The Unbearable Bassington

The masterful style and tone are straight out of Evelyn Waugh: sententious, humorous, plot and characters briskly delineated, all amidst a privileged milieu of languid, one might say lordly (Augustan) reserve. For English readers, the pleasure in this setting and flavour surely includes the comfort zone of a fanciful idyll of class and breeding: manners and status, refinement without effort. A tale un-befitting of the times, but an understandable temptation. Waugh
himself contributes an introduction to the edition I read, and his analysis of Saki’s strengths and limitations is fitting and may colour one’s reading. (Or one may sense pre-echoes of the risible extras showing up two decades later in Waugh’s comic world: Saki’s Ada show more Spelvexit, for example, surely sounds like a Maltravers associate?) As that introduction recognises, there are stylistic gems on every page of “Bassington”. Saki cannot resist a wry and pithy paradox (the “intensely English look… one seldom sees out of Normandy” (p82), the outdoor scene “alive with…alert stagnation” (p87))
and is not above manoeuvring the plot or description to work in one of his bon mots (“The poor have us always with them” (p77)) or Wilde-like epigrams (“The art… of knowing exactly where to stop and going a bit further”(p32)). But this sparkling style and wit also mean the work lacks emotion. It’s cheerfully amoral, it leans towards the heartless and hollow; the dialogue can be stiff and staged. And with such a satirical approach, one challenge is how to avoid merely sneering, being nasty? I’m not sure if there is any good answer to that, but certainly this book lacks one. In that light, this reader preferred getting through the book in small doses. Given also that Saki here is sometimes inclined to dabble rather than to deepen (in chapter 9, halfway through, he is still introducing new character stock), one may see the justification in his eventual focus on short stories rather than novels like “Bassington.” He is of course, and again Waugh’s introduction has primed us here, the acknowledged master of that shorter form. show less

I discovered Saki, (Hector Hugh Munro) when I read one of his short stories in a Folio collection of Christmas Ghost Stories. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so when I saw this short novel at a used book store I snapped it up, where it languished with all my other 'improving' books on my TBR.

Digression: The pandemic and this stupid broken leg have been a pain in the ass in most ways, but together they've wrought great improvements on the size of my TBR. There are noticeable spaces on the shelves!

The Unbearable Bassington - I don't know what to say about it. Imagine an Austen novel with no redeeming or sympathetic characters. None. at. all. Imagine her scathing wit let loose on such a cast of worthless characters. The result is the pure show more misanthropic comedy Saki released here. Either Saki was having a bad day when he wrote this, or he truly found nothing redeeming in humanity, but either way this is the most mercenary glimpse of early 20th century London society I've ever read, and while it starts out as a comedy, and remains so through most of the book (a black comedy, to be sure) the ending is thoroughly ... not tragic, because tragedy implies a level of sympathy or empathy and there's none of that to be found between these covers, but not at all happy. In fact the author's note at the beginning sums it up best:

This story has no moral.
If it points out an evil at any rate it suggests
no remedy.

Exactly so.

But oh, the writing is brilliant. Even though I found myself uncomfortable with the complete and utter lack of any redeeming quality, I couldn't stop reading.

I'm not sure I could recommend this book unless someone was in the mood for a misanthropic read, but I do recommend giving Saki a try one way or there other. show less

3.5*

While I could see that this novel was a social satire, I failed to find much humor in it. Saki's short stories are much more amusing! Comus & his mother are in the end more tragic figures than figures of fun. Still worth reading for the social commentary though!

For a large part a witty satire, reminiscent of Oscar Wilde's plays, it tends to become a bit repetitive and old-fashionedly slow halfway. But then the last two chapters turn out to be masterful, dramatic, written in an excellent style. Let's read some of Saki's stories!

Spoiler alert: it's about being gay. Second-rate bits of Wildean dialogue a tip-off. But situation of male homosexuals in Britain in 1912 not all fun and games, as downer ending makes clear. A padded-out short story, really, which cannot deal overtly with its real theme, but not without its rewards.

Comus Bassington is handsome, charming and utterly unbearable. With no principles but his own whims, he carroms through London society exasperating his family and friends. When he finally loses his one chance at a respectable life, his family contrives a drastic solution for him with tragic consequences. I have to admit being dreadfully disappointed in this book. It started out as a comedy of manners and Saki's manner of expression is similar to P. G. Wodehouse's. However, where Wodehouse always found some benign destiny for even characters he didn't like, this story is played in the end for pathos. Interesting, but in the end not much fun.

While I could see that this novel was a social satire, I failed to find much humor in it. Saki's short stories are much more amusing! Comus & his mother are in the end more tragic figures than figures of fun. Still worth reading for the social commentary though!