ENGLISH: A collection of six short stories by Roald Dahl, plus an autobiographical note on how he came to write. Among the stories, two are special, as they are the only ones he wrote based on real events, without inventing anything. One of them was the first thing he published.

The other four fictional stories are more in line with typical works of the author. "The Hitch-Hiker" contains a high dose of typical Dahlian humor. "The Swan" shows two typically evil characters, pure Roald Dahl style, those characters that the reader has no choice but to cordially hate. Finally, "The wonderful story of Henry Sugar" is based on an original idea: a man capable of seeing without eyes, by using powers developed by practicing yoga.

ESPAÑOL: Colección de seis cuentos de Roald Dahl, más un apunte autobiográfico sobre cómo llegó a escribir. Entre los cuentos, dos son especiales porque son los únicos que escribió el autor basándose en hechos reales, sin inventar nada. Uno de ellos es lo primero que publicó.

Los otros cuatro cuentos de ficción se ajustan más a las obras típicas de su autor. "El autoestopista" contiene una elevada dosis de típico humor Dahliano. En "El cisne" aparecen dos típicos personajes malignos, puro estilo de Roald Dahl, de esos personajes a los que el lector no tiene más remedio que odiar cordialmente. Finalmente, "La maravillosa historia de Henry Sugar" se basa en una idea muy original: la de un hombre capaz de ver sin ojos, utilizando poderes que ha desarrollado practicando el yoga.

This is another book which has sat on various shelves for many months now before finally being completed. The short stories (7 of them) are mainly directed at an older age group though touch on similar themes to his younger work. My copy has a different cover which doesn't appear here.

I've read 'The Hitch-hiker' before and enjoyed it, found 'The Swan' quite dark and disturbing (taking the bullying of his younger books to more dangerous regions). 'Henry Sugar' though felt a little disappointing. A story, within a story, within a story which meanders through yoga and mysticism, gambling and self discovery towards a vague morale (perhaps, I'm not quite sure). I did quite like Lucky Break, detailing briefly how he became a writer (like a condensed version of Boy and Going Solo) and the accompanying 'A piece of cake', his first written and published story. 'The Mildenhall Treasure' just didn't interest me though, feeling unsatisfying.

Not bad, I just prefer his children's books.

Seven short stories:
1. The Boy Who Talked with Animals
2. The Hitch-hiker
3. The Mildenhall Treasure nonfiction
4. The Swan
5. The Wonderful Story of Henry
6. Lucky Break nonfiction
7. A Piece of Cake nonfiction

This collection is being labeled by the publisher as teenage fiction which in my opinion it's not. Anyway, grown ups should read this collection too, especially these who only knows Dahl by his children books.

The Great Automatic Grammartizator and Other Stories[return]Paperback, 264 pages[return][return]The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More[return]Paperback, 213 pages[return][return]Roald Dahl[return]Published by Puffin Books[return][return][return]I recently developed a fascination for the works of Roald Dahl, perhaps years too late. But better late than never. I found the 2001 Puffin Books editions irresistible and decided that it's probably a good investment for my personal library.[return][return]Both books in this column are aimed at teenage readers, but of course, older readers will likely also enjoy them. The number of stories in both volumes total up to 20. Because I'm feeling cheeky today, I'm going to talk about some of the stories but not specify which book it came from.[return][return]Unless it's really obvious... like The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.[return][return]In the beginning of his story, Henry Sugar is a rich and selfish man. His main concern in life is making sure that he stays wealthy. He stumbles upon a strange story in a friend's library, written by a doctor who interviewed an Indian who can see without using his eyes.[return][return]The doctor's story conveniently describes how the Indian achieved this, so Henry followed the instructions. Three years and three months passed before he perfected his yogi-inspired powers.[return][return]But something happened to Henry in that time. He no longer finds pleasure in casinos and the shallow pursuit of riches. Yet he possesses the skill to clean out any casino he chooses to play in. An incident with a policeman gave him an idea, and Henry sets out to do good.[return][return]It's also rather obvious which book The Great Automatic Grammartizator came from. [return][return]Adolph Knipe's invention, the great automatic computing engine, is a success but Knipe is feeling depressed. By night, he is a writer, and not a very successful one either.[return][return]When sent home by his boss Mr Bohlen for a well-deserved holiday, Knipe mourns his failure as a writer before hitting upon an idea. After spending all of his holiday thinking about it, he convinces Mr Bohlen to back him on this and invented what is virtually an automatic story writing engine, able to produce works depending on the target audience. [return][return]Any writer, especially those who've ever gotten a reject slip, could appreciate the wicked humour behind this piece.[return][return]Another one with wicked humour that made me laugh out loud ("LOL" to you Internet people) at the end is "Mrs Bixby and The Colonel's Coat". Mrs Bixby have been having an affair with someone only known to us as the Colonel. Her carefully concealed trips have been successful so far, until the Colonel gave her a luxurious mink coat.[return][return]There was no way Mrs Bixby will be able to explain this to her husband. She devises a plan on the way home and left the coat in a pawn shop. Upon returning home, she tells Mr Bixby that she found a pawn ticket in the taxi she took, and sent him off to collect. That's where the fun begins.[return][return]A story that I found particularly harrowing to read comes under the peaceful-sounding title of The Swan.[return][return]Precocious Peter Watson is unfortunate enough to be out in the woods birdwatching alone when local bullies Ernie and Raymond came along. They made him their captive and subjects him to the kind of cruelty we associate with people who grow up to become serial killers.[return][return]First, they tied Peter to the train tracks and let him believe that he'll be run over. Finally, they shot a swan, cut her wings off and tied them to Peter's arms. They made him climb a tree as high as he could go and made him jump. [return][return]The surprise came when Peter discovers that he is one of those souls whom bullies will never break.[return][return]Dahl delights with his humour, yet some stories contain a sensitivity that moved me. As an extra bonus, one of these books contain Dahl's account on how he got his luck break into writing, as well as his very first published piece. Both of these pieces offer a glimpse into how this surprising man accidentally became one of the greatest authors in modern literature.[return][return](2006)

This is the second Dahl collection that I've read this month and unlike the previous book this one has a mixture of antidotes and fictional stories.

The titular story of this collection is the longest, a really interesting tale about a man who claims to be able to see without using he's eyes.
There's also The Hitch-Hiker which is a quick read and my favorite of the non-fiction stories.

The stand out for me was Lucky Break, this is an account of Dahl's early life. I didn't realize that he never intended to be a writer and it wasn't until a chance encounter with another famous author that lead him to creating he's own stories.
For someone who grew up with he's books, I'm so glad that these tales exist.

With the COVID initiated imprisonments continuing to come back again the uncertainty of stepping out of our home continues. As I am sure with everyone else boredom and helpless absence of choice of how to spend non professional time at home increases. The news is full of gloom and doom and everything pandemic.

The unexpected find of this book in our shelf was a welcome break. ‘Roald Dahl to the rescue’ was what I thought when I ‘discovered’ this. My daughter had gifted this to my wife many years ago.

And my interest in this made me finish this. As almost in two sessions I was captivated by some “Dahl-esque” moments. Inimitable as he is the stories are timeless.

Highly recommended for two hours of undiluted fun and promise to make you stay rooted to your seat.

PS - I did not know until I read this that he was 6’ 6”. Tall tales

El título original de esta recopilación de relatos es The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. No es de los libros que más me ha gustado de Dahl, pero su lectura entretiene y no perderás nada si cae en tus manos. Una cosa que me llamó la atención es que la mayoría de las narraciones breves de Dahl van dirigidas a un público adulto, pero esta recopilación me parece que también podría ser disfrutada por jóvenes lectores de, pongamos por caso, 14 o 15 años.

El primer relato del libro me pareció una fantasía sin gran interés. Ahora bien, el segundo relato (el del ladrón autoestopista) toma ya vuelo en la mejor línea de Dahl.

En cuanto al último relato, sin ser de los mejores, tiene el interés de ser autobiográfico: ideal para los fans incondicionales que quieran aprender más sobre este autor.

I was really torn about giving this 3 or 4 stars. I loved two of the stories especially, but the others were a little more average. The whole collection really wasn't what I expected, after my many years of reading Dahl's books. Unlike his children's books (which is where this book is shelved), there are very few children involved and while the stories do have some whimsical elements they aren't nearly as fantastical as his books. I was trying to decide the whole time if I would have liked the stories if I'd read them when I was younger. I like to think I still would have enjoyed them, but I don't think it would have been a repeat for me.

Strangely enough, I liked two of the three nonfiction stories the best--"The Mildenhall Treasure" and "Lucky Break." "Lucky Break" was all about his path to becoming a writer and it was quite fascinating. The rest of the book was worth reading to get to that one at the end.

On the downside, "The Swan" kind of made me feel ill because what happens in it is so awful (it's about two bullies tormenting a little nerdling).

This is a wonderful collection of short stories, a collection of tales that could only come from the inimitable Roald Dahl. We read this book slowly, at most one story each night, and savored each one.

That is, until we got to the middle of the book. For some reason, once we came to the title tale, we stopped. cold. As in, couldn't seem to pick the book up again for more than a year. I tried, believe me. I put the book on hold, borrowed it, and even tried to start the story, but we just never got into it and the book would sit until it was time to return it.

Finally, as I realized the book was coming due yet again, I was determined to finish it one way or another. And I have to admit that it was a rather engaging tale, once we got into it. The true story of how he first got into writing was fascinating to me, but our girls quickly lost interest. And I didn't even try to read them his first published short story, A Piece of Cake. I thought it was very good, but I'm not sure they are ready for that kind of tale.

I loved that the third story featured a town in England that I have become quite familiar with - it's right outside of an airbase (aptly named RAF Mildenhall) that I've visited countless times and have stayed at for more than six months altogether. One of my favorite things to do when we go to England is to walk the three miles or so into town, get some fish and chips at the local shop and then walk to the River Ouse and enjoy the sunshine (for some reason, it always seems to defy the stereotypical rainy weather when I go there.) I feed the ducks and watch the numerous people enjoying the walking trails, benches and playing fields.

Overall, I thought that this was a terrific book of short stories and I'm sorry that we took so long to finish it. I don't even know why this happened, really, although I think that the title story does start a bit slowly. Still, we have really enjoyed reading Roald Dahl's books and we will be sure to look for more of them at our local library.

I came across this as an audiobook (after loving many Dahl books growing up) and I now believe that every Roald Dahl book can be made better by having it read aloud to you.

The back cover of this book says that Roals Dahl is 'the world's number one storyteller'. I'm not sure who decided this (who's number two, then?), but I wanted to see if he's really this good. This collection, though, is probably not very representative, since three of the stories are supposed to be non-fictional (although I suspect they're fictionalized enough).

Also, I skipped 'The Swan'. I was reading about 'Henry Sugar' on Wiki and learnt there was a film, went to 'Does the Dog Die' to check if the film had emotional triggers, then learnt there was another film based on the 'Swan', went to the same site to check it out and this is definitely not for me (bullying and cruelty to animals).

So I can't really rate the collection, but I did enjoy 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar', the title story. More precisely, I enjoyed the story within the story, which, as it happens, is also based on a true story.

'True yogis do not grow on trees.'

Dahl's stories are certainly engaging, and I've come to the conclusion that the device behind this is this: he starts very realistically, including plenty of mundane details, but then, while we're still thinking this is all real, escalates the plot to fantastical heights. So in the end we keep thinking. 'What? Was that for real?'.

Another thing that made me go 'W-what?!' was this:
'Charles Dickens found it easy. At the age of twenty-four, he simply sat down and wrote Pickwick Papers, which became an immediate best-seller.'
Why would he say that? This is from 'Lucky Break', a story where he tells how he became a writer. If this is a joke, I'm not getting it.

So, overall: an interesting collection, but not a favourite.

The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar And Six More, Roald Dahl

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, is a collection of seven short stories written by Roald Dahl. They are generally regarded as being aimed at a slightly older audience than many of his other children's books.

Chapters:
The Boy Who Talked with Animals
The Hitch-Hiker
The Mildenhall Treasure
The Swan
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Lucky Break (non-fictional)
A Piece of Cake

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز نوزدهم ماه جولای سال 2005 میلادی

عنوان: داستان شگفت‌انگیز هنری شوگر و شش داستان دیگر؛ نویسنده: رولد دال؛ مترجم: ساغر صادقیان؛ تهران، چشمه، کتاب باران؛ 1383، در 260ص؛ چاپ دوم 1386؛ شابک 9643621952؛ موضوع داستانهای نوجوانان از نویسندگان بریتانیایی - سده 20م

عنوان: داستان شگفت‌انگیز هنری شوگر؛ نویسنده: رولد دال؛ مترجم: تیمور قادری؛ تهران، مهتاب، 1396؛ در 100ص؛ شابک 9786001510427؛

دربرگیرنده‌ ی هفت داستان كوتاه با عنوانهای: «پسری كه با حیوانات حرف می‌زد»، «مسافر مجانی»، «گنج میلدن هال»، «قو»، «داستان شگفت‌انگیز هنری شوگر»، «شانس خوب» و «مثل آب خوردن»؛

در «داستان شگفت‌انگیز هنری شوگر»، «هنری» باید تصمیم بگیرد، در صورت دیدن با چشمان بسته، آیا توان خویش را، باید در راه امور خیر، یا در راه اهداف شخصی، به کار گیرد

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 16/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی