A Short Story: The Reticence of Lady Anne
A story about the silence of Lady Anne while her husband tries to talk to her
The Reticence of Lady Anne is a short story by Saki. It follows a married couple, Lady Anne and Egbert, and their one-sided bickering as Lady Anne doesn’t answer him. The title is a reference to this, with the story being about the silence of Lady Anne regarding Egbert’s speech. Upon reading this story, it is not hard to understand that this couple is pretty incompatible. This allows the story to have some funny moments. However, the critical thing about the story is the ending. Upon reading the ending, one can understand the problems between the couple and how disconnected they are.
As the story progresses it can be seen that Egbert and Lady Anne aren’t very cultured people despite being part of a high society. Saki made this understandable with small details like how the couple would name their cat Fluff instead of Don Tarquinio, which is a reference to Frederick Rolfe’s book if it was their idea, or how their favorite opera is the Yeomen of the Guard instead of Iphigenie en Tauride. This shows the intellect of Saki, he makes fun of his characters with details like that. Another example of this kind of mocking is the name of the protagonist, Egbert. It is a silly name for such a ridiculous character and serves the purpose pretty well. The story handles the humor amazingly but it is not the only thing Saki does great. There are shocking elements in the story as well. The most obvious one is the reason for the silence of Lady Anne. Apparently, during the whole story she was dead. Yet, with Egbert being his usual self and the marriage of the couple not being ideal Egbert tries to patch an argument with his wife instead of realizing what is going on.