Saki’s second collection sends his languid young dandy Reginald to a Russian princess’s salon and then ranges across a run of short pieces. Among them are the werewolf boy of ‘Gabriel-Ernest’, the miser’s ghost of ‘The Soul of Laploshka’, the silent marital standoff of ‘The Reticence of Lady Anne’ and a cathedral saint troubled by jackdaws.
Published in 1910, these sketches show Saki’s cruelty and charm beginning to work together, and include some of his best-known stories. Download the free EPUB.