5 h 27 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 27 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What is charm worth when a life begins to slip toward ruin?
In The Unbearable Bassington, Saki brings charm and ruin into the same frame. This Edwardian comedy of manners turns attention toward the price of a life wasted. Its sharp humour invites laughter, but its central idea gives that laughter an uncomfortable edge.
Here, manners are more than a pleasant subject for comedy. They provide the ground for satire, with charm set against the possibility of ruin. Read for the wit, and for the darker question beneath it: what does a wasted life cost?
What you’ll discover
- Charm against ruin Explore the uneasy contrast that gives this comedy its darker promise.
- An Edwardian world Enter a comedy of manners with a sharp satirical edge.
- Laughter with a sting Find humour tied to the troubling idea of a life wasted.
- The price of waste Consider a question that reaches beyond charm and outward manners.
- Saki's sharp comedy Discover a literary work that places wit beside the prospect of ruin.
Who will love it
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’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A drawing room that is a soul
- Comus rules at school and wrecks the plan
- A letter in The Times closes a door
- Two suitors, a bread dish and a farmhouse
- The loan that costs Comus the heiress
- Ruin at home and a sentence of exile
- What the story is about and how Saki tells it
Who’s who
- Comus BassingtonA handsome, green-eyed, mocking young man who wants every pleasure and no duty, and whose gaiety wins friends and loses chances.
- Francesca BassingtonHis mother, who loves her drawing room and its Van der Meulen above all, and needs his marriage to keep her house.
- Henry GreechFrancesca's brother, a dull MP who gives advice and loans, and who wants Comus sent far away.
- Elaine de FreyA grave, very rich young woman who weighs the motives of everyone around her and cannot decide which suitor to trust.
- Courtenay YoughalA clever, elegant young politician with big debts who needs a rich wife and is happy to be the winning rival.
- Lady Caroline BenaresqA gentle-voiced, sharp-tongued hostess who seats enemies together on purpose and wins most conversations with a single remark.
- George St. MichaelA birdlike gossip who announces engagements before they happen and loves nothing better than being first with the news.
- Lady Veula CrootA weary, kind society wife who sees more of Comus than most people do and wishes him well.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 5 h 27 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 10 minutes, to read or to hear.
- 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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The Unbearable Bassington
by Saki · 1912
Comus Bassington, charming and idle, has one chance to marry an heiress and rescue his mother's world.
Challenging5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
What does Saki mean by saying the story has no moral?
In his short Author's Note, Saki says the book points out an evil without suggesting a remedy. He means that he shows a wasted life and its cost without lecturing the reader about it.
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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