Short Stories by Saki

Under the pen name Saki, Hector Hugh Munro wrote two kinds of stories--prankish humor about the British leisure class and chilling horror ˆ la the sardonic Ambrose Bierce. Through these the mellifluous Davidson and May romp in merry pointlessness. They strike the right tongue-in-cheek tone, render the sense of their lines accurately enough, but somehow miss the punchlines. Indeed, many of the tales, as they deliver them, just stop, the joke over before one is aware that there is one. Nowhere in the packaging does one get a table of contents, a frustrating omission. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine