Fantastic Mr. Dahl deal

[ejp626]

Since my oldest child is just creeping up on the age where he might appreciate Roald Dahl, I've been thinking of how to go about sourcing them. While I was in the UK, there was a nearly complete set of Dahl's children's books, but somehow I could never manage to get one (sometimes you had to join a club or what have you). Anyway, to my surprise, there is a roll-out of a new collection of 15 (out of approx. 22) of Dahl's books. Making it even better, particularly for us in the US, is that these will have all the Quentin Blake illustrations (sometimes dropped in US editions). Apparently already available in Australia, most other countries including the US will get this in March 2010. It is kind of a long way off, but the pre-order price at Amazon is very nice, working out to less than $2 per book with free shipping:

http://www.amazon.com/Roald-Dahl-Book-Box-...3852&sr=8-1

The books included should be:

Fantastic Mr Fox

The Witches

The Twits

James and the Giant Peach

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The BFG

The Magic Finger

The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me

Esio Trot

Boy

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Danny, the Champion of the World

George's Marvellous Medicine

Going Solo

Matilda

If you are keeping score, not included are:

* Dirty Beasts

* The Enormous Crocodile

* The Gremlins

* The Minpins

* Revolting Rhymes

* The Vicar of Nibbleswicke

* The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More

My plan will be to review the non-included books at the library and see if any are must gets (leaning towards the Henry Sugar story collection but may end up getting all of them).

No connection to anyone involved in the set, I just really appreciate Dahl as one of the few authors writing for children (well basically pre-teens) that isn't afraid of mixing in a little vinegar with the sugar and spice. Perhaps my favorite from childhood was James and the Giant Peach where the aunts get smooshed within a few pages and no tears are shed over them.

[Alexander]

No connection to anyone involved in the set, I just really appreciate Dahl as one of the few authors writing for children (well basically pre-teens) that isn't afraid of mixing in a little vinegar with the sugar and spice. Perhaps my favorite from childhood was James and the Giant Peach where the aunts get smooshed within a few pages and no tears are shed over them.

Dahl was a favorite of mine from childhood, as well. I read my daughter "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" a couple of years ago. I've always appreciated the dark humor in Dahl's work. The scene you cited in "James" was always one of my favorites too, especially the part where the Centipede later crows, "Oh, what a fabulous bump!"

[Chalupa]

Of his kids' stuff I've only read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" but I love his short stories for adults.

http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Short-Stor...l/dp/0140158073

[Quincy]

Of his kids' stuff I've only read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" but I love his short stories for adults.

http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Short-Stor...l/dp/0140158073

I was lucky enough to score used copies of Kiss, Kiss and another collection for just a buck or 2 each back in the late '80s. I should pull one of those out as a matter of fact.

[Big Wheel]

Meant to reply to this last week but got caught up. The Henry Sugar book is well worth it - more adult-oriented than most of his other work. I remember being especially fond of the non-fiction stories at the end...kind of an interesting companion to the autobiographical "Boy.". Haven't read any of the other non-included ones, though The Vicar of Nibbleswicke always sounded intriguing.

[Noj]

I loved Dahl's books when I was a kid. I read the following:

The Witches

James and the Giant Peach

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Danny, the Champion of the World

Matilda

Didn't know there were so many more. Funny, fun stories.

[ejp626]

Meant to reply to this last week but got caught up. The Henry Sugar book is well worth it - more adult-oriented than most of his other work. I remember being especially fond of the non-fiction stories at the end...kind of an interesting companion to the autobiographical "Boy.". Haven't read any of the other non-included ones, though The Vicar of Nibbleswicke always sounded intriguing.

I took the list from Wiki, and I have to agree with you, Henry Sugar (and even The Vicar) definitely ride the line and are not entirely "kids' books." I probably would read some of the stories to my kids but not all. I'm currently skimming his description of going to English public school. What a sea change. It is astounding how in a relatively short period, collectively most Western nations decided that corporal punishment, particularly by teachers, was unacceptable. I'm certainly not sorry I missed out on beatings at school (even if it would have made me a better writer). Still, Boy is in the box set, and Henry Sugar could have been included as well. It would have fit thematically anyway.

I did read The Vicar of Nibbleswicke. It is one of the last things he wrote -- a fable of sorts that was to benefit a charity working with people with dyslexia. It's fine but very slight. Unfortunately because some of the reversed words are kind of obscene, I'm going to hold off on reading it to my kids for now. So I would probably have put it into the adult column. (And I would generally recommend just borrowing it from the library.)

[Big Wheel]

Meant to reply to this last week but got caught up. The Henry Sugar book is well worth it - more adult-oriented than most of his other work. I remember being especially fond of the non-fiction stories at the end...kind of an interesting companion to the autobiographical "Boy.". Haven't read any of the other non-included ones, though The Vicar of Nibbleswicke always sounded intriguing.

I took the list from Wiki, and I have to agree with you, Henry Sugar (and even The Vicar) definitely ride the line and are not entirely "kids' books." I probably would read some of the stories to my kids but not all. I'm currently skimming his description of going to English public school. What a sea change. It is astounding how in a relatively short period, collectively most Western nations decided that corporal punishment, particularly by teachers, was unacceptable. I'm certainly not sorry I missed out on beatings at school (even if it would have made me a better writer). Still, Boy is in the box set, and Henry Sugar could have been included as well. It would have fit thematically anyway.

I did read The Vicar of Nibbleswicke. It is one of the last things he wrote -- a fable of sorts that was to benefit a charity working with people with dyslexia. It's fine but very slight. Unfortunately because some of the reversed words are kind of obscene, I'm going to hold off on reading it to my kids for now. So I would probably have put it into the adult column. (And I would generally recommend just borrowing it from the library.)

Thanks for the summary of Nibbleswicke. To be honest I think you could probably read most of the stories in Henry Sugar to a kid. The main Henry Sugar story is relatively tame and a good adventure, and The Boy Who Talked With Animals and The Hitchhiker have kind of fun endings IIRC. The main exceptions are:

-The Mildenhall Treasure: Some kids may find it boring.

-The Swan: This is the one I would definitely NOT read to kids under 11 or so. The ending is pretty nightmarish. I suspect this may be why Henry Sugar was left out of this collection - while most of the other stories on there (like The Witches, Danny the Champion of the World, or Great Glass Elevator) have their intense, even horrible moments, everything tends to end up just fine in the end. Not so in The Swan.

[ejp626]

In the end Amazon did not come through for me (kept cancelling the order, though it looks like some are finally in stock from resellers), and I just selected a few here and there to pick up, and went to the library for the rest of the set now that my son is reading at this level.

Maybe it is just as well. No question Dahl has a wicked humor, and I think understood children's darker moments well (really tapped into their id, I guess), but sometimes he seems to take a bog-standard farmer or grandmother and turn them into this horrible figure, at which point anything awful can be done to them and the reader is supposed to cheer. I actually found The Fantastic Mr. Fox quite appalling on that score (as well as being a boring book). There are certainly elements of this wanton cruelty in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and James & the Giant Peach, but there are other more positive lessons to be learned as well (not just -- don't be an awful person or you'll be given bad medicine and shrink down into nothing).

Having spent a bit more time with his ouevre, I have to say only about 1/4 of it seems elevated above this really basic wish-fulfillment/revenge-fantasy level. Kind of a disappointment really...

[Big Wheel]

Having spent a bit more time with his ouevre, I have to say only about 1/4 of it seems elevated above this really basic wish-fulfillment/revenge-fantasy level. Kind of a disappointment really...

Interesting point, and one that kind of raises some provocative questions about children's literature. As you said, kids certainly have an id - I'm sure I engaged in this kind of silly demonization of random adults as a little kid out of some trivial slight on their part. Is children's literature supposed to foster growth and not just hold a maybe-approving mirror up to a kid's darker side? And is the fact that Dahl usually doesn't do this one of the reasons his stories are so beloved by many kids?

Edited December 4, 2012 by Big Wheel

[ejp626]

Having spent a bit more time with his ouevre, I have to say only about 1/4 of it seems elevated above this really basic wish-fulfillment/revenge-fantasy level. Kind of a disappointment really...

Interesting point, and one that kind of raises some provocative questions about children's literature. As you said, kids certainly have an id - I'm sure I engaged in this kind of silly demonization of random adults as a little kid out of some trivial slight on their part. Is children's literature supposed to foster growth and not just hold a maybe-approving mirror up to a kid's darker side? And is the fact that Dahl usually doesn't do this one of the reasons his stories are so beloved by many kids?

I think there is a place for it (not everything has to have an uplifting moral), but for me, childhood books that one might return to at a later point probably ought to contain more than just revenge fantasies. I can envision reading James or Charlie as an adult and enjoying some aspects of the books, but for roughly 3/4 of his books (esp. the shorter ones) I find them pretty empty. I was shocked at how threadbare and frankly boring The Fantastic Mr. Fox was (hadn't read that as a child).

[cih]

'Danny the Champion of the World' is the best one imo - and the villain only gets his car crapped on

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Roald Dahl used to live in the same place as I did (but earlier )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radyr

The children's literature author Roald Dahl (1916–1990) lived at a house called Ty Mynydd in Radyr (which was demolished in 1967)

The block of flats I lived in from '74 until I moved here 6 years ago was built on the site of Ty-mynydd (Mountain House) and you could still see parts of the garden terraces and steps in the neighbours' gardens, if you looked over the fences. One of the oldest and biggest redwood trees in Britain is still there.

MG

[ejp626]

'Danny the Champion of the World' is the best one imo - and the villain only gets his car crapped on

I've heard good things about Danny, and will grab it from the library soon. Maybe I'll even skim it myself...

[Big Wheel]

'Danny the Champion of the World' is the best one imo - and the villain only gets his car crapped on

Certainly one of the more human and complex of Dahl's works, going beyond his typical random lonely orphan protagonist and bringing social class into the mix. Ironic, isn't it - Dahl's best stuff is often when he ditches the talking grasshoppers and Vermicious Knids and just tells a good story about sticking it to the rich.

[crisp]

'Danny the Champion of the World' is the best one imo - and the villain only gets his car crapped on

Yes, I liked that one as a child. Also quite liked James, but not Charlie -- too much finger-wagging dictatorialness for my liking. Dahl gives the impression of being a roving antiestablishment free spirit, but he's actually quite snobbish and controlling.