TEHRAN – A collection entitled “The Wolves of Cernogratz” containing short stories by British writer Hector Hugh Munro has been published in Persian.

Now is the publisher of the collection named after one of Munro’s short stories of the same title. The book has been rendered into Persian by Robert Safarian.

In this excellent short story, the lowly maid working for the new owners of the Von Cernogratz castle surprises and shocks the Baron and Baroness with a story of the castle’s legend and her unknown ties to the castle, setting the pretentious owners back on their royal heels.

Munro, better known by the pen name Saki, was born in Akyab, Burma (now known as Sittwe, Myanmar), was a writer, whose witty and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. 

He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. 

His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. 

“The Open Window” may be his most famous, with a closing line – “Romance at short notice was her speciality” – that has entered the lexicon. 

In addition to his short stories, which were first published in newspapers, as was the custom of the time, and then collected into several volumes, he also wrote a full-length play, “The Watched Pot”, in collaboration with Charles Maude, two one-act plays, a historical study, “The Rise of the Russian Empire”, the only book published under his own name, a short novel, “The Unbearable Bassington”, the episodic “The Westminster Alice” (a Parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland), and “When William Came”, subtitled “A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns”, an early alternate history. 

He was influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Kipling, and himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward, and P. G. Wodehouse.

Photo: A combination photo shows Hector Hugh Munro and the front cover of the Persian edition of his short story collection entitled “The Wolves of Cernogratz”.

MMS/YAW