Stories included: Taste, Lamb to Slaughter, Man from the South, Dip in the Pool, Skin, Neck, Nunc Dimittis, The Landlady, William and Mary, The Way up to Heaven, Parsons Pleasures, Mrs Bixby and the Colonel Coat, Royal Jelly, Edward the Conqueror, Galloping Foxley.
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About the Author
From the publication of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the 1960s to his death in 1990, Roald Dahl became the most successful children’s author in the world. Nearly twenty years later, a fresh generation of children seek out his work with instinctive fanaticism. His creations endure - through Hollywood movies, theatre adaptations and musical works, but still most potently of all through the pure magic of his writing upon the page.
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First Sentence
There were six of us to dinner that night at Mike Schofield's house in London: Mike and his wife and daughter, my wife and I, and a man called Richard Pratt. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
There were six of us to dinner that night at Mike Schofield's house in London: Mike and his wife and daughter, my wife and I, and a man called Richard Pratt. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What a special writer Roald Dahl is. In this collection of short stories we see his full range of rampant storytelling,gloriously macabre humour,and totally unpredictable twists. Check out the father who feeds his son Royal Jelly with ominous results,or the cruise passenger who jumps overboard to win a bet. See a man`s schooldays return to haunt him in GALLOPING FOXLEY,and a scheming wife`s shock in MRS BIXBY AND THE COLONAL`S COAT. All these and more ,told with style and glee,perfectly weighted to keep you hooked until the bitter end.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Kurt Wood
Format:Paperback
Blimey, That was Unexpected!
A silly little review of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected
I grew up on Roald Dahl. With food, drink and oxygen I also had a brief flirtation, but the stories of Roald Dahl were my true love. I marvelled at the fantastic effects of George's marvellous medicine, cheered for the fantastic Mr. Fox, and got a bit unnerved by The Witches (although this was owing more to the protagonist's creepy grandmother than the villains of the story).
Imagine my delight, then, upon receiving Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected as a birthday present. A two-hundred and eighty-ish page collection of charming short fiction from one of my favourite writers of all time! I assumed.
And I assumed correctly. The fiction is both short and charming (and, by some immense stroke of luck, it seemed, I had even guessed the number of pages correctly). While the witches and chocolate factories are non-existent, the masterful prose and unique, interesting characters are in abundance. Highlights include Taste, if only because it gives a - dare I say it - first taste of what's to follow, Lamb To The Slaughter, which includes the curiously homicidal Mary Maloney, Galloping Foxley, for the masterful use of a somewhat minimalistic plot to create such an intriguing story, Parson's Pleasure, for an ending left in so many ways to the reader's imagination and Royal Jelly, for being everything one can hope for in a Dahl story.
The flaws are few and far between. Some of the endings hover slightly too far on the ambiguous side, while some are perhaps made too obvious (such as Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat). Others perhaps feel a little anti-climactic (Edward the Conqueror, or maybe I'm missing something with that one).
This book is a very fine collection of short stories. Each story is a little gem, each one the product of an ingenious imagination.
A silly little review of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected
I grew up on Roald Dahl. With food, drink and oxygen I also had a brief flirtation, but the stories of Roald Dahl were my true love. I marvelled at the fantastic effects of George's marvellous medicine, cheered for the fantastic Mr. Fox, and got a bit unnerved by The Witches (although this was owing more to the protagonist's creepy grandmother than the villains of the story).
Imagine my delight, then, upon receiving Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected as a birthday present. A two-hundred and eighty-ish page collection of charming short fiction from one of my favourite writers of all time! I assumed.
And I assumed correctly. The fiction is both short and charming (and, by some immense stroke of luck, it seemed, I had even guessed the number of pages correctly). While the witches and chocolate factories are non-existent, the masterful prose and unique, interesting characters are in abundance. Highlights include Taste, if only because it gives a - dare I say it - first taste of what's to follow, Lamb To The Slaughter, which includes the curiously homicidal Mary Maloney, Galloping Foxley, for the masterful use of a somewhat minimalistic plot to create such an intriguing story, Parson's Pleasure, for an ending left in so many ways to the reader's imagination and Royal Jelly, for being everything one can hope for in a Dahl story.
The flaws are few and far between. Some of the endings hover slightly too far on the ambiguous side, while some are perhaps made too obvious (such as Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat). Others perhaps feel a little anti-climactic (Edward the Conqueror, or maybe I'm missing something with that one).
This book is a very fine collection of short stories. Each story is a little gem, each one the product of an ingenious imagination.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Celia B
Format:Paperback
This is one of Roald Dahl's finest works in adult fiction, so popular that it had its own TV series spanning 9 years.The book contains short stories selected from his other books "Kiss Kiss" and "Someone like you". I would categorise this book somewhere between suspense/black humour and thriller.
I found each story amusing with its dark, sinister humour and sometimes disturbing ending especially "The Landlady"! There are tales of revenge and nasty characters getting their comeuppance so in some respects not unlike "Charlie and the chocolate factory" or "James and the giant peach" but this is definitely not a book for children. Each story kept me in suspense and kept me reading until the very last word.
As an aside, I believe that the book is better at retaining the ambiguity and mystery of the ending of the storie. There are a few television episodes however that deviate slightly from the book and left you in no doubt about the fate of the key characters of the stories. Compare "The Landlady" and "Galloping Foxley" to the book.
Ideal for pre bed time reading or short commutes. If you like suspense and light hearted stories with dark wit then this is the book for you.
I found each story amusing with its dark, sinister humour and sometimes disturbing ending especially "The Landlady"! There are tales of revenge and nasty characters getting their comeuppance so in some respects not unlike "Charlie and the chocolate factory" or "James and the giant peach" but this is definitely not a book for children. Each story kept me in suspense and kept me reading until the very last word.
As an aside, I believe that the book is better at retaining the ambiguity and mystery of the ending of the storie. There are a few television episodes however that deviate slightly from the book and left you in no doubt about the fate of the key characters of the stories. Compare "The Landlady" and "Galloping Foxley" to the book.
Ideal for pre bed time reading or short commutes. If you like suspense and light hearted stories with dark wit then this is the book for you.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Severely disappointing
After all the praise I've heard for this book, I found it very disappointing. Characters are one dimensional: the women in the stories can be categorised into two groups, ditsy and... Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2004 by "distress_signals"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastically strange!!
This book is very clever in the sense that Roald Dahl has managed to combine comedy ; horror ; murder and a whole host of other factors all into one book. Read more
Published on 24 Jan 2004 by D. Simons
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