LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Roald Dahl: Stories
built 255 days ago
This new storybook format of a fabulous Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake classic is destined to delight a whole new generation of young readers. The first collaborative effort of this picture-perfect creative match, The Enormous Crocodile 's uniquely Dahl-esque dialogue and laugh-out-loud illustrations marked the beginning of a beautiful partnership. Some of their other creations include
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It would be exaggeration to say all was easy after that, for Dahl's career was slow getting off the ground. He was a meticulous craftsman who ran everything he wrote through several drafts, and it took him a few years to perfect his distinctive style, one that gives the sense of an intimate, wry conversation with the reader. What did become plain early on was that his unhappiness in school -- as well no doubt as the early deaths of his father and an older sister -- had given him a particular sensitivity to the macabre, the outre, the unexpected. He developed a skill at surprise endings to rival O. Henry's, though his prose style was much superior, and he slowly mastered a tone -- ironic, sardonic, succinctly but painstakingly descriptive -- that makes almost anything he wrote immediately identifiable as his own. Consider for example this passage from "Taste," the first story in "Someone Like You":
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Dahl began writing in 1942, after he was transferred to Washington, D.C. as Assistant Air Attaché. His first published work, in the 1 August 1942 issue of the Saturday Evening Post was "Shot Down Over Libya", describing the crash of his Gloster Gladiator. C. S. Forester had asked Dahl to write down some RAF anecdotes so that he could shape them into a story. After Forester sat down to read what Dahl had given him, he decided to publish it exactly as it was. The original title of the article was A Piece of Cake — the title was changed to sound more dramatic, despite the fact that the he was not "shot down".
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This pathfinder is intended for adults who may remember enjoying Roald Dahl as children and who are interested in learning more about Roald Dahl’s life and his body of literature for adults, specifically his short story collections. Information sources covered will include biographical texts and literary criticisms. The items mentioned in this pathfinder can be found at the Davis Library at UNC Chapel Hill, the SILS Library at UNC Chapel Hill, and many can ... be found at the Chapel Hill public library.
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In one of Dahl's short stories, "Beware of the Dog," a fighter pilot is shot down during wartime and loses one of his legs. He recovers in a hospital only to discover that he is in Nazi-occupied France. Although the story is based on Dahl's WWII experiences, it is not entirely autobiographical; Dahl did crash his plane, but did not lose a leg or become a prisoner of war.
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The Boy and Solo galleries tell the story of Dahl's life and work through film, objects and lively interactive displays. Roald Dahl (who was a resident of Great Missenden for 36 years until his death in 1990) was determined that all his papers, manuscripts, photographs and correspondence (including his earliest letters home to his mother from boarding school) - should stay together. The Museum allows for unprecedented access to this priceless material engaging children with touch-screen monitors and on-line archives.
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