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Tales of the Unexpected

Author Roald Dahl
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Paperback
$19.00 US
| $25.00 CAN
Knopf | Vintage
On sale Jul 14, 1990 | 480 Pages | 9780679729891
Grades 9-12
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Includes the story "Poison," now a short film from Wes Anderson on Netflix

In this collection of stories, Dahl tantalizes, amuses, and sometimes terrifies readers about what lurks beneath the ordinary. •  “With the inventive power of a Thomas Edison and the imagination of a Lewis Carroll . . . Roald Dahl is a wizard of comedy and the grotesque, an artist with a marvelously topsy-turvy sense of the ridiculous in life.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

Included in this collection are such notorious gems of the bizarre as “The Second Machine,” “Lamb to the Slaughter,” “Neck,” and “The Landlady.” Other stories explore: A wine connoisseur with an infallible palate and a sinister taste in wagers. A decrepit old man with a masterpiece tattooed on his back. A voracious adventuress, a gentle cuckold, and a garden sculpture that becomes an instrument of sadistic vengeance. Social climbers who climb a bit too quickly. Philanderers whose deceptions are a trifle too ornate. Impeccable servants whose bland masks slip for one vertiginous instant.
Roald Dahl (1916–1990) was born in Llandaff, South Wales, and went to Repton School in England. His parents were Norwegian, so holidays were spent in Norway. As he explains in Boy, he turned down the idea of university in favor of a job that would take him to "a wonderful faraway place." In 1933 he joined the Shell Company, which sent him to Mombasa in East Africa. When World War II began in 1939, he became a fighter pilot and in 1942 was made assistant air attaché in Washington, where he started to write short stories. His first major success as a writer for children was in 1964. Thereafter his children's books brought him increasing popularity, and when he died, children mourned the world over, particularly in Britain where he had lived for many years. View titles by Roald Dahl
Taste
Lamb to the Slaughter
Man from the South
My Lady Love, My Dove
Dip in the Pool
Galloping Foxley
Skin
Neck
Nunc Dimittis
The Landlady
William and Mary
The Way Up to Heaven
Parson's Pleasure
Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat
Royal Jelly
Edward the Conqueror
The Sound Machine
Georgy Porgy
The Hitchhiker
Poison
The Boy Who Talked with Animals
The Umbrella Man
Genesis and Catastrophe
The Butler

About

Includes the story "Poison," now a short film from Wes Anderson on Netflix

In this collection of stories, Dahl tantalizes, amuses, and sometimes terrifies readers about what lurks beneath the ordinary. •  “With the inventive power of a Thomas Edison and the imagination of a Lewis Carroll . . . Roald Dahl is a wizard of comedy and the grotesque, an artist with a marvelously topsy-turvy sense of the ridiculous in life.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

Included in this collection are such notorious gems of the bizarre as “The Second Machine,” “Lamb to the Slaughter,” “Neck,” and “The Landlady.” Other stories explore: A wine connoisseur with an infallible palate and a sinister taste in wagers. A decrepit old man with a masterpiece tattooed on his back. A voracious adventuress, a gentle cuckold, and a garden sculpture that becomes an instrument of sadistic vengeance. Social climbers who climb a bit too quickly. Philanderers whose deceptions are a trifle too ornate. Impeccable servants whose bland masks slip for one vertiginous instant.

Author

Roald Dahl (1916–1990) was born in Llandaff, South Wales, and went to Repton School in England. His parents were Norwegian, so holidays were spent in Norway. As he explains in Boy, he turned down the idea of university in favor of a job that would take him to "a wonderful faraway place." In 1933 he joined the Shell Company, which sent him to Mombasa in East Africa. When World War II began in 1939, he became a fighter pilot and in 1942 was made assistant air attaché in Washington, where he started to write short stories. His first major success as a writer for children was in 1964. Thereafter his children's books brought him increasing popularity, and when he died, children mourned the world over, particularly in Britain where he had lived for many years. View titles by Roald Dahl

Table of Contents

Taste
Lamb to the Slaughter
Man from the South
My Lady Love, My Dove
Dip in the Pool
Galloping Foxley
Skin
Neck
Nunc Dimittis
The Landlady
William and Mary
The Way Up to Heaven
Parson's Pleasure
Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat
Royal Jelly
Edward the Conqueror
The Sound Machine
Georgy Porgy
The Hitchhiker
Poison
The Boy Who Talked with Animals
The Umbrella Man
Genesis and Catastrophe
The Butler

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