Query from a student: SAKI

[Helena Tolstoy]

Dear Mr. Chandler, 

Once I asked you if I could, at a later day, turn to you for advice as to a
possibility of inexpensive accommodation in London. I am planning to stay
for a month and a half --an hotel would be too expensive. Any ideas would be
welcome. 
Best wishes,
Helen 




-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Robert Chandler
Sent: 11 July 2006 08:15
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
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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