Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: The Unbearable Bassington

Hello everybody!
Is there anyone of you who knows Saki? I have just finished his
"Short Stories and the Unbearable Bassington" and I found it simply
irresistible. Not only Saki's icy wit, as they put it, but the way he
describes his charaters, his ability in enlightening those remotest aspects
of human soul we all are aware of .... but would never admit. It's
absolutely fantastic! I went through his stories with the same joy I feel
when reading Oscar Wilde.
Sorry, I did not introduce myself. Well, I'm a new reader of this great N.G.
and I thought I would post this little piece of advice for those who have
never read Saki, and at the same time seek  advice from those who may know
it: can you suggest other titles from the same author? I'd like to read
more!
Thanks a lot!
Barbara

more!
Beasts and superbeasts (see above)
The chronicle of Clovis (alas, not on Gutenberg, AFAIK)
I also have a Penguin Popular Classic, a very inexpensive (6000 LIT)
book
that I suggest  to anyone that has never read Saki (not your case
then...):
Saki
The Best of Saki
ISBN 0140621342
HTH
Peltio

 Is there anyone of you who knows Saki?
Hi Barbara,
Welcome to the group.
Saki's one of my favourites, too.
He's mostly famous for the short stories; I haven't read any of his
novels.
There aren't many, because he died at the age of 46, killed in the
trenches in the First World War.
He first became famous for The Westminster Alice, a satire on
contemporary politics based on Alice in Wonderland (which I haven't read
either).
There are two books of his short stories in the Everyman paperback
edition.
Other books mentioned in the preface to my Short Stories are called
"Reginald in Russia" and "Chronicles of Clovis".
You might find more at 
http://www.amazon.com
.
Mary
-- 
"You can't expect a boy to be vicious until he has been to a good
school." -- H. H. Munro (Saki)


I've now found two sites with the Clovis stories:
http://www.fluxus.freeserve.co.uk/Clovis
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/rgs/clovis-table.html
.
Esmé is one of my favourites.
Mary
--
'Bring the spade, William,' he called to the chauffeur. Evidently hasty
roadside interments were contingencies that had been provided against.


http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/rgs/clovis-table.html
.
Mary,
have I told you lately that I love you?
; ))
Peltio

more!
First of all, a warm (but also humble being a K.I.S.A.) welcome from me;
I hope you will enjoy reading this NG as much as we do.
As to Saki, not so long ago I read "Children, Animals and Strange Adults"
and I liked it, so this is
my suggestion.
BTW, do you know anything about Saki's death ?
There is a strange and probably apocryphal story about it which seems like a
story written by Saki
himself. He was fighting in France in WW1, and one night, in the trenches,
he saw that one of his men
(he was a sergeant) was smoking. Being very dangerous to smoke at night
because the enemy soldiers
could have shot at the light of burning cigarettes, Saki turned to this
soldier and shouted :
" Put that bloody cigarette out ! ".
In that very moment, an enemy soldier shot. Unfortunately the latter hadn't
directed his rifle towards the
light of the burning cigarette, but towards the sound of Saki's voice, so he
was killed.
A terrible irony - an irony that Saki would have appreciated.
Bye Asoka xx'82
<< However fast you may run, you will never overreach the ball >>

Peltio ha scritto:

Huh - cupboard love!!
Mary
--
I love reading Moby Dick, said Tom superficially.

Peltio wrote in message 86ckkn$hsc$1...@lacerta.tiscalinet.it...
     [.....]
    > THE SHE-WOLF
    [.....]
    > Also, for those who need to hear a little bit of spoken English,
    > RedBack  AudioBooks has a two cassette set >
    [.....]
    > Welcome to The Realm.
    > And, yes, you are right, this is  a great NG. : )
    > Wait till we have all of the four Queens fully operative and you'll
    > see...
Dear Peltio,
Ever a mine of information, and you do say the nicest things.....
Welcome to The  Realm Barbara. We seem to be growing in leaps and bounds and
we are most pleased you find us a news group of interest. The undersigned
dares to hope that, malfunctioning mecanical accoutrements having been
dispensed with, normal activity might now be resumed.
I remain, as always,
Bambi
dtb