The Complete Short Stories cover art

The Complete Short Stories

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Complete Short Stories

By: Saki
Narrated by: Rupert Degas
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £27.99

Buy Now for £27.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

H.H. Munro (Saki) is one of the undisputed masters of the short story. In this complete compendium, the full gamut of his subjects and themes is experienced. His stories are imbued with humorous satire, biting irony, and often the macabre, all of which have one target: the stupidities and hypocrisies of Edwardian upper-class society.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2021 Naxos Audiobooks
Classics Dark Humour Fiction Literary Fiction Satire Short Stories Comedy Witty
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Toys of Peace cover art
The Chronicles of Clovis cover art
Sredni Vashtar cover art
The Complete Mapp and Lucia, Volume 1 cover art
Short Stories: The Vintage Collection cover art
BBC Classics: Ultimate Story Collection cover art
BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Six Tragedies cover art
M.R. James: The Complete Ghost Stories Collection cover art
The Life of Samuel Johnson cover art
Sherlock Holmes: The Complete BBC Collection cover art
All the Sonnets of Shakespeare cover art
The Man Upstairs [Classic Tales Edition] cover art
Tales From the Mausoleum Club cover art
The Constant Nymph cover art
George Bernard Shaw cover art
BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Eight Comedies cover art

What listeners say about The Complete Short Stories

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

I remember being read these as a young boy and enjoying them then and subsequently. Witty and wonderfully read by Rupert Degas with a fabulous range of voices as well as (joy of joys) none of the mis-pronounciations which spoil so many audio books.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wodehouse with teeth

Saki’s stories are so brilliantly crafted and so effortlessly entertaining that it is a mystery why he isn’t more widely-read. Dripping with venomous cynicism, acidic wit and a dexterous mastery of the English language, every story is a neatly-plotted and chillingly macabre slice of Edwardian life.

These aren’t for everyone, although Saki’s stories have much in common with those of P.G. Wodehouse they couldn’t be further from the cosy drawing rooms and good-natured silliness of his work. Saki is Wodehouse with teeth, or perhaps even fangs - feral, murderous children roam the countryside, acts of racial genocide are staged as elaborate practical jokes and we are never more than a page or two away from some new act of rare, spectacular savagery. Saki revels in showing us the nasty underbelly of early Edwardian society, a corrupt, sinister and deeply cynical world where nothing and no-one can ever be entirely trusted.

None of this should really matter as these are quite simply some of the funniest stories ever published. His genius - like that of Wodehouse and Waugh - is profound in spite of its flippancy - or possibly because of it - and every sentence is crafted, sharpened and flung at the reader with the precision of an archer.

Because Saki’s is such a unique voice - cynical, unsettling yet spit-out-your-coffee hilarious, there are very few recordings which do justice to the devastating wit for which he is best known. This recording is easily the closest we’ve come, Degas never quite gets the sly, seductive wit of the author but offers a very solid telling of the stories, engaging and interesting without ever being exactly brilliant. There are a few little gripes but overall it’s great to finally have a (more or less) complete set of Saki’s work in audio form. It never made me laugh in quite the same way as the books and at times the narration is a bit flat but it’s a very respectable recording of one of English Literature’s most unique and under-appreciated authors.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

25 people found this helpful