A girl explains to a nervous visitor why the French window is always left open, a governess is disposed of with tact, and a bachelor on a train tells three children a story about a horribly good little girl. Saki was born in Burma and raised by two tyrannical aunts whom he spent his career killing in print; each story is three pages long, ends on a line you do not see coming, and he was shot dead by a sniper on the Somme at forty-five. Sixty plates of painting from 1821 to 1908, by painters including James Tissot and David Roberts, catch the social comedy and uneasy landscapes behind these tales.
