Collected Stories »

Kids and adults alike love Roald Dahl s deliciously wicked books. Loved for their gleefully evil villains and their often mischievous sensibility, Dahl s books introduce us to fantastic creatures and bizarre places -- and encourage our imaginations to run wild.

(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 New York Times - Erica Wagner

I d read his tales before; but I was happy to read them again. I was glad to be affected by them, and troubled by them; glad to recall my childhood discovery of this writer. Difficult, strange, enchanting, yes and bloody tremendous, terrific, fantastic too.

Introduction by Jeremy Treglown Select Bibliography Chronology

An African Story Only This Katina Beware of the Dog They Shall Not Grow Old Someone Like You Death of an Old Old Man Madame Rosette A Piece of Cake Yesterday Was Beautiful Nunc Dimittis Skin Man from the South The Soldier The Sound Machine Mr Botibol Vengeance Is Mine Inc.
The Wish Poison Taste Dip in the Pond The Great Automatic Grammatizator Claud’s Dog:
—The Ratcatcher
—Rummins
—Mr Hoddy
—Mr Feasey My Lady Love, My Dove Neck Lamb to Slaughter Gallopin Foxley Edward the Conqueror The Way Up to Heaven William and Mary Parson’s Pleasure Georgy Porgy Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat Royal Jelly The Champion of the World Genesis and Catastrophe Pig The Landlady The Visitor The Last Act The Great Switcheroo The Butler Bitch Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life The Hitchhiker The Umbrella Man The Bookseller The Surgeon

Appendix: Dates of Composition and First Publication