Beasts and Super-Beasts is a collection of thirty-six short stories by Saki, the pen name of H. H. Munro, published in 1914. Witty and often cruel, the stories mock Edwardian society, and many feature animals or mischievous children. The collection includes The Open Window, one of the most famous English short stories.
The Open Window
A nervous visitor, Framton Nuttel, waits in a country house while a young girl tells him a tragic story about the open window. When the family returns, the result is unexpected.
The story is a model of the surprise ending and of a child's talent for invention.
Saki's world
The stories take place in drawing rooms, country houses and hotels, among aunts, guests, bores and hostesses.
Animals often disrupt the order of this society, as do clever young characters like Clovis Sangrail.
A sharp style
Saki writes with epigrams and precise irony, close to Oscar Wilde, but with a darker humour.
His stories are short, carefully built and often end with a sudden and unsettling twist.
Anecdotes
The pen name
Munro took the name Saki probably from the cupbearer in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, as translated by Edward FitzGerald.
Killed in the war
Saki enlisted as a private in 1914, although he was over forty, and was killed in France in November 1916.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Saki?
The pen name of the writer Hector Hugh Munro.
When was the collection published?
In 1914.
Which famous story does it contain?
The Open Window.