does anyone like roald dahl's short stories

Submitted by EatLikeAHippo t3_125ker5 in books

I like his Children's books a lot and found him also write short stories, so I bought one"the wonderful story of Henry sugar and other stories" on Amazon and began to read. Really like it so far, almost every one was well written and very easily got into. already finished two stories, the first is about a boy who can speak with animals and save a giant turtle from the buyer and they go live on an island forever. the other story is about the author picked up a hitchhiker and found him a fingersmith(a profession the author made up means the man who make a living with his skilled hands.) and he saved the author from showing on the court. and I also know that the movie called the wonderful story of Henry sugar will be released this year and Benedict cumberbatch played the main role. got read it before the movie is on.

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BringMeInfo t1_je4pm7i wrote

His short fiction is great. The way his children’s fiction can be a little twisted in a way that is right for children, his adult short stories are twisted in a way that’s right for adults. They’re delicious.

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MrLazyLion t1_je4znw9 wrote

His children's stories do not prepare you for his adult stories.

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mjfgates t1_je5etki wrote

Can confirm, the library at my junior high had a volume of his adult stories and I was very much not prepared.

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GrudaAplam t1_je4kezo wrote

I have one of his short story collections, Kiss Kiss, which I liked well enough.

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Onetap1 t1_je532jv wrote

Tales of the Unexpected, from the 1970s, many of the early British ones were written by Dahl. I think they're on Youtube. ISTR it was Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected at first.

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Oscarmaiajonah t1_je9geyr wrote

Yes, I watched the one about the boy and the turtle only a few days ago.

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TheChocolateMelted t1_je53m62 wrote

Oh, just wait until you read 'The Swan' in that book ... Utterly magnificent. 'Henry Sugar' is also brilliant (Benedict Cumberbatch is perfect for the role) and 'The Mildenhall Treasure' blew me away too. 'The Hitchhiker' is just pure Dahl. It's a gorgeous collection.

His adult short stories are simply amazing. There's so much variety in them, often depending on which magazine they were being written for, but they are still so very, very well controlled. Just awesome. 'The Landlady', 'Beware of the Dog', 'The Man from the South', and 'Lamb to the Slaughter' plus the wonderful wrongness of the 'Uncle Oswald' stories ... Almost jealous of you having so many brilliant stories still to discover.

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LockAByeBaby t1_jea1q6b wrote

The Swan, you just unlocked a childhood memory for me! I was probably about 9 or 10 when I read it and it haunted me

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itsthelew t1_je52uxx wrote

Check out The Landlady

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VernonDent t1_je59ceh wrote

I'll just leave this here:

In the Ruins

by Roald Dahl

IN THE RUINS

>!Somewhere among the bricks and stones, I came across a man sitting on the ground in his underpants, sawing off his left leg. There was a black bag beside him, and the bag was open, and I could see a hypodermic needle lying there among all the rest of the stuff.!<

>!“Do you want some?” he asked, looking up.!<

>!“Yes, please,” I said. I was going crazy with hunger.!<

>!“I don’t mind giving you a bit so long as you will promise to produce the next meal. I am quite uncontaminated.”!<

>!“All right,” I said. “Yes.”!<

>!“Caudal injection,” he said. “Base of the spine. You don’t feel a thing.”!<

>!I found a few bits of wood, and I made a fire in the ruins, and started roasting a piece of the meat. The doctor sat on the ground doing things to the stump of his leg.!<

>!A child came up, a girl of about four years old. She had probably seen the smoke from the fire or smelled the smell of cooking, I don’t know which. She was very unsteady on her feet.!<

>!“Do you want some, too?” the doctor asked.!<

>!She nodded.!<

>!“You’ll have to pay it back later,” the doctor said.!<

>!The child stood there looking at the piece of meat that I was holding over the fire on the end of a bent curtain rod.!<

>!“You know something,” the doctor said, “with all three of us here, we ought to be able to survive for quite a long time.”!<

>!“I want my mummy,” the child said, starting to cry.!<

>!“Sit down,” the doctor told her. “I’ll take care of you.”!<

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thats-embjornassing t1_je6cs5m wrote

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is one of my favorite short stories of all time. I'm so, so excited for the release of the film and think they couldn't have chosen a better director for the job.

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BNI_sp t1_je6eqxs wrote

Great! My favorite is 'Skin'

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EricDiazDotd t1_je565dj wrote

Yes, they are awesome.

BTW, to get a perspective on AI taking over writing, see "The Great Automatic Grammatizator".

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vivahermione t1_je5rj1g wrote

I've only read one so far, "The Wish", but it was delightfully twisted in an age-appropriate way. I didn't know he wrote for adults. I may check those out, too.

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Lazaruzo t1_je6z3gh wrote

Uh, yes, they're fantastic. In fact everything he wrote is amazing.

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The people editing stuff out of his stories to create outrage and sell more books should be shot out of a cannon into the sun by the way.

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AvoidThisReality t1_je70jnr wrote

I like his short fiction. I have read the one about a mother giving birth to a baby struggling with health problems. Gosh. The f* end had me thinking

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salmonguelph t1_je7sbmf wrote

Yes, his short stories are fantastic

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Wild_Alfalfa606 t1_jebv5ge wrote

Read The Henry Sugar collection about 40 years ago as a child and found them absolutely mindblowing. The Hitchhiker and Henry Sugar in particular. Not read it for 40 years but can remember the light blue BMW and the fact he spits on the paintwork. Henry Sugar was borderline terrifying from memory.

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Snorkelbender t1_je5dzv0 wrote

I read A Twist in the Tale. Every story had a twist at the end. Unfortunately I couldn’t understand what many of them were. I’d read the end over and over and I was just stumped.

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Shanstergoodheart t1_je5teyf wrote

His short fiction is great. Apart from certain exceptions his short stories are NOT for children. I think the collection with Henry Sugar is less adult than the other ones. The Landlady and Pig are haunting.

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jakobjaderbo t1_je6at9h wrote

Only read "beware of the dog" but it was pretty good.

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Nizamark t1_je6pr7t wrote

loved all those stories when i was a kid.

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carrotwhirl t1_je94euo wrote

Have you read the one where a wife bludgeons her husband to death with a leg of lamb and feeds the lamb to the policemen?

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EatLikeAHippo OP t1_jea140d wrote

not yet, is it a bloody and cruel story? feeding lamb to someone sounds normal

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IMovedYourCheese t1_je5s62p wrote

I've read some of his adult fiction and it's...fine. The only novelty is that it is written by a famous children's author. Doesn't have too much going for it beyond that.

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