Gabriel-Ernest

"Gabriel-Ernest"
Author	H. H. Munro
Original title	"Gabriel-Ernest"
Country	United Kingdom
Genre(s)	Paranormal, Short story
Publisher	Westminster Gazette
Publication date	1909

"Gabriel-Ernest" is a 1909 short story by British writer H. H. Munro, better known as Saki. The story was included in The Westminster Gazette and appears in the collection Reginald in Russia published by Methuen & Co. in 1910.

Summary

"Gabriel-Ernest" starts with a warning: “There is a wild beast in your woods…” As the story propels, we learn from the narrator that Gabriel is indeed wild, feral - a werewolf in fact. The story uses the strain of animalist desire as an assessment to adolescence. The story’s climax is when Gabriel is revealed to have taken a small child home from Sunday school. A pursuit ensues but Gabriel and the child disappear near a river. The only items found are the clothes of Gabriel and the two are never seen again.

Reprints

• The Supernatural Reader, ed. Groff Conklin & Lucy Conklin, London: World/WDL Books 1958
• Alone By Night, ed. Michael & Don Congdon, Ballantine 1962
• Fantasy: Shapes of Things Unknown, ed. Edmund J. Farrell, Thomas E. Gage, John Pfordresher & Raymond J. Rodrigues, Scott, Foresman 1974
• Quickie Thrillers, ed. Arthur Liebman, Pocket Books 1975
• Deadly Nightshade, ed. Peter Haining, London: Gollancz 1977
• Shape Shifters, ed. Jane Yolen, Seabury Press 1978
• Werewolf!, ed. Bill Pronzini, Arbor 1979
• Horror Stories, ed. Susan Price, Kingfisher 1995
• The Literary Werewolf: An Anthology, ed. Charlotte F. Otten, Syracuse University Press 2002
• Classic Horror Stories, ed. Charles A. Coulombe, Globe Pequot Press/The Lyons Press 2003
• Unnatural Creatures, ed. Neil Gaiman, HarperCollins Publishers 2013

External links

• Gabriel Ernest public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Free to read online at NovelShelf
• Reginald in Russia