This is one of the new range of Penguin Mini Modern Classics and contains seven of Saki's short stories: ‘Filboid Studge, the Story of a Mouse That HeThis is one of the new range of Penguin Mini Modern Classics and contains seven of Saki's short stories: ‘Filboid Studge, the Story of a Mouse That Helped�, ‘Tobermory�, ‘Mrs Packletide’s Tiger�, ‘Sredni Vashtar�, ‘The Music on the Hill�, ‘The Recessional� and ‘The Cobweb�.
Saki’s stories are absolutely marvellous. They remind me a bit of E. F. Benson in their tone and focus on the foibles of the upper middle class, but unlike Benson (who I always feel has a soft spot for his characters no matter how much he may mock them) Saki is merciless in his approach. The stories are dry, witty and biting and if they were long enough for the reader to get to know the characters at all it would be easy for them to seem rather cruel, but because they are only brief snapshots the reader is able to laugh without any accompanying feeling of guilt. They may be a little bizarre and dark at times (‘Sredni Vashtar� for example is the story of a young boy who has a pet ferret that he turns into a god) but they always have a proper narrative arc and so they are very satisfying to read.
Although all the stories are entertaining, my two favourites are ‘Tobermory� and ‘Mrs Packletide’s Tiger�. ‘Tobermory� is about Mr Cornelius Appin, who announces at Lady Blemley’s weekend gathering that he has found a way to teach animals to talk and has successfully taught the cat, Tobermory, to talk. The guests however are less than impressed when it becomes apparent that Tobermory enjoys exercising his new linguistic talents to reveal all the secrets of the guests at the party to the assembled crowd:
"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."
I think this comparison is just brilliant in its bathos. It conveys how ludicrous the guests� objections are in the face of such an amazing discovery and how bound they are by social convention. It makes me chuckle every time I read it. Saki also gives Tobermory a wonderful voice and personality which conveys a sense of relish at embarrassing and shaming his listeners with the things they say and do behind closed doors. I only wish it had been a longer tale.
‘Mrs Packletide’s Tiger� concerns a lady who decides that she wants to shoot a tiger in order to outdo Loona Bimberton who has just flown in a aircraft. Soon a suitable candidate is found:
"Circumstances proved propitious. Mrs Packletide had offered a thousand rupees for the opportunity of shooting a tiger without overmuch risk or exertion, and it so happened that a neighbouring village could boast of being the favoured rendezvous of an animal of respectable antecedents, which had been driven by the increasing infirmities of age to abandon gamekilling and confine its appetite to the smaller domestic animals. The prospect of earning the thousand rupees had stimulated the sporting and commercial instinct of the villagers; children were posted night and day on the outskirts of the local jungle to head the tiger back in the unlikely event of his attempting to roam away to fresh hunting-grounds, and the cheaper kinds of goats were left about with elaborate carelessness to keep him satisfied with his present quarters. The one great anxiety was lest he should die of old age before the date appointed for the memsahib’s shoot. Mothers carrying their babies home through the jungle after the day’s work in the fields hushed their singing lest they might curtail the restful sleep of the venerable herd-robber."
It seems so ridiculous, and yet the task proves much trickier than Mrs Packletide anticipates with humorous results.
This little book provides an excellent taste of the author (as, no doubt, Penguin intended) and I'll be reading more Saki in the future....more
A Flower Wedding is an illustrated verse story describing the marriage of Lad’s Love and Miss Meadow Sweet and is essentially an excuse for Crane to mA Flower Wedding is an illustrated verse story describing the marriage of Lad’s Love and Miss Meadow Sweet and is essentially an excuse for Crane to mention the names of as many flowers as possible so that he can draw them all. It is a very short piece, each page featuring a single couplet or half couplet which provides a caption for the accompanying image, but it is perfectly wrought. Crane’s illustrations are stunning and his incorporation of all the different flowers, both into the poem and into the pictures, is skilfully done.
The edition of this book that I have is an absolutely beautiful object, and one of the best arguments in favour of printed books that I’ve had the pleasure of reading for some time. It is bound in soft cream cloth with designs embossed on the boards and spine in gold; the corners are pleasantly rounded; the paper inside is thick and creamy; the endpapers are bright and eyecatching; and there is a pretty ribbon to mark your place. It was produced by the V & A Museum to tie in with their new exhibition The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 and I can certainly see why. This is a book that I’m very glad to own and will definitely be returning to to admire the illustrations regularly....more
Five Children and It tells the story of Robert, Anthea, Cyril and Jane and their baby brother, known affectionately as the Lamb. While holidaying in tFive Children and It tells the story of Robert, Anthea, Cyril and Jane and their baby brother, known affectionately as the Lamb. While holidaying in the country, their parents are both unexpectedly called away for various reasons, leaving the children to entertain themselves all summer. On the first day, they go to play in an old gravel pit and there they uncover a mysterious creature: a Psammead. These sand fairies have the ability to grant wishes which will last only until sunset. However, the old saying that you should be careful what you wish for proves true, and things often don’t work out quite as the children plan as their summer suddenly becomes much less dull and far more fraught with adventure.
There are so many things in this book which I find irresistible. First and foremost, I love the way that the world of the five children is completely conventional with the exception of one strange and magical thing: the Psammead. In fact, the world is so ordinary that the story seems almost believeable. Although the Psammead grants one wish a day for the children, everything else happens exactly as it would without the magical element. Thus when the children wish to be as beautiful as the day, neither their little brother nor the servants recognise them and they have to beg for food from neighbouring houses and they frequently get into trouble when their escapades keep them out past supper time. Even their wish that the servants won’t notice whatever they wish for, an attempt to avoid getting into trouble, only leads to more disaster and scoldings. In fact, the children’s wishes usually either don’t work out as they might have hoped or lead them into unforeseen scrapes from which they must extricate themselves without being able to explain to any grown ups about the magical happenings which have resulted in these strange situations. This makes for a far more satisfying book, in my opinion. A book that simply chronicled the successful wishes about a group of children might be entertaining if it were well written, but it would be fairly one dimensional. However, a book about wishes that backfire and wishes that aren’t necessarily what you intended is an engaging idea with endless possibilities. The pleasure in reading Five Children and It comes not so much from seeing the children enjoy the results of their wishes but in watching them deal with the unexpected but inevitable consequences of those wishes.
The story is brought to life by E. Nesbit’s wonderful narrative voice which permeates the book. She adopts a conspiratorial tone, as though she is letting the reader in on a big secret which makes the story feel even more special. Her humorous asides on every subject are a joy to read and can be appreciated just as much by adults as by children. She passes judgement on the children, on the adults around them and on grown ups outside the world of the book, but she does so in a way that is never condemning although it is accurate and astute. She invites the reader to share these opinions and so thoroughly draws you into the narrative.
The Psammead itself is a wonderful creation. Although Nesbit calls it a fairy, it definitely isn’t what springs to mind when using the word, as you can see from H. R. Millar’s illustrations from my edition of the book. Fat and furry with eyes on the end of stalks like a snail, it is a thoroughly original creation. It is crotchety and short-tempered (although with good reason, I feel, being pestered daily by five children) and it makes a refreshing change to have an unwilling, grumpy magical creature in a children’s book, rather than one that is obliging. One could almost suspect, as the children do, that the Psammead is wilfully misinterpreting their wishes in order to land them in difficult situations deliberately. The presence of this creature certainly adds to the humour of the book and helps to make it a wonderful read....more
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