (1925) Literary Alice in Borderland Alice in the Country of Hearts Alice in Murderland Alice in Sunderland Lost Girls Miyuki-chan in Wonderland Pandora Hearts Tweedledum and Tweedledee Unbirthday: A Twisted Tale Related Betty in Blunderland (1934 animated short) Thru the Mirror (1936 animated short) Jabberwocky (1971 film) Jabberwocky (1977 film) Donald in Mathmagic Land (1959 film) Malice in Wonderland (1982 animated short) Dungeonland (1983 module) The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (1983 module) Dreamchild (1985 film) The Hunting of the Snark (1991 musical) How Doth the Little Crocodile (1998 artworks) Abby in Wonderland (2008 film) Disney franchise Category Authority control databases International FAST ISNI VIAF National Norway Spain France BnF data Argentina Catalonia Germany Israel Finland Belgium United States Sweden Japan Czech Republic Australia Greece Korea Netherlands Poland Portugal Vatican Academics CiNii Artists MusicBrainz People Commonwealth War Graves Commission Deutsche Biographie Trove Other SNAC IdRef

THE MOUSE

"Mouse rescued from the cat" by Bob Hall is licensed under CC by-NC-ND 2.0.

Theodoric Voler had been brought up, from infancy to the confines of middle age, by a fond mother whose chief solicitude had been to keep him screened from what she called the coarser realities of life. When she died she left Theodoric alone in a world that was as real as ever, and a good deal coarser than he considered it had any need to be. To a man of his temperament and upbringing even a simple railway journey was crammed with petty annoyances and minor discords, and as he settled himself down in a second-class compartment one September morning he was conscious of ruffled feelings and general mental discomposure. He had been staying at a country vicarage, the inmates of which had been certainly neither brutal nor bacchanalian, but their supervision of the domestic establishment had been of that lax order which invites disaster. The pony carriage that was to take him to the station had never been properly ordered, and when the moment for his departure drew near, the handyman who should have produced the required article was nowhere to be found. In this emergency Theodoric, to his mute but very intense disgust, found himself obliged to collaborate with the vicar's daughter in the task of harnessing the pony, which necessitated groping about in an ill-lighted outbuilding called a stable, and smelling very like one - except in patches where it smelled of mice.

Without being actually afraid of mice, Theodoric classed them among the coarser incidents of life, and considered that Providence, with a little exercise of moral courage, might long ago have recognized that they were not indispensable, and have withdrawn them from circulation. As the train glided out of the station Theodoric's nervous imagination accused himself of exhaling a weak odor of stable yard, and possibly of displaying a moldy straw or two on his unusually well-brushed garments. Fortunately the only other occupation of the compartment, a lady of about the same age as himself, seemed inclined for slumber rather than scrutiny; the train was not due to stop till the terminus was reached, in about an hour's time, and the carriage was of the oId-fashioned sort that held no communication with a corridor, therefore no further traveling companions were likely to intrude on Theodoric's semiprivacy. And yet the train had scarcely attained its normal speed before he became reluctantly but vividly aware that he was not alone with the slumbering lady; he was not even alone in his own clothes. A warm, creeping movement over his flesh betrayed the unwelcome and highly resented presence, unseen but poignant, of a strayed mouse, that had evidently dashed into its present retreat during the episode of the pony harnessing. Furtive stamps and shakes and wildly directed pinches failed to dislodge the intruder, whose motto, indeed, seemed to be Excelsior; and the lawful occupant of the clothes lay back against the cushions and endeavored rapidly to evolve some means for putting an end to the dual ownership. It was unthinkable that he should continue for the space of a whole hour in the horrible position of a Rowton House for vagrant mice (already his imagination had at least doubled the numbers of the alien invasion). On the other hand, nothing less drastic than partial disrobing would ease him of his tormentor, and to undress in the presence of a lady, even for so laudable a purpose, was an idea that made his ear tips tingle in a blush of abject shame. He had never been able to bring himself even to the mild exposure of openwork socks in the presence of the fair sex. And yet - the lady in this case was to all appearances soundly and securely asleep; the mouse, on the other hand, seemed to be trying to crowd a wanderjahr into a few strenuous minutes. If there is any truth in the theory of transmigration, this particular mouse must certainly have been in a former state a member of the Alpine Club. Sometimes in its eagerness it lost its footing and slipped for half an inch or so; and then, in fright, or more probably temper, it bit. Theodoric was goaded into the most audacious undertaking of his life. Crimsoning to the hue of a beetroot and keeping an agonized watch on his slumbering fellow traveler, he swiftly and noiselessly secured the ends of his railway rug to the racks on either side of the carriage, so that a substantial curtain hung athwart the compartment. In the narrow dressing room that he had thus improvised he proceeded with violent haste to extricate himself partially and the mouse entirely from the surrounding casings of tweed and half-wool. As the unraveled mouse gave a wild leap to the floor, the rug, slipping its fastening at either end, also came down with a heart-curdling flop, and almost simultaneously the awakened sleeper opened her eyes. With a movement almost quicker than the mouse's, Theodoric pounced on the rug and hauled its ample folds chin-high over his dismantled person as he collapsed into the farther corner of the carriage. The blood raced and beat in the veins of his neck and forehead, while he waited dumbly for the communication cord to be pulled. The lady, however, contented herself with a silent stare at her strangely muffled companion. How much had she seen, Theodoric queried to himself; and in any case what on earth must she think of his present posture?

"I think I have caught a chill," he ventured desperately.

"Really, I'm sorry," she replied. "I was just going to ask you if you would open this window."

"I fancy it's malaria," he added, his teeth chattering slightly, as much from fright as from a desire to support his theory.

"I've got some brandy in my holdall, if you'll kindly reach it down for me," said his companion.

"Not for worlds - I mean, I never take anything for it," he assured her earnestly.

"I suppose you caught it in the tropics?"

Theodoric, whose acquaintance with the tropics was limited to an annual present of a chest of tea from an uncle in Ceylon, felt that even the malaria was slipping from him. Would it be possible, he wondered to disclose the real state of affairs to her in small installments?

"Are you afraid of mice?" he ventured, growing, if possible, more scarlet in the face.

"Not unless they came in quantities. Why do you ask?"

"I had one crawling inside my clothes just now," said Theodoric in a voice that hardly seemed his own. "It was a most awkward situation."

"It must have been, if you wear your clothes at all tight," she observed. "But mice have strange ideas of comfort."

"I had to get rid of it while you were asleep," he continued. Then, with a gulp, he added, "It was getting rid of it that brought me to - to this."

"Surely leaving off one small mouse wouldn't bring on a chill," she exclaimed, with a levity that Theodoric accounted abominable.

Evidently she had detected something of his predicament, and was enjoying his confusion. All the blood in his body seemed to have mobilized in one concentrated blush, and an agony of abasement, worse than a myriad mice, crept up and down over his soul. And then, as reflection began to assert itself, sheer terror took the place of humiliation. With every minute that passed the train was rushing nearer to the crowded and bustling terminus, where dozens of prying eyes would be exchanged for the one paralyzing pair that watched him from the farther corner of the carriage. There was one slender, despairing chance, which the next few minutes must decide. His fellow traveler might relapse into a blessed slumber. But as the minutes throbbed by that chance ebbed away. The furtive glance which Theodoric stole at her from time to time disclosed only an unwinking wakefulness.

"I think we must be getting near now," she presently observed.

Theodoric had already noted with growing terror the recurring stacks of small, ugly dwellings that heralded the journey's end. The words acted as a signal. Like a hunted beast breaking cover and dashing madly toward some other haven of momentary safety he threw aside his rug, and struggled frantically into his disheveled garments. He was conscious of dull suburban stations racing past the window, of a choking, hammering sensation in his throat and heart, and of an icy silence in that corner toward which he dared not look. Then as he sank back in his seat, clothed and almost delirious, the train slowed down to a final crawl, and the woman spoke.

"Would you be so kind," she asked, "as to get me a porter to put me into a cab? It's a shame to trouble you when you're feeling unwell, but being blind makes one so helpless at a railway station."

Current Page: 1

GRADE:9

Additional Information:

Rating: C Words in the Passage: 1420 Unique Words: 665 Sentences: 63
Noun: 399 Conjunction: 131 Adverb: 97 Interjection: 0
Adjective: 112 Pronoun: 146 Verb: 281 Preposition: 196
Letter Count: 6,854 Sentiment: Positive Tone: Neutral Difficult Words: 414
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