Category: Media

“The Landlady”

Sections: Information | Plot Description | Criticism and Analysis | Teacher Ideas

Information

Plot Description

This is one of Dahl’s most famous stories and it’s been dramatized on television at least once. It’s got one of my favorite endings too, simply because it’s so simple and subtle… and scary!

Spoiler warning! Billy Weaver arrives in Bath after taking the train from London. He’s never been to the town before, but he’s due to start a new job there soon and he’s excited at the prospect. He heads toward The Bell and Dragon, which is a pub he’s been told he could spend the night at. On the way though, he notices a sign in the window of a nearby house: “BED AND BREAKFAST.” Billy looks in the window and notices that it’s a charming house, with a roaring fire and a little dog curled up asleep on the rug. On an impulse, he decides to check it out and rings the bell. It is answered immediately a little old lady who invites him to enter and tells him the room rate. As it’s less than half what he was prepared to pay, Billy decides to stay. She tells him that he is the only guest as she takes him to his room. When he goes downstairs to sign the guest-book, he notices that there are only two names in the entire book. The names are over two years old… and what’s more, they strike him as being familiar. As he struggles to remember where he’s heard the names before, the landlady brings him a cup of tea. He seems to remember that one of them was an Eton schoolboy that disappeared, but she assures him that her Mr. Temple was different. Billy sits down before the fire with his tea and notices a strange odor that comes from the woman, something like walnuts or new leather. They begin talking about the former guests, and she notes that both of them were handsome young men just like him. He asks if they left recently, and she replies that both of them are still in the house on the fourth floor. Billy is confused and tries to change the subject by commenting on a parrot in a cage, which he thought was alive but just realized is stuffed. The landlady reveals that she herself stuffed the bird, and as she is a taxidermist she stuffs all her own pets. Billy realizes with a shock that the little dachsund by the fire isn’t alive. He also notices a curious bitter almond taste in his tea, and he asks the landlady again: “Haven’t there been any other guests here except them in the last two or three years?” She gives him a little smile as she replies, “No, my dear. Only you.”

(If you don’t get it, here’s what happens: she poisoned the other two men and stuffed them. Billy has read of their disappearances in the newspaper, and now he’s to be the next victim! The bitter almond taste in his tea is potassium cyanide.)

Criticism and Analysis

Teacher Ideas

“Lamb to the Slaughter”

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Information

Plot Description

This is probably the most well-known of all Dahl’s short stories, simply because (in my opinion) it’s so simple. There isn’t a single wasted word in it. It’s gripping, shocking, and yet the story proceeds in such a rational manner that the reader’s suspension of disbelief is never broken. We are with Mary Maloney from the first sentence of the story, and only at the end do we realize that we never really knew her at all.

Spoiler warning! Mary Maloney is a devoted wife and expectant mother. She waits happily each night for the arrival of her husband Patrick, home from work at the police station. On this particular night, though, she can tell something is wrong. In disbelief, she listens as Patrick tells her that he is leaving her for another woman. [Actually Dahl never really says this; the details are left up to the reader’s imagination.] Dazed, she goes into the kitchen to prepare their supper and pulls a large frozen leg of lamb from the deep freeze. Still numb, she carries it into the living room and without warning bashes her husband over the head with it. As she looks at Patrick lying dead on the floor, she slowly begins to come back to her senses. Immediately she realizes the ramifications of what she has done. Not wanting her unborn child to suffer as a result of her crime, she begins planning her alibi. She places the leg of lamb in a pan in the oven and goes down to the corner grocery to get some food for “Patrick’s dinner” (making sure the grocer sees her normal and cheerful state of mind). She returns home and screams when she finds Patrick lying on the floor. She calls the police and informs them that she found her husband lying dead on the floor. Within hours swarms of officers are searching the house and conducting an investigation. Mary’s story of coming home from the grocer and finding him is corroborated as she had planned. While the police are searching fruitlessly into the night for the murder weapon, Mary offers them some lamb that she had prepared for dinner. They are happy to oblige. While they lounge in the kitchen and discuss the case (their mouths “sloppy” with meat), Mary Maloney sits in the living room and giggles softly to herself.

Reviews

Criticism and Analysis

Teacher Ideas

“Katina”

Sections: Information | Plot Description

Information

  • First published:
  • Connections:
    • The setting is the RAF’s Greek campaign in World War II, which Dahl took part in and describes in Going Solo

Plot Description

This is a story about the “last days of RAF fighters during the first Greek campaign” of World War II. Dahl himself fought in these battles and it’s not hard to imagine that a lot of it is autobiographical.

Spoiler warning! The story opens in Paramythia, Greece in early April, 1941. Three off-duty RAF pilots go to the village to help in the aftermath of a German bombing. There they find a little Greek girl sitting silently and bleeding from a cut on her forehead. They take her back to their landing field to have the company doctor help her. Once she’s better, they find out that her name is Katina and that her family were killed in the village. During a German raid on the aerodrome, the men hide in the trenches while Katina stands in the field yelling at the enemy bombers. That night they officially add her name to the list of squadron members. She travels with them as the squadron keeps moving, each time losing more planes as the situation becomes more desperate. Eventually they end up in a village called Megara, forced to use a homemade landing strip and hide their planes in the forests. The pilots are ordered to take off to protect an important shipping move, but the Germans are ready. Before the first plane can even leave the ground it is shot down. Everyone runs to hide in the trenches as the Messerschmitts buzz past and destroy the parked aircraft. The narrator peeps out and sees Katina running into the middle of the field, shaking her fists at the Germans. A Messerschmitt shoots her and she falls to the ground. The men all run to her but it is too late; she’s dead. The narrator stands and stares at the flaming planes around him. “…I saw beyond it not a tangled mass of smoking wreckage, but the flames of a hotter and intenser fire which now burned and smouldered in the hearts of the people of Greece.”

“In the Ruins”

Sections: Information | Plot Description | Fun Stuff

Information

  • First published:
    • Program of the World Book Fair, June 1964
  • Also published:
    • March 1965 issue of King
  • Trivia: According to Dahl collector Richard Walker, this story was originally meant to be published in the collection Kiss Kiss, even to the point of being included in the setting copy for the printers, but dropped at the last minute.

Plot Description

This is a very short and gruesome little story. It’s only been reprinted a few times and one of the most difficult stories for me to track down.

Spoiler warning! The narrator is walking through “the ruins”, presumably some village after it has been ravaged by war. He comes across a man sitting on the ground and sawing off his own leg. The man has a hypodermic needle next to him, which obviously contained some sort of an anesthetic. This “doctor” offers the narrator “some”. The narrator is crazy with hunger and accepts. The doctor says he will share as long as the narrator promises to “produce the next meal”. He also assures the narrator that he is “uncontaminated”. He explains that the hypodermic was a “caudal injection”, which is applied to the base of the spine. “You don’t feel a thing.” The narrator gathers some wood and makes a fire. He begins to roast the meat. A little girl comes up, drawn by the smoke and smell of cooking. The doctor offers her some of the meat, but tells her that she will have to “pay it back later”. The doctor observes that with the three of them, they should be able to survive for quite a long time. “I want my mummy,” the child begins to cry. “Sit down,” the doctor told her. “I’ll take care of you.”

(If you didn’t get it, they were eating the doctor’s leg. His plan to survive is that they will each provide body parts for food.)

Fun Stuff

“The Hitchhiker”

Sections: Information | Plot Description | Teacher Ideas

Information

Plot Description

The narrator of this story is never named, but it sounds very much as if it’s Dahl himself. What do you think?

Spoiler warning! The narrator is driving to London is his lovely new BMW when he picks up a hitchhiker. The man, who looks rather like a rat, mentions that he’s going to the horse races, but not to bet or work the ticket machines. The narrator is intrigued and says that he’s a writer. They get to talking about the car, and the narrator proudly states that it can hit one hundred and twenty-nine miles per hour. The hitchhiker doubts that, so once they hit a straight patch of road, the narrator steps on the gas. They’re almost there when a policeman on a motorcycle zooms past and signals them to stop. The cop is a bit of a bully and threatens to have the narrator thrown in prison. He takes down his address and also the address of the hitchhiker. Then he gives them a ticket and leaves and they continue on their way. The narrator is worried about the ticket, but the hitchhiker says it will be fine. They begin talking about their careers again, and eventually the hitchhiker announces that he is a “fingersmith.” He is so skilled with his hands that he even manages to remove the narrator’s belt without him noticing. He attends the races and steals money from the winners. “That policeman’s going to check up on you pretty thoroughly,” the narrator says. “Doesn’t that worry you a bit?” The hitchhiker responds that no one will be checking up on him, as policemen have notoriously bad memories. “What’s memory got to do with it?” the narrator asks. “It’s written down in his book, isn’t it?” The hitchhiker proudly announces that he’s stolen both books from the policeman. “Easiest job I ever done.” They pull off the road to burn the books.

Teacher Ideas

“The Great Switcheroo”

Sections: Information | Plot Description | Reviews

Information

  • First published:

Plot Description

This is a very adult story and I would highly recommend that kids don’t read it. Not only is it of a very sexual nature, but it’s got some questionable language too. It’s from Dahl’s book Switch B***h. I’m going to keep the plot description as vague as possible.

Spoiler warning! Vic lusts after Samantha, the wife of his best friend and neighbor Jerry. Samantha is a faithful woman, though, and Vic knows he stands no chance of seducing her. So he concocts a plan that will allow him and Jerry to switch wives for an evening without the women knowing it. He manages to convince Jerry of the plan and the two of them spend many weeks working out the details. On the fateful night, the two men switch beds and make love to the other man’s wife. Then they return home, full of glee at their own cleverness. Vic gets quite a shock the next morning, though, when his wife Mary admits that she’s never really enjoyed sex with him… before last night.

Reviews

“The Great Automatic Grammatizator”

Sections: Information | Plot Description | Reviews

Information

Plot Description

This angry little satire is very “meta” and constantly draws attention to itself as a work of fiction. Take the main character’s name for example: Adolph Knipe. Not only is it hard to say (and has unfortunate associations with Adolf Hitler), it also bears a suspicious resemblance to one of Dahl’s own publishers, Alfred Knopf. But Knopf was the company that published Someone Like You, the anthology that contained this story! Is Dahl trying to tell us something here?

Another example is the paragraph where Knipe explains that nearly every writer makes a practice of inserting one long archaic word into each story to make himself sound smarter. When Mr. Bohlen asks where these words are stored, Knipe “epexegetically” answers “in the ‘word-memory’ section.” It took me at least three readings to notice that Dahl was making a subtle joke simply with that one word, which I repeatedly skimmed over. (It means “by way of explanation,” in case you’re wondering.) It could also be a clue that this story itself – regardless of the first-person section at the end – was actually created on the Great Automatic Grammatizator.

Spoiler warning! Adoph Knipe is a computer genius but has always longed to be a writer. He convinces his boss, Mr. Bohlen, to let him build a computer that will write stories. Knipe succeeds and sets up a publishing company as a front for this new mass-produced literature. Later they modify the machine to write novels and begin making thousands of dollars. The final step in their domination of the publishing industry is to buy out real authors and pay them to never write again. The surprise in the story comes at the end, when the narrator reveals that “over half of all the novels and stories published in the English language” are now created by Adolph Knipe on the Great Automatic Grammatizator. The conclusion of the story is written in first-person, as a struggling writer listens to his nine hungry children cry and tries to resist the lure of Knipe’s “golden contract.” “Give us strength, Oh Lord,” he prays for all true artists, “to let our children starve.”

Reviews

“Georgy Porgy”

Sections: Information | Plot Description | Reviews | Criticism and Analysis

Information

Plot Description

This story is actually quite disturbing, if you ask me. I’d definitely think twice before letting an impressionable child read it. It has some very vivid passages that can only be described as a Freudian nightmare come to life.

Spoiler warning! George is a vicar in a small country parish and has quite a problem with women. On one hand he is mad about them – the mere sight of a lady in high heels is enough excite him enormously. On the other hand, he can’t bear to touch them or be in close proximity to them. George doesn’t understand the reason for this paradox, but Dahl gives the reader an additional insight – George’s memories of his mother. She was apparently quite a free spirit and took pleasure in teaching her soon the “realities” of life. He quite simply adored her. One night, after a week’s worth of discussions about sex, she took him to the garage to see their rabbit Josephine give birth. As they marvelled at the miracle of life, Josephine began to swallow her new children whole. George screamed, and as he turned to his mother her large open mouth loomed over him and he fled shrieking into the night. She chased him across a highway and was struck by a car and killed. (Undoubtedly this incident affected George deeply and resulted in his subconscious attraction/revulsions towards all women.) Now grown, George tries everything to elude the parish widowers who constantly stalk him. They are persistent though, and George grows more and more desperate with each attempt to seduce him. Finally Miss Roach gets him drunk at a tennis party and catches him in an embrace out in the garden. He is too lightheaded to resist. As she goes to kiss him, though, he sees her large open mouth and begins to scream as she swallows him whole. He continues to narrate from his new home in her digestive system, although we the readers know that he has just simply gone mad. The padded room that he believes is located somewhere near her right kidney is actually in an asylum.

Reviews

Criticism and Analysis

“Genesis and Catastrophe”

Sections: Information | Plot Description | Criticism and Analysis

Information

Plot Description

This most remarkable thing about this story, I think, is the timing. I don’t want to give the surprise away to those of you who haven’t read it, but just think about the fact that Dahl was able to write this incredibly compassionate and and yet subtly ironic story (about a woman who has lost three children in the last eighteen months and desperately wants her newborn to survive) after witnessing countless horrible atrocities in World War II. It’s amazing. It’s also worth noting that this story, unlike many others, does not have a surprise “twist” at the very end. There is a shocking revelation, but the reader arrives at it gradually throughout the story.

Spoiler warning! The narrative begins immediately after the birth of a baby, a boy. The doctor tries to reassure the mother Klara that the child is healthy and will survive, but she has lost all hope after her other three children have died. We also learn that she and her husband, Alois, have recently moved to this new city and that he is an overbearing, unsatisfied sort of man. The doctor manages to convince her that her new son is all right and she decides to name him Adolphus, or Adolf for short. She finally gets to hold her little Adolf and falls in love with the beautiful child. Her husband arrives (Note: the doctor addresses him as “Herr Hitler”!!) and comments on the boy’s small size. The doctor pleads with him to give his wife some needed support. He finally kisses her and tries to comfort her. “He must live, Alois,” she cries. “He must, he must… Oh God, be merciful unto him now…” Of course, we know that the very infant whose life she prays for is none other than Adolf Hitler, the man responsible for millions of deaths and years of suffering in World War II.

Criticism and Analysis

“Galloping Foxley”

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Information

Plot Description

This story has a very autobiographical feeling to it, and one can’t help but wonder whether it actually happened to Dahl or not. His feelings about the English Public School system are well-documented (see Boy – Tales of Childhood or Jeremy Treglown’s Roald Dahl: A Biography), and he loads this short story full of so many intense details that it seems unlikely he would ever make such a thing up. Perkins also attends Repton, where Dahl himself went to school.

Spoiler warning! The story, if indeed it can be called that (since there really isn’t much of a plot at all), is about a “contented commuter” named William Perkins. He is a distinguished businessman and prides himself on the regularity and precision with which he goes about his daily routine. One day his peace is shattered, however, when a newcomer joins the usual group waiting for the commuter train. After several days of grudging conversation with this obnoxious man, Perkins suddenly recognizes him as Bruce “Galloping” Foxley, an older boy who sadistically tormented and tortured him for years in school. The entire story then comes to a grinding halt as fifty-year-old memories begin to flood Perkins: warming the toilet seat for Foxley, cleaning Foxley’s study, receiving a beating from Foxley. As Perkins becomes more and more shaken by these memories, he decides to reveal himself to the man and watch his reaction. He leans over and introduces himself: “My name is Perkins – William Perkins – and I was at Repton in 1907.” Imagine his surprise, then, when his companion answers, “I’m glad to meet you. Mine’s Fortescue – Jocelyn Fortescue, Eton 1916.” He is NOT Galloping Foxley!

Reviews

Teacher Ideas