Collected Stories

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) The only hardcover edition of Roald Dahl's stories for adults, theCollected Storiesamply showcases his singular gifts as a fabulist and a born storyteller. Later known for his immortal children's books, includingCharlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach,andThe BFG,Dahlalso 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 asTales of the Unexpected, Dahl was brilliant at provoking in his readers the overwhelming desire to know what happens nextand 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.

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was born in Llandaff, South Wales, and went to Repton School in England. His parents were Norwegian, so holidays were spent in Norway. As he explains in Boy, he turned down the idea of university in favor of a job that would take him to 'a wonderful faraway place'. In 1933 he joined the Shell Company, which sent him to Mombasa in East Africa. When World War II began in 1939 he became a fighter pilot and in 1942 was made assistant air attaché in Washington, where he started to write short stories. His first major success as a writer for children was in 1964. Thereafter his children's books brought him increasing popularity, and when he died children mourned the world over, particularly in Britain where he had lived for many years.