Thursday 1 September 2016

Lust, Madness, Cruelty, Deception; but enough about me

>Blows dust off surfaces, has coughing fit, sits down for a bit.<

Ahem. Sorry about the long delay. Let's get back into it, shall we?

Penguin's latest reshuffling and rebadging of Roald Dahl's adult short stories is a nice set of four themed collections, each with a newly commissioned painting from Charming Baker. I must admit that I've never really enjoyed these stories much; Dahl seems too contemptuous of his characters and too much of a reveller in the cruelties he creates for them to sit well with me. But the best of them are still worth reading, and with these covers they're unlikely to look prettier. Click to embiggen.





I also have a fondness for the creepy Penguin Modern Classics versions of several Dahl books, though the two story collections here are already out of print due to the constant reshuffling/rebadging mentioned above...





Of course, if you want some unreservedly excellent creepy short stories, can I direct you to these Shirley Jackson collections, each of which is irritatingly much more attractive than the editions I own?





A couple of other Penguin takes on Dahl are here...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Great to have you back. I was getting worried

DLM said...

I love the Let me Tell You cover, but if there is any image in this world creepier than that cover for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I do not want to know about it. That is a killer piece of photography, and I'd never EVER give that to an actual child! Hee.

JRSM said...

It is kind of terrifying, isn't it?

Andrew, thank you for your kind words. I wish i had a good excuse!