Saki (the pen name for Hector Hugh Munro) is in many respects the British equivalent of America’s treasured short-story writer 0. Henry and is best known for his humorous, mischievous, and sometimes macabre short stories.

During the Edwardian Period in England, every perfect hostess placed a volume of Saki’s writing by her guest’s bed. It was the hostess’ fervent wish that the volume would be brought downstairs the next morning and shared among her guests, for truly Saki’s stories were at their best when read aloud in a house-party setting.

Here is a dramatic adaptation of several of his stories, a chamber piece of vignettes, a divertissement that sparkles like champagne with the incessant bubbles of irony and wit.

There is also the still wine of an elect vintage. Underneath the dazzle and delight, under the light-hearted jesting and the barbed, sometimes bitter, satire there looms a wisdom and a permanent sadness.

Saki’s vision is one born of a painfully acute sensibility to the subtle and delicate shadings at the heart of human feeling.