Hector Hugh Munro (18
December 1870 – 14 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, and
also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty,
mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of
the short story, and often compared
to O. Henry and Dorothy
Parker.
Hector Hugh Munro was born
in British Burma,
which was then still part of the British Raj, and was governed from Calcutta under
the authority of the Viceroy of India.
At the start of the First
World War Munro was 43 and officially over-age to enlist, but he refused a
commission and joined the 2nd King Edward's Horse as an ordinary
trooper. He later transferred to the 22nd Battalion of the Royal
Fusiliers, in which he rose to the rank of lance sergeant. In November
1916 he was sheltering in a shell crater near Beaumont-Hamel,
France, when he was killed by a German sniper.
Munro has no known grave. After
his death his sister Ethel destroyed most of his papers and wrote her own account of
their childhood.
Munro was homosexual, but in
Britain at that time this was a crime. It meant "that side
of [Munro's] life had to be secret". Munro was a Tory and somewhat
reactionary in his views.
1. Vera cunningly makes sure that Framton Nuttel
will have no reason to suspect her story is fiction. What three pieces of
information does she extract from Framton before she begins her dramatic tale?
2. If Framton had stayed in the room when the
three returned, he would have soon realized that the men were not ghosts,
and that Vera had been pulling his leg all along. What do you think he would
have said or done? How would Vera have handled the situation?
3. The story is told from Framton´s point of view,
but what did Vera think of him? Why did she play such a trick on him?Write a
short entry for her diary that day, describing Framton through her eyes and the
success of her trick. You could begin:
Such a BORING little man came to visit today.
Luckily, my aunt was upstairs when he arrived....
