Publisher's Synopsis
Beasts and Super-Beasts is a collection of short stories, written by Saki (the literary pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro) and first published in 1914. Along with The Chronicles of Clovis, Beasts and Super-Beasts is one of Saki's best-known works. It was his final collection of stories before his death in World War I, and several of its stories, in particular "The Open Window" and "Sredni Vashtar," are reprinted frequently in anthologies. The majority of the volume's stories deal in one fashion with animals, providing the source for its title. The character of Clovis Sangrail, featured in earlier works by Saki, appears in several stories. Most of the stories appeared previously in periodicals. Stylistically, Beasts and Super-Beasts displays the simple language, cynicism and wry humor that characterize Saki's earlier literary output. Hector Hugh Munro, better known by the pen name Saki, was a British writer, whose witty and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. "The Open Window" may be his most famous, with a closing line ("Romance at short notice was her speciality") that has entered the lexicon. In addition to his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was the custom of the time, and then collected into several volumes) he also 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, an early alternate history. He was influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Kipling, and himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noel Coward, and P. G. Wodehouse.