0

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl (/ˈroʊ.ɑːl ˈdɑːl/; Norwegian: ˈɾuːɑl dɑl; 13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot.

Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence officer, rising to the rank of Acting wing commander. He rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults and became one of the world's best-selling authors. He has been referred to as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". Among his awards for contribution to literature, he received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1983, and Children's Author of the Year from the British Book Awards in 1990. In 2008 The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings and his children's books for their unsentimental, often very dark humour. His works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, My Uncle Oswald, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Twits, Tales of the Unexpected, George's Marvellous Medicine, and The BFG.

Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was "A Piece of Cake" on 1 August 1942. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for US$1000 (a substantial sum in 1942) and published under the title "Shot Down Over Libya".

His first children's book was The Gremlins, published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. All the RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft. While at the British Embassy in Washington, Dahl sent a copy to the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who read it to her grandchildren, and the book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine.

Dahl also features in his books characters who are very fat, usually children. Augustus Gloop, Bruce Bogtrotter and Bruno Jenkins are a few of these characters, although an enormous woman named Aunt Sponge is featured in James and the Giant Peach and the nasty farmer Boggis in Fantastic Mr Fox is an enormously fat character. All of these characters (with the possible exception of Bruce Bogtrotter) are either villains or simply unpleasant gluttons. They are usually punished for this: Augustus Gloop drinks from Willy Wonka's chocolate river, disregarding the adults who tell him not to, and falls in, getting sucked up a pipe and nearly being turned into fudge. In Matilda, Bruce Bogtrotter steals cake from the evil headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, and is forced to eat a gigantic chocolate cake in front of the school. Featuring in The Witches, Bruno Jenkins is turned into a mouse by witches who lure him to their convention with the promise of chocolate, and, it is speculated, possibly disowned or even killed by his parents because of this. Aunt Sponge is flattened by a giant peach. Dahl's mother used to tell him and his sisters tales about trolls and other mythical Norwegian creatures and some of his children's books contain references or elements inspired by these stories, such as the giants in The BFG, the fox family in Fantastic Mr Fox and the trolls in The Minpins.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

Novels

  1. The Gremlins
  2. Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen
  3. James and the Giant Peach
  4. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  5. The Magic Finger
  6. Fantastic Mr Fox
  7. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
  8. Danny, the Champion of the World
  9. The Enormous Crocodile
  10. My Uncle Oswald
  11. The Twits
  12. George's Marvellous Medicine
  13. The BFG
  14. The Witches
  15. The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
  16. Matilda
  17. Esio Trot
  18. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke
  19. The Minpins

Short Story

  1. The Gremlins
  2. The Sword
  3. Missing: Believed Killed
  4. Girl Without a Name
  5. In the Ruins
  6. Death in the Square: A Christmas Mystery in Four Parts

Short Story collections

  1. Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying
  2. Someone Like You
  3. Kiss Kiss
  4. Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl
  5. Switch Bitch
  6. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More
  7. The Best of Roald Dahl
  8. Tales of the Unexpected
  9. More Tales of the Unexpected
  10. A Roald Dahl Selection: Nine Short Stories
  11. Two Fables
  12. Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl
  13. The Roald Dahl Treasury
  14. The great automatic grammatizator and other stories.
  15. Skin and Other Stories

Scripts

  1. The Honeys
  2. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Lamb to the Slaughter"
  3. Way Out: "William and Mary"
  4. You Only Live Twice
  5. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
  6. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
  7. The Night Digger
  8. The BFG: Plays for Children
  9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: A Play
  10. James and the Giant Peach: A Play
  11. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator: A Play
  12. Fantastic Mr Fox: A Play

Poems

  1. Revolting Rhymes
  2. Dirty Beasts
  3. Rhyme Stew

Books edited

  1. Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories

Non-Fiction

  1. Boy – Tales of Childhood
  2. Going Solo
  3. Measles, a Dangerous Illness
  4. Memories with Food at Gipsy House
  5. Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety
  6. The Dahl Diary 1992
  7. My Year
  8. The Roald Dahl Diary 1997
  9. The Mildenhall Treasure

No comments:

Post a Comment