Dahl, Roald;
The Best of Roald Dahl
Michael Joseph 1983/ Penguin Books, 1984, 367 pages
ISBN 0140066942, 9780140066944
topics: | fiction-short | uk | single-author
These stories are all in "Collected stories" as well.
The narrative unfolds its tension right from the opening, where the doting wife is waiting for her police-officer husband, under a ticking clock. Her skin -for this was her sixth month with child-had acquired a wonderful translucent quality, the mouth was soft, and the eyes, with their new placid look, seemed larger darker than before. After he comes in, punctually as always, he has to give her some bad news; told with typical Dahl concision: “This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I'm afraid,” he said. “But I've thought about it a good deal and I've decided the only thing to do is tell you right away. I hope you won't blame me too much.” And he told her. It didn't take long, four or five minutes at most, and she say very still through it all, watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went further and further away from her with each word. “So there it is,” he added. “And I know it's kind of a bad time to be telling you, bet there simply wasn't any other way. Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after. But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job.” In the end, she kills him, by hitting him on the skull, "smashed all to pieces just like from a sledgehammer." His friends from the police station come in to investigate. The drama hinges on the weapon, which disappears right under everyon's noses (literally).
Madame Rosette: A group of RAF pilots encounters the madam who runs a brothel in Cairo. Man from the South: A tense bet. If a man can light his lighter ten times in a row, he gets a Cadillac, but if he loses, his little pinkie is to be cut off. The sound machine Taste Dip in the pool Skin Edward the Conqueror Galloping Foxley The way up to heaven Parson's pleasure The landlady William and Mary Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's coat Royal jelly Georgy Porgy Genesis and catastrophe Pig The visitor Claud's dog (The ratcatcher, Rummins, Mr. Hoddy, Mr. Feasey, Champion of the world)