The Best Of Saki

The Best of Saki, edited by Martin Stephen, is a collection of short stories by famed 20th century writer
Hector Hugh Munro. Saki is the pen name that Munro wrote his short stories under. Most of these stories
were originally published in newspapers, which Saki did most of his writing for.

After reading this collection of stories, I begin to wonder if The Best of Saki is really an appropriate title
for this text. I have to admit that I was not very impressed by the vast majority of these stories. If this is
indeed Hector Hugh Munro's best work, then I would have to say he does not deserve much of the fame
that he has.This book read about as exciting as history text, but with much less insight. Saki's stories do give us a
glimpse of early 20th century middle to upper class life, but doesn't really tell us much more than can be
learned by reading a social history book.

His stories mostly center around wild tales that make you wonder
what this man was thinking. I would have to say that this man had about as morbid an imagination as
Stephen King, but was supposed to be writing satire. (And had much less talent as Stephen King, whose
worst work is ten times more exciting than Saki's best.) Saki does deserve credit for some recognition of
his skills in the art of satire, but after writing so many stories under this genre, it would only be expected
that he would learn to use it well.One of Saki's major problems is that the satire gets boring after about the first hundred pages. Everyone of
his stories begin to look alike, and are very easy to predict after reading the first five to ten of them.

It
could have been much more exciting of a reading, if only Saki would have used his satire differently in
some of the stories. I do have to admit though, that these stories were not originally published as a
collection, but instead one at a time in newspapers of the day, which would mean it would have been a lot
less apparent just how similar these stories were.Through his stories, the reader begins to wonder how biographical these stories are. Most of the stories
deal with young boys, often orphans of some type, and older upper class women, many times one of these
women will be the child's aunt. There are very few men seen in his stories, and generally the adults are not
portrayed in the best of light.

The children, particularly a young boy, are often seen as the brightest
characters, and also as the most deceitful. The child almost always is able to turn a situation to benefit him
the most, if not through monetary rewards, then through the embarrassment of his elders.Saki also has a morbid fascination of wild animals. Many of his stories include at least one animal in some
way or another. It would appear that he was interested in hunting, or at least observed many hunting trips
as a child.

Many of the settings in this collection revolve around some type of hunting trip. The reader
would almost think that there is something evil associated with the forest for all the tragedy that occurs in
Saki's stories. It is not very far into this book that we see the first child killed by one of these mysterious
animals, and not very far after that, that we see this occur again. What is surprising about these
occurrences is that no one really seems to notice, or really care when a child has been murdered. The
reader begins to wonder if Saki is stating that death of these children is not better than life in the society he
portrays.

Many times when the older characters do notice this loss, it is only because they have lost a
possession, and not be!
cause they have lost a loved one. Sometimes the reader begins to wonder if Saki does not have more
respect for these animals, than for human life. Though the wild animals kill, they are never actually viewed
in a bad light, but instead almost as human, if not more than the other characters. Their killing of young
children is just seen as a necessity of life, much like we must kill cows for nourishment, one wonders if
Saki is not making the same statement about these animals.

The reader also sees a fascination of the supernatural apparent in many of these stories. This can be seen
through the use of magic, angels, werewolves, and other things within his plots. He uses these things as
nonchalantly as he does wild animals, as if these things would be as easy to believe. When we do see these
supernatural occurrences, in most cases they just further complicate the lives of the mortal adults within the
stories.

One begins to question whether Saki really believes in these things himself, or is just using them to
make the stories more interesting. If he is using them solely for interest sake, I sure wish he would have
tried harder, but I do thank him for at least one concession.I do have to admit that there were a few of these stories which I generally did enjoy. My favorite would
have to be "The Mouse".

I must admit though that I enjoyed this story because of my own fear of mice.
This is one instance where I sympathized with the main character, and no matter how hard I tried not to,
could see myself in his own shoes. I think my enjoyment came from this story because it was the one
instant that I actually related to the story, both the embarrassment and the fear. The irony is that though the
woman he shared the compartment with was blind, he was the one that didn't see anything. This story is
good because it is one that can happen to anyone, and not some vivid story about a hunting trip, or some
supernatural occurrence, but simply an event that the reader could easily see happen to himself.I also enjoyed Fillboid Studge, the "Story of a Mouse that Helped", for many of the same reasons.

It is just
like society to take a bright young man and use him for his talent, and after he has helped, just discard him
like yesterday's trash. This and "The Mouse" can both be described as timeless, because these are stories
that do not have to be read in any context. They simply can be enjoyed by all. The disappointment in this
story, though, is the fact that it too could happen to anyone.

The reader is left to ponder what his/her choice
is in the matter. Do we just give up on the sincerity of our fellow humans, and refuse to help anyone, or do
we hope that the majority of people really are good? Saki does not attempt to answer this, though, he just
presents this story, and then lets the reader make his own choice.Among the other stories that I enjoyed were "Esme" and "The Unrest-Cure". These two stories much more
resemble the rest of the collection, and the themes I talked about earlier. "Esme" deals with an escaped
hyena who is trapped by two female hunters, and basically taken as a pet.

The hyena kills a child on there
ride back from the trip, and is eventually hit and killed by a vehicle. The outcome is that one of the females
gains a reward from the motorist, and the truth about the animal is never known. "The Unrest-Cure" on the
other hand, deals with a young man who, after a train companion complains of a boring life, makes up a
plot to return excitement to his new friend. In the end the family is completely convince of the plot, and the
young man is the only one that knows the truth. Again, showing the intelligence of youth, and the
ignorance of the elders.

The rest of the book, though, I can not say was very enjoyable. Most of the stories were just downright
boring to read. There were a few more of the political satires that were interesting, but I wouldn't readily
recommend them to a friend. What I would recommend to anyone that decides to read this collection, is to
just read the first couple paragraphs of the story, and if sounds bad skip it.

I would say almost always this
would be a good plan, since I can't recall one of the stories that started bad, but got better. What I would
have liked to see more of were the stories that I mentioned, that presented timeless tales, that anyone could
relate to and enjoy.To the history student who decides to read this, some can be learned. What I would recommend to this
type of reader, though, is to first study this time period, and learn what to expect before reading this
material. If this is done, your understanding of exactly what life was like, and how people acted, could be
greatly improved. The thing to remember, though, is not to take this story at face value.

Remember that
Saki was just one man, and how he saw life could be very different than his contemporaries. As long as the
reader remembers that Saki is primarily writing fiction, this book could be a tool to better understand his
society. Still though, I wonder if there is not a more enjoyable author to read that could present life of this
time period in the same way.