Collected Stories

The only hardcover edition of Roald Dahl’s stories for adults, the Collected Stories amply showcases his singular gifts as a fabulist and a born storyteller.Later known for his immortal children’s books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and The BFG, Dahl also had a genius for adult short fiction, which he wrote throughout his life. Whether fictionalizing his dramatic exploits as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II or concocting the ingeniously plotted fables that were dramatized on television as Tales of the Unexpected, Dahl was brilliant at provoking in his readers the overwhelming desire to know what happens next—and at satisfying that desire in ways that feel both surprising and inevitable.Filled with devilish plot twists, his tales display a tantalizing blend of macabre humor and the absurdly grotesque. From “The Landlady,” about an unusual boardinghouse that features a small but very permanent clientele, to “Pig,” a brutally funny look at vegetarianism, to “Man from the South,” in which a fanatical gambler does his betting with hammer, nails, and a butcher’s knife, Dahl’s creations amuse and shock us in equal measure, gleefully reminding us of what might lurk beneath the surface of the ordinary.

Table of Contents
Introduction by Jeremy Treglown
Select Bibliography
Chronology

An African Story
Only This
Katina
Beware of the Dog
They Shall Not Grow Old
Someone Like You
Death of an Old Old Man
Madame Rosette
A Piece of Cake
Yesterday Was Beautiful
Nunc Dimittis
Skin
Man from the South
The Soldier
The Sound Machine
Mr Botibol
Vengeance Is Mine Inc.
The Wish
Poison
Taste
Dip in the Pond
The Great Automatic Grammatizator
Claud’s Dog:
—The Ratcatcher
—Rummins
—Mr Hoddy
—Mr Feasey
My Lady Love, My Dove
Neck
Lamb to Slaughter
Gallopin Foxley
Edward the Conqueror
The Way Up to Heaven
William and Mary
Parson’s Pleasure
Georgy Porgy
Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat
Royal Jelly
The Champion of the World
Genesis and Catastrophe
Pig
The Landlady
The Visitor
The Last Act
The Great Switcheroo
The Butler
Bitch
Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life
The Hitchhiker
The Umbrella Man
The Bookseller
The Surgeon

Appendix: Dates of Composition and First Publication