Through his immortal short stories and other writings, Saki has created some of the most loved stereotypes that are almost caricaturesque in their droll exaggeration. Aunts are the unfailing tyrants in their unreasonable cruelty or downright imbecility. Families eat porridge, believe in the weather forecast and have no sense of humor. No one falls in love and if love does happen, it’s placid love between placidly lovable couples. Isms are grotesque jokes with warped punch-lines; patriotism ends up in Parisian frocks worn with an English accent, and socialism is what can get one stuck in the Turkish bath or with half-done coiffeur. If there is a voice of protest against social pretension, then it comes from derisive, incorrigible romancers, were-wolves, truth-speaking cats, children that resist oppressive adults, men that adopt the manners of their pets, and pranksters that subvert the education system. In Reginald and Clovis Saki creates the irrepressible enfant-terrible of the Edwardian society that gets the better of their mocking cynicism.
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