The stories are suspenseful, with a great amount of foreshadowing and irony. The characters are bizarre, yet realistic. Dahl has successfully curated a collection of 51 short stories that are creepy and chilling, with each story captivating the reader’s attention till the very end.
The Landlady
‘The Landlady’ is a short story about a 17-year-old young man who has traveled to Bath for his first job. The man is full of dreams and ambition. He looks for a place to stay at night and has been told of a fairly inexpensive yet decent inn to stay at. He, therefore, goes looking for it. On the way, he looks into the window of a warm and inviting inn, with a parrot and a dog sitting cozy in the living room. He decided to go in and enquire about the rates of the inn, upon which he found that the place was extremely cheap.
The landlady seems a bit dotty, but the young man excuses this behavior for the highly affordable price she offers. As the evening goes by, the young man discovers that the landlady is a gifted taxidermist, and both the parrot and the dog are stuffed. Upon signing the register, the young man sees only 2 other names in the register, and the names seem familiar. He discovers too late that the previous residents are still staying at the inn but in stuffed form. However, he has already drunk some tea offered by the landlady, and they have bitter almonds in them.
Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat
Mrs. Bixby is the wife of a dentist in New York and she is having an affair with a Colonel. The affair seems to be going smoothly until the Colonel one day sends her an expensive mink coat and breaks off the affair. Desperate to keep the mink coat without raising any questions, Mrs. Bixby pawns the coat off at a pawn shop for $50. She plans to tell her husband that she found the pawn ticket in a taxi and that she will redeem the ticket for herself.
However, her plan backfires when the husband insists on redeeming the ticket instead. After he returns from the pawnbroker, he hands Mrs. Bixby a cheap stole, stating that it is mink. Later, Mrs. Bixby sees her husband’s secretary wearing the expensive mink coat.
Lamb to the Slaughter
Mary is pregnant when her husband tells her that he wants a divorce. In a daze, she goes to prepare a leg of lamb for their dinner. However, her husband tells her that he is going out for dinner instead. In a fit of frenzy, Mary strikes her husband with the leg of lamb, killing him instantly. She then creates an alibi for herself by going to the grocer and chatting with him. Upon returning home, she acts surprised and shocked to see her husband dead and calls the police.
The policemen do not suspect Mary at all. They concluded that her husband had been hit with a metal object that caused trauma to his head. They begin looking for the object around the house. In the meantime, Mary cooks the leg of lamb and offers it to the police. Unsuspectingly, the police eat the lamb while still trying to figure out where the object that killed her husband might be.
The Umbrella Man
‘The Umbrella Man’ is told from the point of view of a 12-year-old girl. The girl and her mother are finishing up a dentist appointment in London when it begins pouring. However, they do not have an umbrella. They are approached by a man who offers them a gorgeous silk umbrella worth 20 pounds in exchange for one pound. The man explains that the pound is for the cab fare home as he is too tired to walk. The mother agrees and is very happy with the deal.
However, the narrator notices that the man is heading towards a pub where he uses the one-pound note to order a drink. She does not understand why he would exchange his expensive umbrella for a single drink. Later, she and her mother noticed him picking up a random umbrella from the umbrella stand and playing a similar trick on some other people on the street.
William and Mary
‘William and Mary’ is the story of a couple who have had many years of unhappy marriage. William has recently passed away from cancer and has left Mary a letter. In the letter, Mary reads of a new experiment that one of Williams’ colleagues at the University wishes to perform upon William after he is dead. The experiment includes removing William’s brain from his body and attaching an artificial heart to keep it alive.
It takes 7 days for this procedure. Mary is then asked to contact the colleague performing this experiment to check whether the experiment is successful or not. Upon contacting the colleague, Mary understands that the experiment was successful and that William’s brain is still alive. She is delighted at this because she can now exact her revenge for all those years of nagging and disapproval. Mary can, therefore, torture William to her heart’s extent without any retribution, as William can no longer walk, talk or speak.
The Great Automatic Grammatizer
‘The Great Automatic Grammatizer’ is a short story that is especially relevant today with artificial intelligence on the rise. The story revolves around a man who is a mechanical genius. Operating under the assumption that all language and grammar follow certain rules, the man builds a machine that is capable of producing language. The machine, which is huge, is capable of producing a prize-winning novel in just 15 minutes.
The man and the machine become a sensation in the world. However, the machine proves to be a double-edged sword, with more and more writers being forced to license their names. All hope of creativity seems to be lost because of this machine.
Man from the South
In this chilling tale, the narrator encounters an elderly man from South America named Carlos at a resort in Jamaica. The two of them are met by a young American who brags about his American lighter. Carlos then offers up his Cadillac in exchange for the American’s little finger if the lighter is not able to strike up 10 times in a row. The American agrees while the narrator decides to become a referee for the bet.
The bet ensues, and the lighter strikes up successfully 8 times before a woman bursts into the room and stops the bet from continuing. She tells the American that Carlos is psychologically disturbed and has carried out the same bet innumerable times. In fact, the Cadillac belongs to the woman. As she reaches for the key of the Cadillac, the narrator sees her hand which only has one finger and a thumb remaining on it.
Others
Some of the other memorable short stories from Roald Dahl’s collection include ‘The Visitor,’ ‘Skin,’ ‘Pig,’ ‘Someone Like You,’ ‘Genesis and Catastrophe,’ ‘Madame Rosette,’ ‘Beware of the Dog’ and, ‘My Lady Love, My Dove.’
All of these short stories contain the quintessential twist in the tale. They have a strange and eerie atmosphere that compels the reader to continue turning the pages.
FAQs
What are the short stories by Roald Dahl?
The short stories by Roald Dahl are creepy and chilling tales for adults. Most of them create an intensely suspenseful atmosphere and have a wicked twist towards the end. Some of the short stories by Roald Dahl include ‘The Landlady,’ ‘William and Mary,’ ‘Poison,’ and ‘The Last Act.’
What is the shortest book by Roald Dahl?
The shortest children’s book by Roald Dahl is ‘Revolting Rhymes.’ Published in 1982, this is a hilarious novel full of weird twists and turns. It is illustrated by Quentin Blake and is a highly creative, satirical novel.
What is the moral of Roald Dahl’s stories?
Most of Roald Dahl’s children’s stories end with the moral that good always wins over evil. This includes some of the best Roald Dahl books such as ‘Matilda,’ ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ ‘The BFG,’ ‘James and the Giant Peach,’ ‘The Witches,’ ‘Danny, Champion of the World,’ ‘The Twits,’ ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine,’ and ‘Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.’ The stories contain wonderful characters (such as the humble Charlie Bucket, the legendary Willy Wonka, the treacherous Miss Trunchbull, the sweet Miss Honey, and the Big Friendly Giant) that all teach young children a lesson: to stand up to the injustices of the world and be brave in taking action against them.
Which is the best short story by Roald Dahl?
Roald Dahl is a British novelist who has written several captivating short stories for adults. The best among them include ‘Lamb to the Slaughter,’ ‘Someone Like You,’ ‘Madame Rosette,’ and ‘The Great Automatic Grammatizer‘. Roald Dahl’s short stories are horror stories of a sort that always end with a twist in the tale. They traverse genres such as comedy, horror, science-fiction, and more. Besides short stories, Dahl has also written several children’s books. This short story writer has also dabbled in poems and retellings of fairy tales, all the while working as a fighter pilot in World War II.
