Roald Dahl would have been 100 years old on the
13 September 2016 so it is apt time to re-evaluate his work. In this post, I
will examine his short stories written for adults.
In 1991 Roald Dahl published 48 of his short
stories in The Collected Short Stories of
Roald Dahl. The book collects in one volume his adult short stories previously
published in Kiss, Kiss (1960), Over To You (1946), Switch Bitch (1974), Someone
Like You (1953) and includes eight further ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ (1980).
Collected Stories , a hard cover book
of his collected stories, was published in 2006 (Everyman’s Library). The
stories are presented in chronological order: http://roalddahl.wikia.com/wiki/Roald_Dahl:_Collected_Stories Find Jeremy Treglown’s excellent Introduction
here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/09/roalddahl.fiction
Roald Dahl was a brilliant, agile writer who
appealed to a mass audience. The obvious question is what are Dahl’s best short
stories and how do you go about assessing his work?
Last month I reread Dahl’s short stories and
gave each an impression mark out of 10 based on the following criteria:
· the ingeniousness of the storyline
· the quality of the writing
· the ability of the narrative to keep you
guessing as to what is to happen next
· its exposure of human folly through humour/
satire
· the subtleties &/ or the outrageousness of
the resolution
#15 William and Mary (25 pages) written 1959 from Kiss, Kiss
William Pearl, a teacher of philosophy, is
diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is approached by Dr Landy, a brilliant
neuro-surgeon, who proposes Pearl leave his magnificent brain to Science. On
the surface, this story appears to be a Frankenstein like parody but it is
essentially about the strained relations between the hateful, misogynistic
William husband and his subservient wife.
A short-lived series ‘Way Out’ (1961) hosted by
Dahl featured a short tele-play of the story. William and Mary- Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMDSP8J7lzc
#14
Claud’s Dog (52 pages) from Someone Like You
This story actually consists of four loosely
connected sub-stories ‘The Ratcatcher’, ‘Rummins’, ‘Mr Hoddy’ and ‘Mr Feasy’.
What I particularly admire about the stories is the credible, social realism
which propels these stories. As in Dahl’s collection of World War 2 stories Over To You (1946), he is fictionalising
his experiences, rather than immersing us in a total artifice. By far the best
story of the four is ‘Mr Feassy’ which takes the reader into the shonky world
of greyhound racing.
Roald Dahl Fans.com has overviews of most of
Dahl’s stories but contain spoilers. Here’s there’s synopsis for ‘Mr Feasy’: http://www.roalddahlfans.com/shortstories/mrfe.php
#13 The Last Act (26 pages) from Switch Bitch (first published in Playboy, January 1966)
Anna Greenwood’s husband is killed in a motor
vehicle accident near the beginning of the story. Her children eventually move
away and Anna is left terribly alone. She thinks about killing herself but her
friend Elizabeth Paoletti asks her to fill in one day for some sick colleagues
at an adoption society and this changes her life. While in Dallas she rings an
old boyfriend Conrad Kreuger and they arrange to meet. I like the truthful way
this story shuffles to its climax.
A wiki synopsis can be found here:
#12 Katina (21 pages) from Over To You (first published Ladies Home
Journal, March 1944)
This story is set in Greece in early April 1941
and fictionalises an experience of Dahl’s as a fighter pilot in the RAF. A
young girl Katina is left orphaned after the Germans bombed the village of
Paramythia & after she is found amongst the ruins she becomes a kind of
mascot for the pilots. A series of amazing anecdotes focussed on the RAF
resistance against a much larger German air force is punctuated with a terrible
personal tragedy.
#11 The Great Switcheroo (21 pages) from Switch Bitch (originally published in Playboy April 1974)
At a cocktail party at Jerry and Samantha’s,
Victor Hammond lusts after Samantha and in a late night conversation with
Jerry, Victor tells him about a friend who has an ingenious scheme of wife
swapping with his neighbour without the wife’s knowing about it. They agree on
their own “switcheroo” and Dahl handles the subsequent events which lead to the
“searing paroxysm” with considerable skill, delicacy and riotously good humour.
#10 Parson’s Pleasure (21 pages) from Kiss, Kiss
9 to
1 will follow
Other honourable mentions include:
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