When William Came

What we find frightening about this novel is the very premise: England has been subjugated and annexed by Germany . . . When William Came, written before World War I, is a grim tale of a then-fictional war between Britain and Germany. Saki's biting wit is aimed squarely at British politics in this thinly veiled story -- he, like many others, could see war approaching, and who would want to see a conflict of such proportion? Unnerving stuff, we say. . . .