My Uncle Oswald

Information

Information on identifying editions is from Richard Walker’s “Roald Dahl – A Guide to Collecting His First Editions”.

First editions:
- Michael Joseph, 1979, UK.
  - To identify: Used a standard single statement (‘First published’ followed by the date with later printings stated underneath) and published with a dust jacket priced at £5.50.
- Knopf, 1980, USA.
  - To identify: Used a standard ‘First Edition’ statement and published with a dust jacket priced at $8.95.
Trivia:
- Occasionally referred to as Dahl’s “first” novel (even by the author), despite Some Time Never‘s publication 30 years earlier.
Connections:
- Features same protagonist as “B***h” and “The Visitor,” noted lover Oswald Cornelius

Related books:
Magazine publications:
- Playboy (v27 #1) - January 1980

Buy this book:

Description

The nameless narrator has revealed snippets of the lovable, lascivious Uncle Oswald’s life in other collections, but this is the only novel – brief though it is – dedicated solely to the diaries of “the greatest fornicator of all time.” Inspired by stories of the aphrodisiac powers of the Sudanese blister beetle, the palpable seductiveness of the lovely Yasmin Howcomely, and the scientific know-how of Professor A. R. Woresley, Uncle Oswald anticipates the concept of the Nobel sperm bank by some 40 years, flimflamming crowned heads, great artists, and eccentric geniuses into making “donations.” The life of a commercial sperm broker has a few surprises even for a sophisticated bon vivant, and Dahl manages his signature sting-in-the-tail ending even in one of his lightest comic works.

Reviews

“Satire and Sensitivity” by Marion Halligan from the May 24, 1980 issue of The Canberra Times – Canberra, Australia (read online)
“Offbeat biographies” by Lyn Frost from the March 1, 1981 issue of The Canberra Times – Canberra, Australia (read online)
“Crime and Passion” review column by Darcy O’Brien from the April 21, 1980 issue of New York Magazine (read online)