The Chronicles of Clovis

Clovis Sangrail is a young man with nothing to do and a talent for arranging other people's disasters — a hyena that joins a fox hunt, a tiger hunt got up for a lady's reputation, a cat given the power of speech and no discretion. Saki was raised by two tyrannical aunts and spent his career avenging himself on them in print; he was shot by a sniper on the Somme at forty-five, having refused a commission to stay in the ranks. Fifty-nine plates of tea parties, dinner parties, and portraits by painters including Henry Sargent and George Richmond run from 1745 to 1908, matching the drawing-room world Clovis cheerfully wrecks.