Query from a student: SAKI

[Jenny Carr]

Story is "The Interlopers" 
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Inte.shtml
Saki's first book, under his real name (Hector Hugh Munro) was a history of 
Russia.  He also worked briefly in Russia as correspondent for the Morning 
Post.

Jenny Carr

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Chandler" <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
To: <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 1:15 AM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Query from a student: SAKI


> The story is by that most underestimated of great English short-story
> writers: Saki.  I forget the title.
>
> Saki has an extraordinary gift - as powerful a gift as D.H. Lawrence - for
> conveying the violence beneath the surface of civilized life.  But somehow
> his wit, his equally remarkable surface brilliance, has prevented people
> from realizing this.
>
> Another of his greatest stories is called, I think, Sredni Vishtar.  It is
> about a much-loved ferret that bites, and kills, a young boy's much-hated
> aunt.  The boy ends up joyfully eating hot buttered toast while the 
> servants
> get anxious and wonder how to tell the 'poor boy'.
>
> Best Wishes,
>
> Robert
>
>> Colleagues -
>> Here is a query from a student.  Does the plot ring a bell with anyone?
>>
>>> Years ago I read a short story that was in a World Literature text and I
>>> have been trying to find it again.  I hope you can help me as I do not
>>> have the title or author.  All I know is that it was an example of 
>>> Russian
>>> literature. The other professors guess was either Chekhov or Tolstoy.
>>> Here is the basic plot.
>>>
>>>    One winter's morning in Russia two enemies went out to have a duel.
>>> They were neighbors and had disputes for years about property
>>> boundaries, etc.
>>>    While they are getting ready to pace off to shoot at each other the
>>> weight of the snow on the tree branch above them causes the huge
>>> branch to snap and fall on the two of them.
>>>    The two men are pinned and not able to free themselves.  As the hours
>>> pass and they lay there trapped they manage to work out their
>>> differences and come to terms.  They make guesses as to whose people
>>> will come out to find them first.
>>>    As the sun is about to set one of the men sees shadows of a group on
>>> the horizon.  They shout and wave and call for help.
>>>    One man asks they other "Did they see us?  Are they coming this way".
>>> The man slowly answers, "Yes".  The other man continues, "Are they
>>> from your house or mine?"  The man does not respond for a long time
>>> and then says, "Neither".  The other man again asks "Who is it that is
>>> coming for us then?"  Finally another long silence the man replies
>>> slowly and softly, "Wolves."
>>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
>>
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