Saki-The Open Window.ppt

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) Pen name: Saki Occupation Author, Playwright Nationality: British The name Saki · Farsi for cup-bearer’ · From either the ancient Persian poem The Rubayat of Omar Khayyam?or possibly from the New World Saki monkey?Pitheciidae, （both being referred to in his acerbically witty and sometimes macabre stories.） Master of short stories. Often be compared to?O Henry. Saki was born Hector Hugh Munro in Akyab, Burma (now Myanmar), the son of Charles Augustus Munro, an inspector-general in the Burma police. Munros mother, the former Mary Frances Mercer, died in 1872 - she was killed by a runaway cow in an English country lane. Munro was brought up in England with his brother and sister by aunts who frequently used the birch and whip. He was educated at Pencarwick School in Exmouth and Bedford Grammar School. From 1887 he traveled with his family in France, Germany and Switzerland. In 1891 his father settled in Devon, where he worked as a teacher. In 1893 Munro joined the Burma police. Three years later he was back in England and started his career as a journalist, writing for the?Westminster Gazette. Munros first book, a historical treatise called?The Rise of the Russian Empire?was released in 1900. It is a historical study modeled upon Gibbons famous?The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The book was received with hostile reviews in America. His collection of short stories?Not-so-Stories?came out in 1902. From 1902 to 1908 Munro worked as a foreign correspondent for The Morning Post in the Balkans, Russia and Paris. He would publish?The Chronicles of Clovis?(1911), a collection of his short stories and?Unbearable Bassington?(1912) shortly after. The heartless and cruel Reginald and Clovis are two of his most famous heroes. He deals with the theme of what would happen if the German emperor conquered England in When William Came.?(1914)?Beasts and Super-Beasts?was published the same year. World War I started and while he was offi