When William Came by Saki (1913)

This is a slightly more solid-feeling novel than its predecessor, The Unbearable Bassington. Both are very entertaining, even so. It suffers from the point of view of popular consciousness by the fact that it covers the droop between two momentous happenings, as evidenced by the sub-title: A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns. Saki's fascinating prediction that Britain would undergo a lightning-fast attack from Germany and capitulate within a month came the year before the outbreak of war. The aggressor was spot-on, the duration could not have been less so, and thankfully the result. But that happens 'off-screen' while our hunting, exploring hero, Murrey Yeovil, is laid up in Siberia getting over a fever. Saki's trademark wit is everywhere in this - a lover of his more famous short stories will not be disappointed. The story covers Yeovil's uncomfortableness with the new rule he finds on his return, his wife's attempts to fit in with its new society, and various finely funny attempts by some of those who remain to make a splash given the new opportunities. It ends with the first signs of the younger generation not taking this lying down, a generation in whom Saki clearly believed, and with whose real counterpart he was to be wiped away in the five years following.........