Beasts and Superbeasts by Saki

Beasts and Superbeasts is a collection of short stories, written by Saki (the literary pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro) and first published in 1914. The title parodies that of George Bernard Shaws Man and Superman. Along with The Chronicles of Clovis, Beasts and Superbeasts is one of Sakis best-known works. It was his final collection of stories before his death in World War I, and several of its stories, in particular The Open Window, are reprinted frequently in anthologies. The book contains the following stories: The She-WolfLauraThe Boar-PigThe BrogueThe HenThe Open WindowThe Treasure-ShipThe CobwebThe LullThe Unkindest BlowThe RomancersThe Schartz-Metterklume MethodThe Seventh PulletThe Blind SpotDuskA Touch of RealismCousin TeresaThe Yarkand MannerThe Byzantine OmeletteThe Feast of NemesisThe DreamerThe Quince TreeThe Forbidden BuzzardsThe StakeClovis on Parental ResponsibilitiesA Holiday TaskThe Stalled OxThe Story-TellerA Defensive DiamondThe ElkDown PensThe Name-DayThe Lumber RoomFurThe Philanthropist and the Happy CatOn Approval The majority of the volumes stories deal in some fashion with animals, providing the source for its title. The character of Clovis Sangrail, featured in earlier works by Saki, appears in several stories. Most of the stories appeared previously in periodicals. Stylistically, Beasts and Superbeasts displays the simple language, cynicism and wry humor that characterize Sakis earlier literary output. (Wikipedia) Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story, and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward and P. G. Wodehouse. Besides his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was customary at the time, and then collected into several volumes), he wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude; two one-act plays; a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire, the only book published under his own name; a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington; the episodic The Westminster Alice (a parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland); and When William Came, subtitled A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns, a fantasy about a future German invasion and occupation of Britain. (Wikipedia)