Summary
Summary of The Unbearable Bassington
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Francesca builds her hopes on Comus
Francesca Bassington's drawing room holds more than beautiful possessions. Its pictures, silver and rugs carry the memories through which she understands herself. But the house will pass to Emmeline Chetrof when the girl marries, threatening the life Francesca wants to preserve.
Her solution is to have her son Comus marry Emmeline. When Emmeline's brother Lancelot joins his school, Francesca asks Comus to be kind to him. Her security now depends on a boy whose carelessness she already knows.
Key idea 2
Comus turns kindness into cruelty
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Key idea 3
Wit closes another promising door
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Key idea 4
Elaine weighs charm against consideration
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Key idea 5
A request for money changes everything
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Key idea 6
Possessions stand between mother and son
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Key idea 7
Unused gifts become a form of waste
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Key idea 8
Cheerfulness and ruin share the room
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love dry wit, society gossip and elegant sentences, and for anyone who enjoys a comedy of manners in which every guest at the dinner table gets a memorable portrait.
What this book is
The Unbearable Bassington is a comic novel by Saki, the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro, who died in 1916. It was first printed in the years before the First World War and it follows a charming, idle young man through the drawing rooms, clubs and parks of Edwardian London. The author warns at the start that the story has no moral. If it points out an evil, he says, it suggests no remedy.
You meet Francesca Bassington, who loves her house and her treasures more than anything. You meet her son Comus, whose gaiety wins every room and whose carelessness ruins every plan. Around them move gossips, hostesses, politicians and an heiress who cannot decide whom to trust. Saki gives you sharp talk, quick portraits and a growing sense of dread under the laughter. The first key point is the room that Francesca calls her soul.
In this summary
- 1A drawing room that is a soulFree
- 2Comus rules at school and wrecks the plan
- 3A letter in The Times closes a door
- 4Two suitors, a bread dish and a farmhouse
- 5The loan that costs Comus the heiress
- 6Ruin at home and a sentence of exile
- 7What the story is about and how Saki tells it
Key point 1 of 7
A drawing room that is a soul
Francesca Bassington sits in her drawing room in Blue Street with her brother Henry Greech, an MP, over China tea and cress sandwiches. She is forty, once the beautiful Miss Greech, and her friends and enemies agree that she has no soul. If she had to describe it, she would describe her drawing room. It holds a bronze by Fremiet, Dresden figures, Persian rugs and old silver, and each piece carries a memory of a lucky win or a kind admirer.
Above them all hangs a great battle scene by Van der Meulen, which came to her as part of her wedding dowry. Francesca cannot picture the room, or herself, without it. Yet one thorn spoils her peace. The house was left to her by her friend Sophie Chetrof only until Emmeline Chetrof marries, and then it passes to the girl as a wedding present. Emmeline is seventeen, so the clock is already ticking.
Francesca has planned a bridge across that coming disaster. Her schoolboy son Comus might one day marry Emmeline, and then Francesca could stay on and go on ruling the house. The trouble is that Comus is the only span of the bridge. Henry, solemn and dull but reliable, tells her the boy will never stick at anything and had better marry an heiress.
So she writes a hasty letter to Comus at his school, Thaleby. Emmeline's little brother Lancelot is joining the school, and Francesca asks Comus to be kind to him, since that is a sure road to the sister's heart. Henry warns that Comus does not follow instructions. Francesca knows it, but no woman can bring herself to waste a clean penny stamp.
That’s 1 of 7 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does Francesca want Comus to marry well?
Right. “Francesca needs Comus to marry well so that she can keep her house in Blue Street.”Not quite. “Francesca needs Comus to marry well so that she can keep her house in Blue Street.”
What action turns Elaine away from Comus?
Right. “Comus has the charm, but not the sense, to win the heiress Elaine de Frey, and Courtenay Youghal takes her while Comus loses her by a careless loan.”Not quite. “Comus has the charm, but not the sense, to win the heiress Elaine de Frey, and Courtenay Youghal takes her while Comus loses her by a careless loan.”
What makes Comus's gifts a source of waste?
Right. “Comus has good looks, charm and wit, and no purpose to put them to.”Not quite. “Comus has good looks, charm and wit, and no purpose to put them to.”
Questions about The Unbearable Bassington
What is The Unbearable Bassington about?
It follows Comus Bassington, a charming, idle young man, and his mother Francesca, who needs him to marry an heiress. Through dinners, bridge games and parks, Saki shows how his carelessness shuts one door after another.
Who is Comus Bassington?
Comus is the son of Francesca Bassington, named by his late father after the Greek spirit of revelry. He is handsome and witty, with a fondness for mischief, and he never finds a purpose to match his gifts.
Is The Unbearable Bassington a funny book?
It is full of wit. Lady Caroline Benaresq's remarks, the bores at parties and the gossip about engagements are very funny, and the laughter sits beside a more serious story about a mother and son.
When was The Unbearable Bassington written and who is Saki?
It was written by Saki, the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro, in the years before the First World War, and it is set in Edwardian London. Saki died in 1916 and is better known for his short stories.
