| The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki, Fiction, Classic, Literary Contributor(s): Saki (Author), Munro, H. H. (Author), Milne, A. A. (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 1603128816 ISBN-13: 9781603128810 Publisher: Aegypan OUR PRICE: $22.46 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: March 2007 * Not available - Not in print at this time * |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Literary |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 6" W x 9" (0.79 lbs) 148 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The charming, beloved master of short fiction known as "Saki" was born Hector Hugo Munro in 1870 in Akyab, Myanmar, which was then known as Burma. Hector was the youngest child of the Inspector-General of the Burmese police -- H.H. Munro was a child of the British Empire at its fullest glory. The children were soon sent to live with maiden aunts and their grandmother in Devon. The eccentric aunts and favorite childhood stories, including Robinson Crusoe, Alice in Wonderland, and Johnnykin and the Goblins, proved inspirational for later stories. As an adult, Saki served in the Burmese police, and later, became a London political satirist, and then journalist posted to Warsaw, Moscow and St. Petersburg. As with most of his generation, Saki enlisted in military service at the outbreak of the First World War. Stationed with the Royal Fusiliers, his battalion was sent to France in September, 1915. "The Chronicles of Clovis" is Saki's third book of short fiction, published in 1911. Influenced by his travels in eastern Europe and Russia, most of the stories feature Clovis Sangrail, a rich young man with a wicked sense of humor. "The Chronicles of Clovis" contains the classic "Sredni Vashtar," the story of Conradin, a spoiled, sickly ten-year old boy who's not expected to survive long. Brief, sharp, and ironic, as fresh today as the day it was written, "Sredni Vashtar" is Conradin's pet ferret, the most important "god" in an isolated boy's imaginary world of power and vengeance that may, just possibly, be absolutely real. Saki's brilliant talent was cut short by a sniper's bullet on the Western Front in November, 1916. |
Contributor Bio(s): Saki: - "Hector Hugh Munro (1870 - 1916), better known by the pen name Saki and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward and P. G. Wodehouse. Besides his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was customary at the time and then collected into several volumes), he 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, a fantasy about a future German invasion and occupation of Britain." |