Product Description

These four stories are, by turns, funny, bawdy, touching, and outrageous. They are for lovers of tales that combine the macabre and the erotic with intriguing twists of plot.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54109 in Books
• Published on: 1989-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review
No other writer - except perhaps John Collier - has come within Kiss-Kiss-ing distance of Saki while other stories of that still earlier collection, "Skin," "Taste," and "Nunc Dimittis" are as nearly classic as anyone can remember. Of course "Lamb to the Slaughter" - courtesy of Hitchcock - is his most widely known. Dahl can (or could) refine the shudder into a frisson, finesse the reader out of his most unnerved expectations, and like Maupassant or O. Henry upend a story on a turnabout of surprise. Here these qualities are retained, force mineure, and there are none of the old subtleties of style. All have a sexual inclination beginning with "The Visitor," an episode from the Casanovan diaries of a great philanderer-bon vivant, an Uncle Oswald trapped in a fantastic castle in the Sinai desert. Uncle Oswald appears to lesser advantage in the last piece "Bitch." In between there's the incognito suburban wife-swapping in "Switcheroo" and the more original "The Last Act" in which a woman, contemplating her own suicide, is driven to destruction by an overly attentive former suitor, a doctor. Modestly diverting - but one misses the imaginative flair and the truly tapered touch of evil synonomous with Dahl at his malevolent worst-best. (Kirkus Reviews)

From AudioFile
With deft skill and great wit four of Roald Dahl's best adult short stories ("The Visitor," "The Great Switcheroo," "The Last Act" and ""Bitch") reveal the humor, melancholy and terror inherent in marital meddling and the lust and entanglements that ensue when men chase women. Christian Rodska's sophisticated but naughty reading is the perfect complement to these droll and bizarre short stories, transforming the words into stunning visual portraits. Rodska's verbal pacing and renditions of gender, age, regional and international accents are simply delicious. E.E.L. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

The Return of Uncle Oswald & More
There are only four stories in this collection but it's well worth reading, especially if you've already read MY UNCLE OSWALD, one of the funniest adult books I've ever read (that Roald Dahl wrote a book where he gets to describe all the great minds of Victorian England in the uncontrollable throes of passion is hilarious in itself!).

The two middle stories deal with a scheming husband lusting after his neighbor's wife and a widow looking up a high school sweetheart she dumped 25 years ago. The first and last story star Oswald Cornelius, the cultured lech-at-large whose life appears to be one long sexual adventure. (Reading the last story, I wondered if Dahl could have sued the author of PERFUME since they both wrote about a perfume that provokes men to ravish the closest woman--Dahl for laughs, PERFUME for a dark murder mystery).

Extremely well written, not as smutty as you'd think but still very adult in content, sharp and perceptive. It's been a long time since I read MY UNCLE OSWALD but now I feel like reading it again. If you liked these stories, then check that one out.

Unique, funny, pleasantly disturbing
When I first read Dahl's adult writings as a kid, I was a Wonka and Peach fan. I was surprised to see how easily he dealt with far darker themes, and as an adult I appreciate his wit even more.
Not everything here is great, but the highlights are very special indeed.
Roald twists things around but is never cruel to the reader or character; justice is usually served, often a la carte...
When he's at his best, I'd rank Dahl up there with Saki and O'Henry for knowing how to stand a short story on its head. That's high praise!
Very entertaining.

A Must Have Short Story Collection
This is quite possibly the most entertaining a hilarious collection of short stories I have ever read. Dahl's humor is flawless and he leaves you on the edge throughout every strangely sexual tale in this book. I didn't know what I was getting into when I began reading this for my Comedy in the United States class, but I have never read an author with more style and wit, comparable to Mark Twain, and who never failed to keep me interested throughout the entirety of this collection. It simply leaves you wanting more.