- Hardcover: 850 pages
- Publisher: Potter Style; First Edition edition (1 Aug 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0307264904
- ISBN-13: 978-0307264909
- Product Dimensions: 13.6 x 4.7 x 21.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 323,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
The only hardcover edition of Roald Dahl’s stories for adults, the Collected Stories amply showcases his singular gifts as a fabulist and a born storyteller.
Later known for his immortal children’s books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and The BFG, Dahl also had a genius for adult short fiction, which he wrote throughout his life. Whether fictionalizing his dramatic exploits as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II or concocting the ingeniously plotted fables that were dramatized on television as Tales of the Unexpected, Dahl was brilliant at provoking in his readers the overwhelming desire to know what happens next—and at satisfying that desire in ways that feel both surprising and inevitable.
Filled with devilish plot twists, his tales display a tantalizing blend of macabre humor and the absurdly grotesque. From “The Landlady,” about an unusual boardinghouse that features a small but very permanent clientele, to “Pig,” a brutally funny look at vegetarianism, to “Man from the South,” in which a fanatical gambler does his betting with hammer, nails, and a butcher’s knife, Dahl’s creations amuse and shock us in equal measure, gleefully reminding us of what might lurk beneath the surface of the ordinary.
The only hardcover edition of Roald Dahl’s stories for adults, the Collected Stories amply showcases his singular gifts as a fabulist and a born storyteller.
Later known for his immortal children’s books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and The BFG, Dahl also had a genius for adult short fiction, which he wrote throughout his life. Whether fictionalizing his dramatic exploits as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II or concocting the ingeniously plotted fables that were dramatized on television as Tales of the Unexpected, Dahl was brilliant at provoking in his readers the overwhelming desire to know what happens next—and at satisfying that desire in ways that feel both surprising and inevitable.
Filled with devilish plot twists, his tales display a tantalizing blend of macabre humor and the absurdly grotesque. From “The Landlady,” about an unusual boardinghouse that features a small but very permanent clientele, to “Pig,” a brutally funny look at vegetarianism, to “Man from the South,” in which a fanatical gambler does his betting with hammer, nails, and a butcher’s knife, Dahl’s creations amuse and shock us in equal measure, gleefully reminding us of what might lurk beneath the surface of the ordinary.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Roald Dahl is known in equal measure as an exquisute writer of children's fiction and as a writer of brilliant short stories with a twist in the tail aimed at the adult market. This collection is just about the definitive collection of the latter of these two of Dahl's endeavours. All the favourites such as Lamb To The Slaughter, A Dip In The Pool and The Hitch-hiker are there together with several less well known offerings. In all, there are 51 short stories in this collection. The tales all explore some of the more interesting, though not necessarily pleasant elements of humanity. Revenge, jealousy, creating misfortune, greed and envy all feature highly and Dahl's style is to inject black humour and irony. There is uncertainty with every story whether it will be the protagonist or the antagonist who emerges from the story the more triumphant. One thing is certain however, the reader is compelled to read on and on and enjoy every minute of the intricate weaving of Dahl's writing.
55 of 60 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is packed solid with 52 highly entertaining stories that have so many startling twists and turns you will not want to stop reading. Each well-written story is unique in its own way, whether it be thrilling, amusing, sad or altogether intriguing. The characters, even the dislikable ones, are so splendidly created and lifelike that you will be completely engrossed in their lives. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read for those who love a good twist-in-the-tale story.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book to read on my Kindle, expecting to be able to immerse myself in some forgotten classic Roald Dahl short stories, and while away some time on my journey to and from work. I found that a major detraction from my enjoyment, though, was the fact that the book seems to have been inexpertly OCR-scanned from some original text source, into the newer digital Kindle format, leading to regular typos throughout the book that drag the reader out of each story and spoil the magic. Some examples are:
Location 1810: "The husband is a dean-living man" (meant to be 'clean-living'),
Location 2203: "a small lamp on the table dose by" ('close by'),
Location 2219: "when she was bom!" ('when she was born!')
Location 2353: "She's turning the comer, he said." ('turning the corner'),
Location 2394: "She's turned the comer, just like you said" (yes, you did say 'comer', didn't you?, but I really think you meant *corner*),
Location 2509: "Beecrafl, and other magazines", ('Beecraft')
I wont go on. Hopefully you get the jist from just the above short list (all but one of which come from just one short story that lasts from Locations 2190 to locations 2852). In that one short story, I counted a total of 12 basic spelling mistakes that would (and should) have been picked up, if the publishers had only bothered to proof read the text even one time. The problem is so bad that there's a glaring mistake every one or two pages in some stretches of the text. If you're a partially-sighted reader, that makes use of the Kindle's text-to-speech functionality, these clumsy, lazy typos are even worse, as the text-to-speech functionality will merely read what is there, rather than what was clearly intended by the author. For a book that retails at £9.25 (so, one of the more expensive items for the Kindle, where normal retail prices for similar books are around £3-£4), and which is specifically advertised as "Text-to-speech: Enabled" in its description, I find this extremely poor, hence the two stars: the low rating is for the extremely sloppy presentation, and not for the wonderful stories that are detracted from immensely by being presented in such a sloppy, unprofessional way.
To make the above matters worse, when I downloaded the sample text prior to purchasing this item, I found the one story that was contained in that sample to be typeset and spellchecked perfectly. Co-incidence? I doubt it. Such a shame that the publisher could only bother to proof-read their advertisement, and not the whole book. I think that Roald Dahl would be turning in his grave if he could see how lazily his work has been presented in this particular presentation of this classic compendium.
Location 1810: "The husband is a dean-living man" (meant to be 'clean-living'),
Location 2203: "a small lamp on the table dose by" ('close by'),
Location 2219: "when she was bom!" ('when she was born!')
Location 2353: "She's turning the comer, he said." ('turning the corner'),
Location 2394: "She's turned the comer, just like you said" (yes, you did say 'comer', didn't you?, but I really think you meant *corner*),
Location 2509: "Beecrafl, and other magazines", ('Beecraft')
I wont go on. Hopefully you get the jist from just the above short list (all but one of which come from just one short story that lasts from Locations 2190 to locations 2852). In that one short story, I counted a total of 12 basic spelling mistakes that would (and should) have been picked up, if the publishers had only bothered to proof read the text even one time. The problem is so bad that there's a glaring mistake every one or two pages in some stretches of the text. If you're a partially-sighted reader, that makes use of the Kindle's text-to-speech functionality, these clumsy, lazy typos are even worse, as the text-to-speech functionality will merely read what is there, rather than what was clearly intended by the author. For a book that retails at £9.25 (so, one of the more expensive items for the Kindle, where normal retail prices for similar books are around £3-£4), and which is specifically advertised as "Text-to-speech: Enabled" in its description, I find this extremely poor, hence the two stars: the low rating is for the extremely sloppy presentation, and not for the wonderful stories that are detracted from immensely by being presented in such a sloppy, unprofessional way.
To make the above matters worse, when I downloaded the sample text prior to purchasing this item, I found the one story that was contained in that sample to be typeset and spellchecked perfectly. Co-incidence? I doubt it. Such a shame that the publisher could only bother to proof-read their advertisement, and not the whole book. I think that Roald Dahl would be turning in his grave if he could see how lazily his work has been presented in this particular presentation of this classic compendium.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
As promised
Everything was as promised by the seller, condition as described, delivery on time. All no problems. (C'mon Amazon what's with the minimum 20 word reviews here?? Read more
Published 7 months ago by W. Edmonds
Fantatastic for advanced in English
As you have probably understood, I'm not English but this book allowed me to read in English and gave me a lot of pleasure. Read more
Published 13 months ago by beaudet veronique
A must have
Lovely short story collection. Some will make you laugh; others may make you more thoughtful, and yet some others will downright shock you!
fantastic read.
fantastic read.
Published 16 months ago by emman
this book is brilliant
this book is brilliant. the best book of short stories i have ever read. the stories sett in world war 2 greece and crete are great, but then so are all the others. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. Richard Bristol
Very entertaining
Good choice. Ideal book for someone like me who travels a lot. Short stories (always with a final twist) ideal for short haul flights. Very well written.
Published on 20 Mar 2010 by J. F. Barros
Villains in abundance
Villains are a common theme among these stories. Dahl developed an imaginative gift in portraying and developing seemingly ordinary people as villains, inducing the reader to... Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2010 by ceriithomas
One of the best short story anthologies around
Brilliant collection of superbly entertaining short stories from the master of the craft. At this price this book is a must for fans of short fiction. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2008 by Fiction Fan
Deliciously wicked!
As a full time resident of Amazon.com's "home town", I am dissappointed that this book is unavailable here. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 1999 by ndawber@legros.com
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