The Complete Short Stories: Volume One 1944-1953

Roald Dahl's Short Stories #1

by Roald Dahl

Paperback. Pub Date :2013-09-12 624 English Penguin Books Ltd The Complete Short Stories of Roald Dahl in the first of two unsettling and sinister volumes.They are brutal. these stories. and yet you finish reading each one with a smile. or maybe even a hollow laugh. certainly a shiver of gratification. because the conclusion always seems so right Charlie Higson. from his introduction.Roald Dahl is one of the most popular writers of the modern age. effortlessly writing for children and adults alike.In this. the first of two volumes chronologically collecting all his published adult short stories. we see how Dahl began by using his experiences in the war to write fiction but quickly turned to his powerful and dark imagination to pen some of the most unsettling and disquieting tales ever written.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy, Humor, Literature, Book Club

596 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Roald Dahl was a beloved British author, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter pilot, best known for his enchanting and often darkly humorous children's books that have captivated generations of readers around the world. Born in Llandaff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, Dahl led a life marked by adventure, tragedy, creativity, and enduring literary success. His vivid imagination and distinctive storytelling style have made him one of the most celebrated children's authors in modern literature.
Before becoming a writer, Dahl lived a life filled with excitement and hardship. He served as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II, surviving a near-fatal crash in the Libyan desert. His wartime experiences and travels deeply influenced his storytelling, often infusing his works with a sense of danger, resilience, and the triumph of the underdog. After the war, he began writing for both adults and children, showing a rare versatility that spanned genres and age groups.
Dahl's children's books are known for their playful use of language, unforgettable characters, and a deep sense of justice, often pitting clever children against cruel or foolish adults. Some of his most iconic titles include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, and The Witches. These works are filled with fantastical elements and moral undertones, empowering young readers to challenge authority, think independently, and believe in the impossible.
Equally acclaimed for his work for adults, Dahl wrote numerous short stories characterized by their macabre twists and dark humor. His stories were frequently published in magazines such as The New Yorker and later compiled into bestselling collections like Someone Like You and Kiss Kiss. He also wrote screenplays, including the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and the adaptation of Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Despite his literary success, Dahl was a complex and sometimes controversial figure, known for his strong opinions and difficult personality. Nonetheless, his books continue to be treasured for their wit, originality, and the sense of wonder they inspire. Many of his stories have been adapted into successful films, stage plays, and television specials, further cementing his legacy.
Dahl's impact on children's literature is immeasurable. His ability to connect with young readers through a mix of irreverence, heart, and imagination has made his stories timeless. Even after his death, his books remain in print and continue to be read by millions of children worldwide. His writing not only entertains but also encourages curiosity, courage, and compassion.
Roald Dahl's work lives on as a testament to the power of storytelling and the magic of a truly original voice. He remains a towering figure in literature whose creations continue to spark joy, mischief, and inspiration across generations.

Reviews

[James Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are great short stories if you like Roald Dahl. Some of you might not know, but he wrote for adults and for children. In adult mode, he had a dark and brooding mind. As with his children's stories, his powers of writing engrossing prose go beyond the extraordinary.
This is a collection of his former works, which is why they're not all as smooth as his later offerings. Still, they're not to be missed, but you'll need a strong stomach to enjoy some of them.

[Rubi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories are simply amazing but others... boring,"nonsense" and without a proper end. Ok, I like stories in which you can imagine the end yourself...but not like this.

If I had to choose the best story of this collection I'd rather say "Royal Jelly": I had such a good time reading this one.

So...this is not a book to read from cover to cover in a hurry. So many stories to enjoy if you have time to think about them when you finish them.

[Mafalda Fernandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

- Katina 4*
- Only This - 5*
- Beware of the Dog - 3*
- An African Story - 3*
- Yesterday was Beautiful - 4*
- A Piece of Cake - 4*
- They Shall Not Grow Old - 4,5*
- Madame Rosesette - 4.5*
- Death of an Old Old Man 4*
- Someone Like You 3*
- The Mildenhall Treasure 4*
- Man from the South 4,5*
- The Sound Machine 4,5*
- Poison 3*
- Taste 5*
- Dip in the Pool 4,5*
- Skin 5*
- My Lady Love, My Dove 4.5*
- Lamb to the Slaughter 5*
- Nunc Dimittis 5*
- Edward the Conqueror 4.5*
- Galloping Foxley 4*
- Neck 5*
- The Wish 4*
- The Soldier 3*
- The Great Automatic Grammatizator 5*
- Claud's Dog 4*

[Clouds · Rating 3 out of 5]

None bad.
All pretty good, but never loved it.

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant collection of stories that are at the "excellent" end of the "conventional" spectrum of the short story as an artform. What I mean by this is that Dahl rarely or never experiments with form and his subject matter is nearly always orthodox; but that he is an absolute master of this kind of fiction.

This, the first volume of his Complete Short Stories, contains two entire collections, Over to You and Someone Like You as well as two other stories that appeared in later collections. All the stories are superb. There's isn't a dud among them. Even 'The Mildenhall Treasure', a 'non-fiction story' which is probably the weakest piece in the book, is fascinating.

I was particularly impressed by the early stories partly based on his wartime experiences. Dahl was clearly a writer who didn't need much of a run up before launching himself as a very accomplished author. His earliest tales are as polished and fine as his later work; indeed, in some ways, the earliest tales are his most emotionally profound. 'An African Story' is a disturbing and savage revenge tale; 'They Shall Not Grow Old' is a remarkably original ghost story; 'Madame Rosette', about some off-duty airmen who decide to liberate captive prostitutes from a brothel, is a triumph.

Picking a favourite from the entire book isn't easy but 'The Sound Machine' is a very important story with a stunning concept and 'Dip in the Pool' is also an utterly tremendous example of acute irony. The famous 'Lamb to the Slaughter' and 'Man From the South' are as good as their reputation would lead one to believe; but 'Skin' is even better, a pitch perfect 'horror' tale. And yet the major highlight is possibly the four part mini-suite 'Claud's Dog', which presents a bleak, chilling and darkly humorous account of rural life among farms and temporary dog-racing tracks.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

* The Landlady - 3 stars - A 17-year-old man is looking for lodgings, he sees a sign in a house window saying 'Bed and Breakfast' and even though he doesn't want to, he rings the doorbell. The landlady seems nice, but a little strange and he eventually works out that she does taxidermy, and it seems like she's taxidermied her two previous guests, and she keeps them on third floor. Strange. The ending was a little premature. Not exactly a clear ending.

* William and Mary - 3 stars - William dies, but he leaves a letter for his wife Mary. This letter explains how William has had his brain taken from his dead body, and is now living in a bowl with one eye. He asks her to call his doctor so she does. She finds it a bit weird that her husband is a brain in a bowl but then realises that now she can make the rules, and do all the things that made him mad, without him being able to do anything to stop her. Bit odd. Basically a story about how the wife gets her own back.

* The Way Up To Heaven - 3 stars - A woman who gets rather nervous when she thinks she might miss a train or plane, gets a little irritated when her husband is always trying to make her late. When she's trying to leave to go to Paris and visit her daughter and he's making her late again, she realises that her husband is stuck in the house lift and decides to leave him there, and go to Paris. Six weeks later she returns, and calls someone to fix her lift which is stuck. Pretty underhand way of killing your husband. I can't say he didn't deserve it though.

* Parson's Pleasure - 2.5 stars - A man goes around to farm houses and small villages, pretending to be a vicar and buying antique furniture from people for an unfair price. One day he goes to a farmhouse and can't believe his luck when he sees a dresser that he thinks is worth around £20,000. He does his spiel, offers very little, and agrees a price of £20. Howvever while he goes to get his car, the men on the farm decide that as he said he only wanted the legs, they would chop them off, and bash the rest of the piece into firewood for him. The End. This was okay at first, but it did seem like Boggis was going to have a change of luck. While I was pleased that he was going to get some comeuppance for swindling so many people, the book ending before he realised what had happened was so frustrating! It's one thing to know that he's going to be upset (never mind that it's all his own fault), but I wanted his reaction!! 😠

* Mrs Bixby And The Colonel's Coat - 2 stars - A woman meets her lover once a month, but after 8 years he calls it off. As a goodbye present he gives her a very, very expensive mink coat. Mrs Bixby tries to think of a way to keep the coat without her husband questioning where it came from. She takes the coat to a pawnbroker and asks him to hold it for her for $50. He agrees. She takes the ticket home, tells her husband she found it in the taxi, and sends him to the shop to get it back. He returns with a coat, but not the one she pawned. She then sees another woman wearing her coat. Basically this was a story about a woman getting screwed over by a pawnbroker. Nice. Not 🙄

* Royal Jelly - 2.5 stars - A beekeepers's 7-week-old baby daughter isn't thriving and her mother is exhausted. He tells her to go to bed and then puts royal jelly in the baby's bottles. The baby drinking the bottles are rapidly begins to gain weight. The child's mother isn't impressed at what her husband has been doing, and the baby begins to look very fat. Kinda dull.

* Georgy Porgy - 2.5 stars - A vicar whose mother was killed by a car when he was growing up, has very little contact with women, other than those in his parish. One day one of the women tries to kiss him and he feels like he is being swallowed and runs away. The women give chase. He finds a place to hide and runs into an elderly gentleman who says the same thing happened to him. Seemed a bit pointless and strange.

* Genesis and Catastrophe - 2.5 stars - A story about Adolf Hitler's birth, when his mother was worried because her previous 3 children had all died, and she worried Adolf would die too. Pretty Dull again.

* Edward The Conqueror - 2.5 stars - A woman goes outside to call her husband in for lunch, and discovers a grey cat sitting near her husband's bonfire. She plays the piano and decides that the cat is the reincarnation of a famous composer. She starts treating the cat like a king and the husband doesn't like it, so he gets rid of the cat. Dull again, and so cruel that the husband did what he did!

* The Champion Of The World - 3 stars - Some men cook up a plan to poach some pheasants by feeding them some raisins laced with sleeping pills, but things go wrong when the pheasants wake up again.

* Beware Of The Dog - 3 stars - A pilot is trying to fly home having lost a leg. He ends up being found half dead and wakes up in a hospital. When a member of the RAF comes to ask him some questions he says nothing. I can only think that I'm not concentrating very well today, because I didn't really understand this one.

* Only This - 3 stars - A mother waits so long for her son (her only child) to return from war that she dies whilst waiting.

* Someone Like You - 2 stars - I didn't really understand this one. Two men are drinking bad whiskey in a bar and talking about how a little 'jink' can mean you bomb the wrong people.

* The Visitor - 2 stars - A man receives some books from his uncle, the letter says that the books are his uncle's journals and that he shouldn't publish them because bad things would happen if he did. He publishes part of a story which his lawyer thinks is safe. Later he is driving when he stops for gas. The man at the station says his fan belt is broken and needs replacing. He ends up going home with a man who lives nearby, who has a wife and a beautiful daughter. During the night one of the women sneaks into his room and seduces him. The next morning he can't work out if it was the gentleman's wife or the gentleman's daughter who seduced him, but on the way back to the petrol station the man tells him that he also has another daughter who has incurable leprosy, and the man then worries that it was this older daughter who seduced him. Edit: I get this now, the story published was about a woman with leprosy who his uncle had had sex with, and then he ends up having sex with this woman wth leprosy.

* The Great Switcheroo - 3 stars - A man hears a story about two men who swap places and have sex with each other's wives, and he decides he wants to do it too. He works out the details with a friend of his, and one Saturday night they switch places and do each other's wives. The next morning his wife tells him that she's never liked sex, but that now he knows what he's doing, things will be different, only, of course, it wasn't actually him that his wife liked having sex with, but his best friend 🤦

* The Last Act - 2 stars - A woman grieves after the death of her husband, but eventually her children leave her, and she has to move on. She starts going out with a doctor, but when they try to have sex he tells her she doesn't have enough moisture because of her age, and she goes a bit crazy.

* Bitch - 3 stars - A man invents a scent called 'bitch' which causes men to go crazy, rip off their clothes, and ravish whatever woman is wearing the scent. One man smells it and starts to believe that his penis is 3 feet long.

[Linda Köller · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars

[Anna Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unsettling, intriguing, poignant and crackling with dark humour – no one does it better.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una serie de historias inverosímiles, con un toque siniestro y macabro, con un final sorprendente y que se presta a la reflexión. Es un autor que no he leído una vez, sino varias, tanto en sus cuentos infantiles como de adultos y que siempre seguiré leyendo. Muy recomendable.

[Amy W · Rating 4 out of 5]

One to take your time over. This book isn't something that can be read cover to cover in one sitting. You need to set aside time to appreciate and absorb each story before moving on.

The quality of writing here is excellent. That cannot be denied. Roald Dahl manages to create the stories around you in a descriptive and at times emotive way, but it's never pretentious. The stories are down to earth and human and you always feel involved with what's going on.

I have to agree with other reviews that there are some more interesting stories than others. But even if the story isn't your favourite, it still feels clever and well thought out. And of course each have the tongue-in-cheek slightly macabre, sinister edge Dahl is famous for.

I'm very much looking forward to reading the next voume.

[Geertje · Rating 5 out of 5]

At home, we had a white hardcover collection of all of Roald Dahl's short stories in Dutch. When I was about ten, I took this book with me on our summer holiday, where I devoured it.

According to my parents, I couldn't stop talking about it.

It's been fifteen years, and I figured I'd try and read these stories in English. I've found that they made such a huge impression on me that I remembered every single one of them, some by title alone, others within one or two pages (which did make me a little sad; I'd hoped to experience some of them as if it was the first time again).

I also think they're absolutely brilliant. Of course, that's no doubt because little 10yo Geertje had read absolutely nothing like these short stories, but it's also in part because Dahl is a master of the short-story form.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roald Dahl is a brilliant writer of stories, I remember with fondness in particular the wit and imagination of his 'Tales of the Unexpected'. This is the first volume of a multi-volume complete stories - so of course it offers everything. I found that I do not love all of Mr. Dahl's work with the same fervor and found myself skipping bits of this book. I am sure that says more about me then Mr. Dahl's writing.

[Johanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Roald Dahl's short stories, which are surprisingly macabre and uncanny as well as entertaining. His work is very well written, engaging, and often takes a number of unexpected turns. I am always surprised at the depravity of character that Dahl depicts – his sorties often come to very unfortunate, even nightmarish, ends.

This is a great book to dip into at leisure.

[Nigel Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and slightly eclectic collection of stories dating from back to his days serving as a pilot in the war. Provided another perspective on a clearly talented author. Like any collection some were stronger than others but pretty much all of them had something to offer the reader.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth a read, I read it between books. Lots of stories based on his experience in the navy and some can be quite dull. However, there are plenty of little gems in there.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each story is dark, morbid, glib, and ends on its own unique note of dangling existential horror.

[Denisse Herrera]

Qué random que creía que Roald Dahl escribía cuentos infantiles. De todos los cuentos de este libro, el 60% eran de guerra, el 35% de apuestas y el último 5% de cosas muuuuuy raras.

[Claria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightfully subversive, at almost no point throughout the collection was I able to anticipate a storyline. It was almost tantalizing.

However Dahl’s writing has a few pitfalls, and it can be criticized much more harshly in today’s age versus the years it was written. That being said, this was for the most part an enjoyable and exciting anthology of short stories; at different times funny, grief-filled, disgusting and even ritualistic.

I particularly enjoyed the many different versions of awful men finally getting what they deserved - quite a few of these in here.

I must admit I found the war stories repetitive at times, then again he wrote what he felt. It was also quite interesting to see places like Malta and Palestine spoken about in a completely different light here.

Overall, there is a probably a short story here for everyone. I would always recommend a good short story, and I would say Dahl excels in that regard.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Expect the unexpected, indeed.

[Alicia Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hubieron cuentos q me gustaron, pero otros me encantaron 🤯😍, y por esos valió completamente la pena leer esta primera parte.

[Taru Luojola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pääsääntöisesti ihan lukukelpoisia novelleja. Aikuisten Dahl sopii minulle selvästi paremmin kuin lasten Dahl, jos kohta ei mistään maailmaa mullistavasta lukuelämyksestä ollut kyse.

[Ben Coullie · Rating 5 out of 5]

You'd think after gettin got like 100 times this guy wouldn't get me with yet another twist at the end of a short story but nah he get me again. 10/10.

[Grace Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roald Dahl is probably best known to most people as the children's author behind such classics as 'The BFG', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Fantastic Mr Fox', 'The Twits' and 'Matilda'. His stories are well known for being funny, odd but intrinsically magical.

But Dahl's adult short stories that the well known TV show 'Tales of the Unexpected' was based on seem to be from a completely different author. They share the humour that Dahl's other works are infused with but often have incredibly dark elements that spring from strange plot twists. Dahl's adult fiction is almost Gaiman-like in its frequent elements of the morbid yet fantastic. And yet, there is something so inherently Dahl in each story, a dark reality that clouds each tale. There is no doubt that Dahl's depiction of the world is cynical but that makes it all the more natural. Of course there are murderers like the wife in 'Lamb to the Slaughter' that hoodwink the police and get away with their crime and yet the scenario is so incredible that you can't help but be impressed with her ingenuity.

There are rarely heroes in Dahl's adult tales, and even those who we might consider to be the "good guy" rarely meet a good end. For example, in 'Claud's Dog: Mr Feasey' the reader probably roots for Claud and the narrator to get their winnings so that Claud can provide for his girlfriend when they get married. And yet, when the men are cheated by the bookmakers you feel disappointed but ultimately it is not a bad ending because there is a sense of justice in the men not profiting by their cheating ways.

This volume's introduction is written by Charlie Higson, who brands the stories as "some of the most unsettling tales ever written". Now, in fairness, some of the tales do have an unpleasant edge. No one likes the idea of a cat being thrown in a bonfire, let alone a cat who's actually the reincarnated Franz Liszt. And yet, I would say that these stories are not quite the most unsettling I've ever read, often the twists are shocking but none of the stories made me shudder, or want to sleep with the light on. They're stunning works of fiction but I'd have to argue that if you want something that will unsettle you you're better off reading Poe or Lovecraft.

That being said, if you read Dahl's childrens book and then a few of these tales, I wouldn't blame you for being reluctant to believe they're by the same person. But even Dahl's children's stories were never entirely without a darker edge; the witches hate children, Matilda's family and headteacher are brutes and Willy Wonka is far from mentally sound. Dahl was never known for entirely happy, bubbly, feel good stories but that never mattered as his tales were always exciting, creative and entirely enthralling.

[Shibani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Viciously delicious.

[Rabia Bashir · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a collection! Each story took me to a place unknown and kept me there until the end. It was revealing to go to the beginning of Roald's writing career and see why his early work got into literary magazines. I not only read but I studied each story... Picking up on the way he crafts his sentences, his scenes. Look forward to reading the remaining short stories he published!

[Ashley Marilynne Wong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is difficult to rate. Some of the stories in it are boring whilst others are passionate. I particularly enjoyed 'Switch Bitch' because of the unpredictable twists in its plots. 'William and Mary' with its goriness was another of my favourite story in this volume.

[Adele · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like I've climbed a mountain now I have finally finished this collection. Overall I only really enjoyed a couple of these early short stories, many I skimmed through. Hopefully the second volume will be filled with more entertaining stories!

[Craig Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some INCREDIBLE stories in here! One of them is one of my favorites of all time. Some other great ones. Some good ones. And a few that left me questioning. But it’s always cool to watch a writers ability evolve. You see his growth so clearly here. Can’t wait to read Part 2!

[John Carnegie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One can not review an almost genius. These stories are unique with brilliant imagination and variety (some factual and some with a meaning) - most of them have a surprising twist at the end. It's like going for a walk always wanting to discover what is around the next corner under the trees.

[Giovanni Monachello · Rating 3 out of 5]

'An enjoyable read, that doesn't always have a twist in the tale.'

It begins well...but that is if you begin towards the middle section stories. This is because you have done the right thing and read the introduction. If at your reading peril, you have failed to carry out this cardinal rule of reading the introduction of a book, (unless of course the introduction is a spoiler and you have been warned within the first few lines of the introduction to stop right there and quickly move on to the beginning of the tale, you are about to encounter)...well...then you will be greeted with a rather tame opening. This may, tragically, affect your judgement of the book to a point where you may feel let down. Once again, however, if you have read the introduction you are warned, unequivocally, that the earlier stories reflect the preliminary attempts of a nascent great writer to form his own unique style. So I urge you, nay entreat you, do not ignore the introduction; in this particular book, any how.

Once you have complied with the introductory decree and as you turn the pages, Dahl's style evolves, organically, to what many of us, who have come across his more adult stories both in book and television are more accustomed to. Yes, if you like me remember The Tales Of The Unexpected on television, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, then Dahl is probably more associated with this adult fiction, than the child literature loved by many. Actually, I loved and admired The Tales Of The Unexpected so much that I, at the time, frequently recounted stories to my uninitiated teenage peers, to their overall delight.

This is a strictly chronological history of Dahl's writing, so one is allowed to forgive the publishers for including Dahl's salad day writings, which remain in a peculiar way interesting, if not as entertaining as his later writings. If one scrutinizes the early stories one can just barely see the green shoots of how his later writing would evolve. Also, although these embryonic tales do have a tinge of darkness interwoven in their narrative, particularly his recounting of death and destruction in a wartime context, they are also quite innocent compared to the later stories. This, I would assume, would be a crucial piece of work for any students of Dahl; of which I am sure there are many. Nevertheless, one, inebriated with his later work, does find themselves always going back to the thought at the back of the mind; when will these plots become darker? When does Dahl become that avuncular figure with the aggressively receding hair on his shiny bald cranium, innocuously sitting in a comfortable winged chair, by a warm fireside, about to slowly but surely dis construct these snug and agreeable images, by his sharp, plot twisting shadowy tales.

Thankfully, and to one's mental relief the introduction does its job and the stories do, eventually, become much more juicer and you feel yourself beginning to anticipate more profoundly, mentally guarding yourself against the bolt from the blue that our kind and generous author will inevitably hand out. Believe me there are stories in this little book that will be have this affect on one. On the other hand, there a number of later stories that do, for me anyhow, frustratingly leave the ending to your interpretation of what could happen next and you feel at times that you have been suddenly cut off; leaving a sensation of wanting a little more from that particular tale. Very clever by the great man to do this, however, it can also become a little burdensome at times on the reader who may want the author to finish off and tie up any loose ends of what may have been a very entertaining yarn.

It is, nevertheless, a good read overall. Dahl is unquestionably a great writer and to some, a genre all to himself. However, as you may agree, that in this particular treatise I am so glad that there is an introductory warning.