Collected Stories

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.

Contents:

• Introduction by Jeremy Treglown
• Select Bibliography
• Chronology
• From Over To You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946)
  • 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
• From Someone Like You (1953)
  • Nunc Dimittis
  • Skin
  • Man from the South
  • The Soldier
  • The Sound Machine
  • Mr Botibol (first published in More Tales of the Unexpected)
  • Vengeance Is Mine Inc. (first published in More Tales of the Unexpected)
  • The Wish
  • Poison
  • Taste
  • Dip in the Pool
  • 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
• From Kiss Kiss (1959)
  • 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
• From Switch Bitch (1974)
  • The Visitor
  • The Last Act
  • The Great Switcheroo
  • The Butler (first published in More Tales of the Unexpected)
  • Bitch
• Others
  • Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life (first published in 1974 issue of The Daily Telegraph)
  • The Hitchhiker (first published in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More)
  • The Umbrella Man (first published in More Tales of the Unexpected)
  • The Bookseller (first published in 1987 issue of Playboy)
  • The Surgeon (first published in 1988 issue of Playboy)
• Appendix: Dates of Composition and First Publication