Audiobook · read by volunteers
Reginald
Saki (1870–1916)
Read by Jason X., Graham Redman · 15 chapters · 1 h 38
About the book
Reginald is bored, brilliant and thoroughly unreliable. In these short sketches by Saki, he drifts through Edwardian drawing rooms, house-parties, theatres and Christmas gatherings, delivering outrageous opinions in a voice of perfect languor. His targets are the ridiculous habits of polite society: the earnest, the pompous and the provincial. Each story is only a few minutes long and sparkles with epigrams, so the collection is a feast for those who love wit as dry as a martini. Whether he is holding forth on worries, on choir treats or on the Academy, Reginald is never at a loss for a remark that will make a hostess blanch. Saki, the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro, is remembered as one of the masters of the short story. About an hour and a half of elegant mischief, read by two voices.
Introduction
Saki was the pen name of the British author Hector Hugh Munro, who lived from December 18, 1870 to November 14, 1916. His witty, biting and occasionally odd short stories satirised Edwardian culture. Saki is considered a master of the short story and has been compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker as well as Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde, who clearly influenced him.
Reginald, his first collection of short stories, was published by Methuen in 1904, though the stories first appeared in the Westminster Gazette. They are a foil for allowing the jaded, insider-outsider figure of Reginald to comment on some ridiculous or provincial attitude prevalent in upper-class Edwardian society, although one can easily recognise the same attitudes in our own society today.
The recording has 15 sections, each a short sketch with a title such as Reginald on Christmas, Reginald at the Theatre, Reginald’s Choir Treat, Reginald on Worries or Reginald on House-Parties. Every piece is quick and self-contained, so the book can be taken a few at a time or all at once. The whole collection lasts around an hour and a half.
Saki wrote in a language of epigram and understatement, and the humour often depends on the contrast between Reginald’s calm and the disorder he leaves behind. Beneath the surface there is a certain edge of cruelty, which makes the comedy sharper. The reading is shared by two LibriVox volunteers. For readers who enjoy Wilde, Wodehouse or Parker, this is a natural next step, and a good introduction to a writer whose work never quite goes out of fashion.
Public domain
Saki died in 1916: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text