Scan barcode
humatariq's review against another edition
4.0
So the Introduction says this book is a collection of short stories for teenagers. At 25, I'm way past my teens, but then no one is too old to enjoy Dahl. Curiously, it contains a total of 13 stories:
SPOILERS Ahead. Consider yourself warned!!
1. The Great Automatic Grammatizator is the first story in the collection and the reason why I was attracted to buy this particular edition. It is about an engineer/ scientist who wants his stories to be published by the great magazines of the day. But after hundreds of rejections he has this great idea of making an automatic story writing machine that can produce stories automatically.
Great first story...it was probably aimed at some of his contemporary writers...
2. Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat starts with a sermon-esque introduction about the hardships a man has to face to cover his alimonies and how women can easily get rich by getting married...but actually it is a story about a couple who are both cheating on each other; the dentist husband with his accountant and the wife with a Colonel on the pretext of monthly visits to her sick aunt...
3. The Butler is a story where a newly rich family hires a butler and a french chef for their new mansion. The butler recommends the master to buy expensive wine to make his parties more lively, but ends up
This short story reminded me of [a:Jeffrey Archer|4820|Jeffrey Archer|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1208462800p2/4820.jpg]'s short story "The Wine Taster". It was published with the collection, [b:A Twist in the Tale|78976|A Twist in the Tale|Jeffrey Archer|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1316130340s/78976.jpg|1952679]. See my review of the book here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/428851090
4. Man from the South is an amusing story of a gambling man and his wife. The man likes to bet his luxury cars but asks to cut off the other man's finger if he wins the bet! In the end we find out that his wife has also bet against him as we find several fingers missing on her hand!
5. The Landlady is a thrilling tale about a bed and breakfast owner, who might actually be a serial killer. It is hinted that she takes only handsome young men as her guests and after killing them, preserves their bodies in her house like a taxidermist...
6. Parson's Pleasure is about a furniture salesman who has made a fortune by selling ancient furniture at ridiculously high prices. His secret is that he scouts remote farmhouses in disguise and buys cheaply any furniture he finds...but this time his tricks may have backfired!
7. The Umbrella Man tells the story of a seemingly-gentleman who steals umbrellas from crowded bars on a rainy day and sells them to pedestrians needing umbrellas at a pound each. He makes some excuse like he has lost his purse and needs taxi fare to go home; so he's selling his fine umbrella very cheaply. But he gets a drink of whiskey out of this conned money!
8. Katina is a story about a group of RAF pilots fighting against Germany in Greece. The battalion one day rescues and consequently adopts a nine-year old girl called Katina...who lost all her family in the war against Germans.
9. The Way Up To Heaven is a tale about an old woman who might finally have got her revenge on her annoying husband...by
10. Royal Jelly is the honey that the worker bees continue feeding the larva that they want to morph into a queen bee. A highly successful hobbyist-beekeeper-turned-business-man is feeding his new-born baby Royal Jelly because his wife was worried that the little girl was losing too much weight and not sucking enough milk...
11. Vengeance is Mine Inc. is about a gay couple (or maybe they are brothers or even just business partners) who gets in the unlikely business of taking revenge on the behalf of rich and famous people, from the journalists who print insulting gossip about celebrities in their newspaper columns...
12. Taste is the story of a stockbroker who likes to invite a wine expert for dinner and ask him to name the served wine as a bet. But this once the matter may have gone too far when the fifty year old wine expert asks for the hand of the stockbroker's daughter if he successfully identifies the wine...
13. Neck is the last story in this collection. It is a story about a forty year old man who marries a foreign lady after the death of his rich father...but the wife may not be very faithful to him...
My Verdict
It was really refreshing to read such well-written short stories after such a long time. The best thing about this edition is that most of the stories are of the suspense type...where you are on the edge of your seat to discover how the story will end.
SPOILERS Ahead. Consider yourself warned!!
1. The Great Automatic Grammatizator is the first story in the collection and the reason why I was attracted to buy this particular edition. It is about an engineer/ scientist who wants his stories to be published by the great magazines of the day. But after hundreds of rejections he has this great idea of making an automatic story writing machine that can produce stories automatically.
Great first story...it was probably aimed at some of his contemporary writers...
2. Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat starts with a sermon-esque introduction about the hardships a man has to face to cover his alimonies and how women can easily get rich by getting married...but actually it is a story about a couple who are both cheating on each other; the dentist husband with his accountant and the wife with a Colonel on the pretext of monthly visits to her sick aunt...
3. The Butler is a story where a newly rich family hires a butler and a french chef for their new mansion. The butler recommends the master to buy expensive wine to make his parties more lively, but ends up
Spoiler
drinking all the bottles himself with the french chef.This short story reminded me of [a:Jeffrey Archer|4820|Jeffrey Archer|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1208462800p2/4820.jpg]'s short story "The Wine Taster". It was published with the collection, [b:A Twist in the Tale|78976|A Twist in the Tale|Jeffrey Archer|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1316130340s/78976.jpg|1952679]. See my review of the book here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/428851090
4. Man from the South is an amusing story of a gambling man and his wife. The man likes to bet his luxury cars but asks to cut off the other man's finger if he wins the bet! In the end we find out that his wife has also bet against him as we find several fingers missing on her hand!
5. The Landlady is a thrilling tale about a bed and breakfast owner, who might actually be a serial killer. It is hinted that she takes only handsome young men as her guests and after killing them, preserves their bodies in her house like a taxidermist...
6. Parson's Pleasure is about a furniture salesman who has made a fortune by selling ancient furniture at ridiculously high prices. His secret is that he scouts remote farmhouses in disguise and buys cheaply any furniture he finds...but this time his tricks may have backfired!
7. The Umbrella Man tells the story of a seemingly-gentleman who steals umbrellas from crowded bars on a rainy day and sells them to pedestrians needing umbrellas at a pound each. He makes some excuse like he has lost his purse and needs taxi fare to go home; so he's selling his fine umbrella very cheaply. But he gets a drink of whiskey out of this conned money!
8. Katina is a story about a group of RAF pilots fighting against Germany in Greece. The battalion one day rescues and consequently adopts a nine-year old girl called Katina...who lost all her family in the war against Germans.
9. The Way Up To Heaven is a tale about an old woman who might finally have got her revenge on her annoying husband...by
Spoiler
leaving him stuck in an elevator to starve to death while she's gone vacationing to Paris to see her granddaughter...10. Royal Jelly is the honey that the worker bees continue feeding the larva that they want to morph into a queen bee. A highly successful hobbyist-beekeeper-turned-business-man is feeding his new-born baby Royal Jelly because his wife was worried that the little girl was losing too much weight and not sucking enough milk...
11. Vengeance is Mine Inc. is about a gay couple (or maybe they are brothers or even just business partners) who gets in the unlikely business of taking revenge on the behalf of rich and famous people, from the journalists who print insulting gossip about celebrities in their newspaper columns...
12. Taste is the story of a stockbroker who likes to invite a wine expert for dinner and ask him to name the served wine as a bet. But this once the matter may have gone too far when the fifty year old wine expert asks for the hand of the stockbroker's daughter if he successfully identifies the wine...
13. Neck is the last story in this collection. It is a story about a forty year old man who marries a foreign lady after the death of his rich father...but the wife may not be very faithful to him...
My Verdict
It was really refreshing to read such well-written short stories after such a long time. The best thing about this edition is that most of the stories are of the suspense type...where you are on the edge of your seat to discover how the story will end.
merelaw's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
janaroos's review against another edition
4.0
Thought I hadn't read this yet but I had. Still good, and Taste is one of my all-time favourite Roald Dahl stories.
groovygreeks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
c_rewie6's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
nina_andreyevna's review against another edition
4.0
I first read this book in the fourth grade because it was sold in the young readers’ section of Borders, and that explains a lot about how I turned out.
yungsadguru's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
joyfulpages's review against another edition
4.0
I loved Roald Dahl as a kid and still read some of his children’s books every so often as an adult. It was fun to see him deal with more adult themes - silliness still very much intact but decidedly more macabre stories. Most of these stories deal with the theme of revenge and “just desserts”. I liked how the theme of gambling kept popping up as well. If I thought through each story I expect we could apply one or more of the 7 deadly sins to all of them. I think Mrs. Bixby, The Way Up to Heaven, and Man From the South were my favorites.