The best of Saki

This is as good a Saki selection as you could wish for. It's worth the purchase price for the thoughtful, incisive forward by Tom Sharp, himself no stranger to wicked humour. Saki's humour IS cruel, but arguably, his victims get nothing more than they deserve. Those who benefit are the children of the tales, usually oppressed by an adult (usually a heartless aunt). Likewise, the calm Edwardian drawing rooms graced by Clovis and his ilk are but the background setting for events leading to the great discomfiture, sometimes with unexpected violence, of some. The stories are thought provoking but, above all, they are brilliantly, intelligently funny.