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 Sredni
Vashtar
- Sardonic Tales
- by Saki
- Introduction by Mark
Valentine
-
- This
collection brings together all of the sharpest, darkest,
weird and macabre tales of Edwardian satirist Hector Hugh
Munro (who adopted the pen-name, 'Saki'). Among the best
of these are the stories of the unlikely god Sredni
Vashtar, a beautiful young werewolf, the dying and
unmourned Laura, and the laughter of the youthful and
merciless Pan.
-
- Saki
brings to the supernatural tale a studied nonchalance and
a terse remorselessness in the telling. 'Wittily sombre
and elegantly grim' was one well-turned contemporary
evocation of his work. All the trappings of the Gothic,
and the later antiquarian, ghost or horror story, have
been quite banished from his work. There is no laboured
building-up of portent, no labyrinthine twisting of
devious history, no elaborate word-painting to conjure up
atmosphere. Instead, Saki achieves a fastidious precision
and economy. In his mastery of the sardonic and his
ironic, adroit deployment of the supernatural, he has few
equals.
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- Contents: 'Introduction', 'The Reticence
of Lady Anne', 'The Lost Sanjak', 'Gabriel-Ernest', 'The
Saint and the Goblin', 'The Soul of Laploshka',
'Esmé', 'Tobermory', 'The Background', 'The
Unrest-Cure', 'Sredni Vashtar', 'The Easter Egg', 'The
Music on the Hill', 'The Peace of Mowsle Barton', 'The
Secret Sin of Septimus Brope', ' "Ministers of Grace" ',
'The Remoulding of Groby Lington', 'The She-Wolf',
'Laura', 'The Hen', 'The Open Window', 'The Cobweb', 'The
Seventh Pullet', 'The Blind Spot', 'The Story-Teller',
'The Lumber-Room', 'The Toys of Peace', 'The Wolves of
Cernagratz', 'The Interlopers', 'The Hedgehog', 'The
Image of the Lost Soul', 'The Infernal Parliament', 'When
William Came'
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- Sredni Vashtar is a sewn hardback of 293 +
xii pages.
-
- Limited
to 300 copies.
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- Price
£30.00/$50 inc. p&p.
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- ISBN
978-1-905784-07-3
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- Note:
The frontispiece illustration to this edition which we
believed to be Saki (as did Penguin and others...) has
recently been revealed to be Adrian Allinson (1890-1959 -
artist). Many thanks to Mark Valentine for letting us
know.
Page updated
7th June 2009
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