7 h 4 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 4 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if good manners leave you helpless against a child with a better imagination?
In Beasts and Super-Beasts, Saki brings animals, unruly children, and clever troublemakers into lives built on order. Drawing rooms and country houses become unexpectedly dangerous places. These short stories find dark humour in the gap between polite manners and bad intentions, where respectability offers little protection.
In The Open Window, Framton Nuttel seeks rest for his nerves, but his hostess’s young niece supplies an alarming family account. In The Storyteller, an aunt tries to entertain children in a railway carriage with a morally improving tale. Across the collection, adult authority meets opponents who know how to unsettle it.
What you’ll discover
- Politeness under pressure Enter orderly rooms where good manners cannot keep mischief or bad intentions at bay.
- Children with an edge Meet resourceful children who challenge adults rather than simply suffer their foolishness.
- An alarming family account Join Framton Nuttel as a young niece unsettles his search for quiet and rest.
- Trouble on the railway Watch an aunt bring a morally improving story to children in her care.
- The wild breaks through Discover how animals disturb human control, while people prove troublesome in their own right.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy sharp comedy, clever pranks and the polite cruelty of Edwardian country houses will find a friend here. It suits anyone who likes short tales to read one at a time.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boastful mystic meets his match
- A sharp-tongued woman hopes to return as an otter
- Children outwit the grown-ups around them
- Mothers, daughters and a dreadful horse
- Guests who must be moved or taught
- Swindlers, loans and the pull of a good story
- Society goes mad for strikes and fashions
- Tall tales and the traps of lying
- Quiet tales of loneliness, envy and fate
Who’s who
- Leonard BilsiterA drawing-room mystic who boasts of Siberian Magic and cannot resist an audience.
- Lord PabhamA keeper of wild animals who lends his gentle timber wolf, Louisa, to a prank.
- Matilda CuveringA thirteen-year-old with a boar named Tarquin and a talent for bargaining.
- VeraA self-possessed girl who tells stories on the spot and enjoys the results.
- Sir Lulworth QuayneA witty uncle who values a good lunch above most things and appears in several tales.
- Mrs. MulletA mother of six daughters who needs to sell a horse and marry off a girl.
- NicholasA small boy in disgrace who finds a way into the forbidden lumber room.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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25 languages, side by side
Bestias y superbestias in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Bestias y superbestias
by Saki · 1914
A hostess asks a boastful mystic to turn her into a wolf.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What if a hostess dares a visiting mystic to turn her into a wolf, and something grey steps out of the azaleas? You get the main stories, their people and their jokes.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boastful mystic meets his match
The book opens with The She-Wolf, a story about a man who talks too much about powers he does not have. Leonard Bilsiter picked up scraps of folklore at a railway station during a Russian strike, and he now calls them Siberian Magic. His aunt, Cecilia Hoops, spreads the word that he once changed a vegetable marrow into a wood pigeon.
At a house party, the hostess, Mary Hampton, asks him to turn her into a she-wolf. Leonard answers with solemn warnings about mocking hidden forces. Clovis Sangrail has listened in silence, and now he asks Lord Pabham, who keeps a private zoo, whether he owns a she-wolf with a good temper. Pabham offers Louisa, a timber wolf he describes as angelic.
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What is Beasts and Super-Beasts about?
It is a collection of thirty-six short satirical stories by Saki. Pranks, animals and quick thinking disturb polite life, and quieter tales bring a chill.
Who is Clovis Sangrail?
Clovis is a young man who appears in many of Saki's stories. He is lazy, witty and polite, and he uses invented tales and careful schemes to deflate bores, help friends and enjoy his own amusement.
Is The Open Window in this book?
Yes. It is one of the shorter tales, in which a girl named Vera tells a visitor, Framton Nuttel, a ghost story about a window kept open for lost hunters.
The author
Saki
1870–1916 · British short story writer
Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916), a British writer born in Burma. He lived in England and worked as a journalist. He wrote short stories and the novel The Unbearable Bassington (1912). His collections included Beasts and Super-Beasts (1914). He died in France during the First World War.
More by Saki
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