close
The Beastly Chronicles of Saki Audiobook, by Saki Play Audiobook Sample

The Beastly Chronicles of Saki Audiobook

The Beastly Chronicles of Saki Audiobook, by Saki Play Audiobook Sample
FlexPass™ Price: $12.95
$9.95 for new members!
(Includes UNLIMITED podcast listening)
  • Love your audiobook or we'll exchange it
  • No credits to manage, just big savings
  • Unlimited podcast listening
Add to Cart
$9.95/m - cancel anytime - 
learn more
OR
Regular Price: $15.95 Add to Cart
Read By: a full cast Publisher: Copyright Group Listen Time: at 1.0x Speed 1.17 hours at 1.5x Speed 0.88 hours at 2.0x Speed Release Date: February 2014 Format: Unabridged Audiobook ISBN: 9781780000169

Quick Stats About this Audiobook

Total Audiobook Chapters:

2

Longest Chapter Length:

56:26 minutes

Shortest Chapter Length:

52:51 minutes

Average Chapter Length:

54:38 minutes

Audiobooks by this Author:

24

Publisher Description

The Beastly Chronicles Of Saki. The stories of HH Munro (better known by his pen name of Saki) have scarcely been out of print since they were first published nearly a century ago. Yet it often seems that their particular delights are reserved for the private pleasure of his coterie of admirers. It has to be admitted that a taste for Saki is something of an addiction. And, like all addictions, once acquired, it is hard to shake off. In the years since his tragically early death in the trenches at the hands of a German sniper, fellow addicts have included Graham Greene, Noel Coward and Tom Sharpe. All of us take a slightly wicked satisfaction from his biting wit and the subversive way in which he undermines the staid Edwardian society he purports to observe. But to a much greater extent than his near-contemporaries, Wilde and Kipling, there is something dark and menacing at the heart of Saki’s writing. Behind the refined twinkle of tea cups on an Edwardian lawn can be heard the distant howling of a wolf. Hidden among the shrubbery in a carefully manicured garden lurk all kinds of beasts and superbeasts, ready to wreak nature’s revenge on an uncaring mankind with its arrogant belief in materialism, progress and the innate respectability of middle class values. Where Kipling’s menagerie tends to simple analogues of human types, Saki’s animals can rise up with the full power of Pan himself. This is not to ignore Saki’s ability to turn an aphorism with all the facility and wit of the divine Oscar at his best. Nor does it forget his ability to prick the inflated egos of louche young men with too much time and money on their hands or deliciously dotty aunts and duchesses with their minds firmly fixed on empire and imperial responsibilities. It would be easy to forget that Munro foresaw the imminent collapse of this society into the cataclysm of the Great War. With his experience as a political journalist in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, he was probably more aware than most of the storm that was brewing. But, essentially, he was an observer of his fellow-man. And it is for the humor of his observations, for the dazzling twists and turns his tales take and for the fact that he makes us laugh inordinately that he is to be treasured and shared with those who have not yet acquired the addiction.

Download and start listening now!

The Beastly Chronicles of Saki Listener Reviews

Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!

About Saki

Saki was the pen name of the British writer Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916). In addition to his short stories, of which he was an acknowledged master, 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; a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington; a parody of Alice in WonderlandThe Westminster Alice; and a fantasy about England under German occupation, When William Came.