Roald Dahl S/D

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I re-read the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar last night and have rediscovered my love of this great writer.

I've got a Tales of the Unexpected book of short stories kicking about somewhere, I must unearth it.

His kids books will definitely be bought for my own children (if not before then for myself)

Do you have love for this guy?

― rumpie, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach as a kid. My son is obsessed with The BFG; he's on his third reading of it. Also, when he was five and about to start kindergarten, he made me read Matilda twice in a row to him. All very good books!

― Sara R-C, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

Danny the Champion of the World=brilliant.

― peteR, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 14:47 (nineteen years ago)

Danny the Champion of the World=brilliant.

My mom got me this book as a gift one day without knowing I'd just had a terrible, terrible day in sixth grade (god knows why but it was one of those times I'm just glad I don't have to think about middle or high school now, y'know), and it didn't help, frankly -- I was just angry and frustrated and not in a mood for any kind of a book. Finally got around to it some time after that and enjoyed it, but my memories of it are colored by my emotions on that day.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

I recently read a review of his 'adult' short stories anthology, and he seems to have been a twisted sadist. Any favorites there?

― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

I love his 'adult' short stories anth, I remember really liking "The Hitchhiker" and the wonderful story of henry sugar - thats the one where he starts using sufi mysticism or something to cheat at cards, right?

― deej, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:02 (nineteen years ago)

Aye, kind of yogic teachings to enable him to 'see without his eyes'.

I'll read more of his short stories when I go home tonight, I rememebr one about a gentleman and an umbrella but forget the details.

― rumpie, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:09 (nineteen years ago)

He scripted "You Only Live Twice", too (and, in a strange turnabout, co-scripted the Ian Fleming penned "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"). Strange.

― peteR, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:09 (nineteen years ago)

I wish I could find that Kingsley Amis quote where he called Roald Dahl the worst human being he'd ever met or something.

― libcrypt, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:14 (nineteen years ago)

Amis was likely worse.

― Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:18 (nineteen years ago)

Matilda is k-classic child-nerd fantasy; of course kids who are reading books in fourth grade will love it.

― max, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:19 (nineteen years ago)

I bought the Uncle Oswald stories because I couldn't believe he'd written them. Still haven't actually tried to read them. He was a bit of sadist irl iirc. That shouldn't take away from his books though, they are nearly all wonderful and the 'duds' are merely very good!

― kv_nol, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:22 (nineteen years ago)

He scripted "You Only Live Twice", too (and, in a strange turnabout, co-scripted the Ian Fleming penned "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"). Strange.

WOW!

― kv_nol, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

Destroy: Violent anti-semitism

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

Search: Matilda
Destroy: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

(I had dinner with Roald's widow the other night as we do business with the Estate - she's lovely and totally committed to ensuring the books continue being much-loved)

― Mark C, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

I liked "Boy".

― Casuistry, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

"There's a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity . . . I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason."

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

"My Uncle Oswald" is an amusing romp.

Some of the stories in "Boy" make you understand why he wrote "My Uncle Oswald."

― molly mummenschanz, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

The short story in Kiss Kiss about Hitler was AWESOME.

― nathalie, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

I've never read "Boy", but there is a memoir in the same book as Henry Sugar that was very interesting reading, about his school days.

― Forest Pines, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

I can't think of one of his children's books that doesn't deserve an S.

― chap, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't read Danny Champion of the World in ages (20+ years?) but I remember loving it as a kid. I may have to read it again.

― joygoat, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

the Twits!!!

why the hate for the Great Glass Elevator? Not as good as the original but Vermicious Knids = teh funniness.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 18:25 (nineteen years ago)

Umbrella Man has some exceptional short pieces for adults, esp. [u]Parson's Pleasure[/u], which is possibly one of the coolest things Dahl ever wrote.

― 冷明, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

Shakey, I remember the Vermicious Knids seeming scary to me!

― Sara R-C, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:40 (nineteen years ago)

giant shape-shifting space-turds!

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

This is what I read:

it is difficult to think of another bestselling author who presents a more comprehensively pessimistic view of humanity than the one on display in these fifty-two tales of humiliation, betrayal and revenge. Of course, readers of Dahl's children's books will have caught plenty of glimpses of this darkness. ...But in the children's books this cynicism is always tempered by the presence of a wise grandparent, kindly giant or sly fox. No such relief is on offer in Dahl's Collected Stories. Readers who like to take their humor black, without a sprinkle of diluting sweetness, will consume this book with immense satisfaction.

― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:46 (nineteen years ago)

In the summer of 1983, he wrote a book review for the Literary Review of God Cried by Newsweek writer Tony Clifton, a polemical picture book about the invasion of Lebanon by Israel. Dahl's review stated that the Israeli attack on Lebanon in June 1982 was when "we all started hating Israel," and that the book would make readers "violently anti-Israeli." According to biographer Jeremy Treglown, Dahl had originally written "when we all started hating Jews" - but editor Gillian Greenwood of the Literary Review changed Dahl's terms from "Jews" and "Jewish" to "Israel" and "Israeli".

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:47 (nineteen years ago)

I read all his kids' works I could find, so many times & with such enthusiasm all the teachers in school, even those I didn't know, called me the Dahl Kid. Fucking k-classic books!

Ranked in order of LOVE:
The Witches
Matilda
BFG
Boy (warming toilet seats for his headmaster!)
Danny TCOTW
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Charlie & TCF
James & the Giant Peach

Disappointed by:
Esio Trot
George's Marvelous Medicine
Charlie and the (not so) GReat Glass Elevator

Could not get into:
Going Solo

This thread is funny bcz I was thinking of The Witches today. Reason: I have not showered since Sunday. The witches will not sense me and try to eat me, at least.

― Abbott, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

even those I didn't know, called me the Dahl Kid.

Coincidentally, people call me this as well.

― molly mummenschanz, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

what no one else here has heard of The Twits?!?

I am bummed to learn of his anti-semitism, but then I've stayed away from his adult stuff so far so maybe that's why I hadn't heard of it. :(

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

The Twits was nuts and the illustrations were awesomely disgusting.

― Abbott, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:17 (nineteen years ago)

I've read at least Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches and Danny the Champion of the World, all great. There might be some others I've forgotten. I have a hardcover of Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life (including the title story, Parson's Pleasure, The Ratcatcher, Rummins, Mr. Hoddy, Mr. Feasey and The Champion of the World, all of which is collected in that book Morbs mentioned) but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

― marmotwolof, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

why the hate for the Great Glass Elevator? Not as good as the original but Vermicious Knids = teh funniness.

I had to re-read it for work lately and it is SO disappointing compared to the prequel. The problem is (from my - work-related - point of view) that there is no story - it's two short stories added together with little awareness of how the whole will work.

― Mark C, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 23:54 (nineteen years ago)

there was no suspect talk of 'the jews' in his adult work that i remember

not defending him or saying he wasn't an anti-semite, just making sure shakey mo gets it

― deej, Thursday, 29 March 2007 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

Tony Clifton!

― Frogman Henry, Thursday, 29 March 2007 02:01 (nineteen years ago)

He hated Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the movie. Damn fool.

― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 29 March 2007 03:01 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I've read some of his adult stories and ... if there's anti-Semitism in there, it's mixed in with a whole host of other anti- attitudes. I love his stuff a ton, but it's not difficult to imagine him being a complete asshole in person.

The Twits is one of my all-time favorite kids books. So is George's Marvelous Medicine. Having Roald Dahl around probably prolonged my switch over to Stephen King in grade-school by a couple years.

― Eric H., Thursday, 29 March 2007 03:32 (nineteen years ago)

What's the story he wrote about the two bullies who torture another kid? That one always stuck with me as a teenager...maybe "The Swan" or something like that.

Also: "Genesis and Catastrophe" is a great one.

― Joe, Thursday, 29 March 2007 20:18 (nineteen years ago)

I like that the photo of him in the back of the BFG looked just like a slightly younger BFG.

― Abbott, Thursday, 29 March 2007 22:45 (nineteen years ago)

I've read most of his children books, and ordered the adult stories but haven't gotten around to them yet.

I think it was on Wikipedia I read that when The Witches was in theaters, Dahl would go to the movies and stand outside protesting because it included a "happy ending", in which the mouse turns back into a real boy. I can sort of agree, it was a very good movie, but the ending needed work.

― theoreo, Friday, 30 March 2007 12:59 (nineteen years ago)

Don't forget this one

http://delarue.net/gremcov.jpg

― Virginia Plain, Friday, 30 March 2007 13:20 (nineteen years ago)

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