Audiobook · read by volunteers
When William Came
Saki (1870–1916)
Read by Andy Minter (1934-2017) · 19 chapters · 5 h 21
About the book
It is 1913 in Britain, and Saki imagines a nightmare that many people secretly feared: an invasion by Germany that has already succeeded. London is under foreign rule, and society goes on as before, with parties, bridge and polite conversation, because most people prefer not to look at what has happened. Murrey Yeovil, a man who has been away, returns to find his wife among the comfortable and the complacent, and he must decide what to do. Saki, a master of satire, uses his sharp humour to attack the smugness and weakness of the English upper classes. Yet the book is also sad and serious, and it carries an urgent warning. Few novels of the period catch so well the mood of a society that dreads a catastrophe and cannot bring itself to prepare for it. This unusual novel is an early example of alternative history and a bracing piece of satire.
Introduction
Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro, born in 1870 and killed in 1916 in the First World War. He is remembered above all for his short stories, which are full of dark comedy, unexpected cruelty and delightful wit. Many of them feature children, animals and the manners of the Edwardian upper classes, and they have been favourites with readers ever since.
When William Came was published in 1913, a year before the war began. The subtitle calls it a story of London under the Hohenzollerns, and the title refers to Kaiser Wilhelm, whom the British nicknamed Kaiser Bill. At the time, many writers in Britain warned of the threat of invasion, and the book belongs to that popular genre of invasion fiction. Saki’s version is unusual because it is less about battles than about the way society might lose its nerve.
This recording has nineteen sections and runs for about five and a half hours. It is read by one LibriVox volunteer. For readers of Saki’s short stories, it shows a different side of his talent: longer, more serious and strikingly prophetic about the mood of the age. For others, it is a good way to explore how an earlier generation imagined the future.
The book has been read by some as a warning, by others as a clever joke, and by many as a bit of both. Its descriptions of London society are sharp and amusing, and its atmosphere of quiet unease gives it a force that lingers. It is a good reminder that Saki was much more than a teller of short, funny tales.
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