Volume 28, Number 15 · October 8, 1981
A Genius for Revenge
By Rhoda Koenig
Saki: A Life of Hector Hugh Munro
by A.J. Langguth
Simon and Schuster, 366 pp., $14.95
Hector Hugh Munro, who wrote under the name of Saki, did not think much of James Barrie ('He had a wonderful and tender insight into the child mind and knew nothing whatever about boys'); but the subtitle of Barrie's masterpiece—'The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up'—could serve as the subtitle of A.J. Langguth's biography. It would also describe the indolent, decorative characters of Saki's fiction who take a child's delight in shocking their boring acquaintances, those Victorian ninnies and stuffed shirts who have worn out their welcome at the Edwardian house party. 'My mother never bothered about bringing me up,' says Clovis Sangrail. 'She just saw to it that I got whacked at decent intervals and was taught the difference between right and wrong; there is some difference, you know, but I've forgotten what it is.' His companion is horrified, and he explains, 'Well, you see, I took up natural history and a whole lot of other subjects at the same time, and one can't remember everything, can one?'
Review, 3338 words
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