Tales of the Unexpected

In this anthology of short stories, Dahl tantalizes his readers with macabre tales of the bizarre. Stories include “The Second Machine,” “Lamb to the Slaughter,” “Neck,” and “The Landlady. “ Other short stories explore: A wine connoisseur with an infallible palate whose sinister taste for wagers involves gourmet meals served in six courses. A decrepit old man with a masterpiece tattooed on his back. A voracious adventuress, a gentle cuckold, and a garden sculpture that becomes an instrument of sadistic vengeance. Social climbers who climb a bit too quickly. Philanderers whose deceptions are a trifle too ornate. Impeccable servants whose bland masks slip for one vertiginous instant. With the inventive power of a Thomas Edison and the imagination of a Lewis Carroll… Roald Dahl is a wizard of comedy and the grotesque, an artist with a marvelously topsy-turvy sense of the ridiculous in life. ”