Can you provide a review of "The Open Window" by Saki? H. H. Munroe, author of "The Open Window"

A review of a work of literature usually includes a
summary and synthesis, or overview and interpretation which emphasizes the credibility
of the writer in his narrative.

Therefore, to review Saki's
frame story, "The Open Window," the writer must certainly point to the magnficent use of
irony that Saki uses, for his irony disarms not only the characters Frank Nuttel and
Mrs. Stappleton, but it also completely disarms the readers as well.  It is in this
story of Saki's that the delightful and distinctive quality of Saki's humor is apparent,
an acute humor that has been compared to that of Lewis
Carroll.

With a name such as Vera, derived from the Latin
veritas, or truth, and a story literally and figuratively framed by
an open window, the nervous listener Frank Nuttel is completely duped by Mrs.
Stappleton's niece's tragic tale which she weaves "at short notice" about her two uncles
having gone out to hunt on the same day of the year on which she speaks to Nuttel.  The
men, however, never reappeared at day's end, having been "engulfed in a treacherous
piece of bog" and their bodies never recovered. Vera continues to tell Nuttel that her
deluded aunt continues to believe that the men will return with their dog; for this
reason the window is kept open every evening until
dusk.

When Mrs. Stappleton finally appears, she apologizes
to Nuttel and tells him that she awaits the return of her husband and brother, glancing
out the open window. Unsettled, ironically, by what he perceives as her delusion, Nuttel
bemoans his arrival on this tragic anniversary.  Then, when Mrs. Stappleton remarks,
"Here they are now," Saki writes whimsically that in "a chill shock of nameless fear
Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction." Abruptly, he rushes
from the house, and Mrs. Stappleton remarks at what a strange man he is.  With "romance
at short notice [being] her speciality," Vera fabricates yet another tale as
she explains to her aunt that the spaniel may have frightened Nuttel since he has a
"horror" of dogs. With wry wit, Saki narrates that Nuttel raced so that a cyclist has to
run into a hedge to avoid collision with the frightened
man.

"The Open Window," a story replete with Saki's
characteristic humor and skillful irony, demonstrates what one critic calls "a smiling
acceptance of the less delectable truths of human existence."  For reader, Nuttel, and
Mrs. Stappleton alike are duped by Vera's talent for framed
fabrication.