Twenty wickedly anarchic tales from the master of the unpredictable, chosen from his bestsellers Over to YOu, Someone Like You, Kiss Kiss and Switch Bitch. Stylish, outrageous and haunting, they explore the sinister side of the human psyche with unexpected outcomes. There's the wife who serves up a murderous new dish to her husband, the gambler who collects little fingers from losers, the sound machine that can hear the grass scream and the night-time seduction that has macabre consequences, to name a few.
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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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'Oh Jesus, this is wonderful,' said the Stag. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
'Oh Jesus, this is wonderful,' said the Stag. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A superb collection of writing (I don't think anyone has ever written better short stories), but oddly cut down without warning. The original version of this book (which I believe Dahl edited himself) contained 29 stories, including the extended novella The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar, plus the short stories The Bookseller, The Great Switcheroo, The Hitchhiker and The Boy Who Talked To Animals. This current version omits those five (which include some of my all time favourites!), bringing the total down to 24 and reducing the page count by a quarter. This may not seem a lot, but it changes this tome drastically from a pretty definitive best-of to something that misses out a little too much to stand alone as your single book of adult Dahl.
Buying the most recent paperbacks of The Collected Stories, The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar And Six More and My Uncle Oswald is the easiest and cheapest way to mop up Roald Dahl's collected (in print) adult works, and probably won't cost you much more either. There are far too many in-print compilations of Dahl's short stories and it's sometimes hard to tell what each one contains, so I'd recommend that the original (pre-2000) edition of The Best Of is what you need if you want a catch-all compilation, and the three books mentioned above if you want the full bibliography.
This edition's fine in lieu of anything else as something disposable to read on holiday or take on a journey, but it won't satisfy the Dahl fan (and you *will* want to read them all once you start). Additionally, all 24 of the stories here in this edition are present in the much larger Collected Stories which is only a couple of pounds more. Ultimately, these stories are too good to be served up in this manner.
Buying the most recent paperbacks of The Collected Stories, The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar And Six More and My Uncle Oswald is the easiest and cheapest way to mop up Roald Dahl's collected (in print) adult works, and probably won't cost you much more either. There are far too many in-print compilations of Dahl's short stories and it's sometimes hard to tell what each one contains, so I'd recommend that the original (pre-2000) edition of The Best Of is what you need if you want a catch-all compilation, and the three books mentioned above if you want the full bibliography.
This edition's fine in lieu of anything else as something disposable to read on holiday or take on a journey, but it won't satisfy the Dahl fan (and you *will* want to read them all once you start). Additionally, all 24 of the stories here in this edition are present in the much larger Collected Stories which is only a couple of pounds more. Ultimately, these stories are too good to be served up in this manner.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Godly Gadfly
Format:Paperback
Roald Dahl is probably most famous as a popular children's writer, and is much loved by young readers world-wide for his contribution to children's literature with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and many other favourites. "The Best of Roald Dahl" proves that Dahl is also brilliant at writing short stories on a more adult level. He has a wicked imagination, and has the uncanny ability to stretch it beyond the borders of the normal, picturing ordinary details in a most vivid and elaborate manner. His brilliant imagination travels far and wide to places and events you have never imagined possible, and yet which are not fantastic but entirely believable because of his compelling realism. His realism is sometimes so compelling, that you are almost persuaded that Dahl is telling a true story, and are left wondering whether or not the story is fact or fiction - a remarkable accomplishment for a fiction writer!
Dahl's interest is sometimes dark and off-colour, and his constant fascination with the morbid and ugly makes this book suitable only for mature readers. I personally found his frequent use of blasphemy rather disturbing, as well has his occasional interest in sexual exploits (evident in three stories where he deals with matters such as prostitution, wife-swapping, and sexual conquest). Despite this, the majority of these stories are unquestionably spell-binding. Dahl's short stories have the capacity to leave you breathless because they are entirely unpredictable. He has a love for unhappy, even horrible endings that shock and surprise, yet are incredibly satisfying because they are unexpected. His incredible ability to describe an evil or horrible scheme in rich detail is so riveting, that you are completely caught up in its authenticity and excitement. Just when you are at the point of rejoicing in its apparent success, Dahl takes the greatest pleasure in dashing all expectations to pieces, as the scheme ends in an astonishing failure. You are left with a wonderful blend of mixed feelings: disappointment at failure, yet satisfaction knowing that justice is done, albeit in a cruel or most surprising manner. His dark humour is completely captivating, and in certain respects Dahl can correctly be regarded as a literary genius.
Some of the highlights in my view are "Taste" (a delightful tale where a man lays his daughter on the line in a "sure" bet with a wine-taster), "Parson's Pleasure" (where an underhanded scheme to acquire the some of the world's greatest antiques for peanuts is chopped to pieces on the verge of its success), "Champion of the World" (a poacher's dream nearly comes true with an incredible scheme to steal birds), and "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar"(a remarkable but believable story about a man who develops an incredible ability to see through playing-cards).
But these favourites are just the tip of the iceberg. This book boasts more than 500 pages, and contains nearly 30 of Roald Dahl's best short stories, selected from five of his published short story collections. Each makes a delightful 10-20 minutes read, and exhibits his superb skill as one of the most entertaining and ingenious story-tellers in the late 20th century. Recommended!
Format:Paperback
My goodness, what a repulsive, repugnant corner of his mind Roald Dahl mined when producing these stories.
Reading them is like being hypnotized by a sadist who knows that you are actually almost enjoying the torture he is inflicting on you.
The "best" of Roald Dahl brings out the worst in him and we readers who lap his material up.
I won't single out any of these unpleasant tales as the best or should I say the worst but how about this description from The Ratcatcher, the nauseating title of which sums up Dahl's world.
"The man was lean and brown with a sharp face and two long sulphur-coloured teeth that protruded from the upper jaw, overlapping the lower lip, pressing it inward. The ears were thin and pointed and set far back on the head, near the nape of the neck. The eyes were almost black but when they looked at you there was a flash of yellow somewhere inside them."
This is only the fourth paragraph. The last is not for the faint of heart.
You can imagine Dahl shrieking with manic laughter as he penned these words in blood with a quill in a cellar at midnight, accompanied by a caped Vincent Price playing Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on the organ in the background.
Reading them is like being hypnotized by a sadist who knows that you are actually almost enjoying the torture he is inflicting on you.
The "best" of Roald Dahl brings out the worst in him and we readers who lap his material up.
I won't single out any of these unpleasant tales as the best or should I say the worst but how about this description from The Ratcatcher, the nauseating title of which sums up Dahl's world.
"The man was lean and brown with a sharp face and two long sulphur-coloured teeth that protruded from the upper jaw, overlapping the lower lip, pressing it inward. The ears were thin and pointed and set far back on the head, near the nape of the neck. The eyes were almost black but when they looked at you there was a flash of yellow somewhere inside them."
This is only the fourth paragraph. The last is not for the faint of heart.
You can imagine Dahl shrieking with manic laughter as he penned these words in blood with a quill in a cellar at midnight, accompanied by a caped Vincent Price playing Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on the organ in the background.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great service
Ordered one day, delivered the next, Amazon is such a great service. I was a little unsure if it was the correct book for Book Group, the name was the same but there were 2... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Saskylg
5.0 out of 5 stars
What an amazingly wicked book. Pure Dahl at his best!
This is definately one of my favorites!! Pure wicked Dahl. My favorite stories in this edition are "The Bookseller" and "A DIp in the Pool."
Published on 9 Dec 1999
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