Beasts and Super-Beasts is a collection of short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

, written by Saki

Saki

Hector Hugh Munro , 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 satirised Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy...

 (the literary pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 of Hector Hugh Munro) and first published in 1914. The title parodies

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 that of George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

's Man and Superman

Man and Superman

Man and Superman is a four-act drama, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to calls for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. Man and Superman opened at The Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 May 1905, but with the omission of the 3rd Act...

.

Along with The Chronicles of Clovis, Beasts and Super-Beasts is one of Saki's best-known works. It was his final collection of stories before his death in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and several of its stories, in particular "The Open Window", are reprinted frequently in anthologies.

The majority of the volume's stories deal in some fashion with animals, providing the source for its title. The character of Clovis Sangrail, featured in earlier works by Saki, appears in several stories. Most of the stories appeared previously in periodicals.

Stylistically, Beasts and Super-Beasts displays the simple language, cynicism and wry humor that characterize Saki's earlier literary output.

Contents

The book contains the following stories:

• "The She-Wolf"
• "Laura"
• "The Boar-Pig"
• "The Brogue"
• "The Hen"
• "The Open Window"
• "The Treasure-Ship"
• "The Cobweb"
• "The Lull"
• "The Unkindest Blow"
• "The Romancers"
• "The Schartz-Metterklume Method"
• "The Seventh Pullet"
• "The Blind Spot"
• "Dusk"
• "A Touch of Realism"
• "Cousin Teresa"
• "The Yarkand Manner"
• "The Byzantine Omelette"
• "The Feast of Nemesis"
• "The Dreamer"
• "The Quince Tree"
• "The Forbidden Buzzards"
• "The Stake"
• "Clovis on Parental Responsibilities"
• "A Holiday Task"
• "The Stalled Ox"
• "The Story-Teller"
• "A Defensive Diamond"
• "The Elk"
• "Down Pens"
• "The Name-Day"
• "The Lumber Room"
• "Fur"
• "The Philanthropist and the Happy Cat"
• "On Approval"