The Complete Short Stories: Volume One

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I'm glad you liked it," the cook said. "But to be quite honest, I think that it was a bit of pig. In fact, I'm almost sure it was." Figurative language often explicates the position and emotions of the characters and the reader must use their imagination to conceptualize the story’s metaphorical and allegorical significance. Figurative language is just fun too, when used well. Other times it is all too clear what he is getting at and subtlety was not the aim. Nonetheless, he is always extraordinarily vivid. Description: Charles Dance leads the cast as the urbane Storyteller in dramatisations of five classic tales by Roald Dahl. Bizarre and amusing by turns, these dark comedies are justly famous for their surprise endings, and for their rogues gallery of crooks, cheats and schemers. Tatuaje: un reputado pintor hizo una de sus primeras obras en la espalda de un hombre, acosado ahora por los grandes coleccionistas para obtener aquella valiosa pintura sobre su piel. La maravillosa historia de Henry Sugar: el relato de un médico que conoce a un paciente capaz de ver a través de los objetos conduce al lector de esa historia a emular al paciente, aprovechando su poder para ganar grandes sumas en todos los casinos del mundo.

An ingenious imagination, a fascination with odd and ordinary detail . . . are the first strengths of Dahl’s storytelling.”

The one called “Bitch” features a recurring character, Oswald, whose fictitious memoirs provide a metafictional element. The idea is very similar to Perfume, but the approach and climax is quite unexpected. Information on identifying editions is from Richard Walker’s “Roald Dahl – A Guide to Collecting His First Editions”. Containing all the stories from Roald Dahl's world-famous books – Over to You, Someone Like you, Kiss Kiss and Switch Bitch – plus eight further tales of the unexpected, this is the definitive collection by one of the great masters of the short story. Macabre, unsettling and deliciously enjoyable, these stories make the perfect bedtime read – but be warned, once you've started reading you won't be able to stop . . .

Evil children, vengeful spinsters, mad husbands, conniving wives, the murderous, the cunning, the smarmy, and the grand in every way - no matter his target, Dahl conceals and reveals with equal facility. His sly exuberance is always on display when it comes to the surprise endings. And there are plenty of those to go around. Roald Dahl's fascination with the twisted and the grotesque can definitely be seen in his works for children, and in his adult fiction is laid bare in glorious form, with one added element necessarily absent from his children's fiction- some of his adult stories are what might be described as 'fruity'. Not out of character for the author, I've come to understand, and you'll see it in stories like 'Switch Bitch' and any of his stories involving Uncle Oswald, a blatant Author Avatar (thank you TV Tropes). He lapses into Wodehousian aplomb, relishing insane levels of detail in one of the masterpieces of the collection, called “Taste.” Other standouts include “The Ratcatcher, Mr. Hoddy, Madame Rosette, Galloping Foxley, William and Mary, Georgy Porgy, Pig, The Landlady, The Visitor, & The Last Act.” These are not fairy tales. 'Parable' and 'fable' might be words which describe the technique he employs here and there but any of his writerly choices are cast in a modern light. Combinations of outrageous description and stellar plots characterize the majority of the tales. Characters who transform into the things they are consumed by reminded me of The Witches and film adaptations of his children's books. Most of us know Roald Dahl to be a writer of some unsentimental books for children. This book of short stories is an interesting collection of some mind blowing stories with bizarre plots. As usual, the author has again managed to leave his readers in awe with stories that they will never forget.

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A few have the sensibility and charm of Twain, others are Rube Goldberg-level business schemes. Think of Wodehouse’s cat-ray factory system: (Breed cats and rats in large numbers. You feed the cats to the rats and the rats to the cats. Sell the cat skins for profit.)