Saki's writing style is unique. His stories are mostly bleak and tragic. Some of his writing seems to have been influenced by his background and childhood experiences. However, they are amusing, interesting and tinged with humour.

Picador edition has wonderful, nicely written introduction that gives marvelous details of Saki's remarkable and short life, explaining well why his stories are usually so dark, and why he liked to take aim at stuffy old bats.

Nearly all of Saki's short stories are about some character exacting revenge upon cruel or shallow members of the British upper class. His writing sometimes feels labored and overwrought, with overlong sentences or ungainly descriptions. But his consistant style, sense of justice, and biting wit are the gems to be discovered within.

The earliest stories seemed to have a lack of balance between darkness and wit, but he did find his equilibrium and most of the later tales are deliciously satisfying.

Absolutely delightful reading if you liked Robert Altman's recent film Gosford Park, or if you are fed up with stuffy, mean upper class types.

If P.G.Wodehouse in "literature's performing flea" of light, easy, beautifully-turned literature of the quintessentially English house party, Saki's stories are the dark side: Wodehouse with acid. "The Unrest-Cure" probably one of the finest short stories ever written in the English language. If you like your humour astringent and your use of language tight then read these stories.

Saki's sardonic insight and exquisite sense of irony don't work quite as perfectly in a novel or play as when contained in a short story, but nonetheless this is a wonderful book and well worth reading.

Stories are typical of Saki. Extremely humourus with an underlying bite ridiculing prevalent pretensions and beliefs. Languages is long winded yet entertaining. A pleasure to read.

This is a book that you will love or hate. Saki writes with a sadistic flair that both enthralls you and horrifies you. This book is not one story but many written about the so called rich upper class who went around England during the time Saki lived. Saki seems to take pleasure in putting the prideful and boastful rich in their places and making them squirm a little. There are other stories that show Saki's dark and sinister side. As an example I will give you a short run down of Srendi Vashtar. A sickly boy is living with his cousin and she is extremely cruel to him. She takes pleasure in depriving him of even the slightest happiness. The boy hides the few things that bring him happiness away from his cousin. These things consist of a chicken and a ferret in a cage. The boy hates his cousin so much that he even rejects her religion and makes up one of his own basing it on the ferret. He prays to the ferret for deliverance from his cousin, which he finally gets. I will not ruin the ending for you, but I will tell you it has a bloody and shocking ending. Saki also has stories with a twisted humor that is actually funny and pleasing to read. Overall I enjoyed this book and recommend it

This was a very good book. The stories were all eye catching and made your mind wonder. At first when I started to read the book, was was a little lost. The stories all have some kind of catch to them, and it takes a little while to figure out what Saki is trying to say. The way he embraces the plots of these stories makes you wonder where he is coming from. Personally, I started to wonder if Saki was trying to tell some of his life within these stories. To me, some of the stories resemble society and how people act towards each other. Saki makes fun of society and that really interested me. I liked how he used metaphores on the stories. These excititng twists made the stories even more enjoyable to read. Some of the stories made fun of the characters or at least one character, but it was not in a very subtle was, he made it kind of a secret. THe unique thing about these stories was the way that Saki put them together. He really made you look deeper into the stories to get the real meaning of them. I would definately suggest this book if you enjoy stories with twists and deep meanings.

This is a very good book. I enjoyed the way that Saki uses animals to deface the way he feels about society. In many cases the animals use trickery to fool the people around them. In my opinion this story is a parallel to Saki's life. The animals represent how he felt and what he wanted to do in some instances, but society would not allow it. From a ferret god to a talking cat this book will make you think of how you feel about society and what you could do if society allowed it. The stories are exciting and I would recommend this book to anyone who is frustrated with the way society is.

It's sad that they are no longer in print. They were in print just a few months ago. Good book, fiction about a war between Germany & England in the 1880's or so. Well done & easy to read but too short! Much better than H.G.Well's stuff in terms of an interesting story.

H.H. Munro takes us on a journey unmatched by his predecessors, and brings us back to our reality with an understanding of a true artist.

This book was very useful for my Introduction to Literature class. (Naturally) Contains works from many of the great authors.

I am VERY,VERY disapointed in the overall quality of the book. DON'T BUY THE PAPER BACK EDITION. Get it in hard back if you can. With my copy of this book, as well as, the copies that belonged to several other members of my Lit. class, the binding broke and the book fell apart. Now I can't resell it.

Currently a college student who is currently using this book for the third (last year) quarter of english. This is what i would consider a great anthology filled with many literature. How this differs from other books is that it contains a ton of plays, drama, rather then just short stories found in other anthologies. For mostly short stories divided into major sections, i recommend a book called An Introduction to Literature by author, ABACARION. It has poems, short stories, plays, and essays divided into major topics including "culture and identity, conformity and rebellion, and innocense to experience which are major topics covered in college."