How would you describe Ronald Dahl's stories and why?

I love his books because they always seem to have an air of whimsy. I like the weird and wonderful. It’s really set a precedent for the books I love to read now.

I don't mean to be a b#tch, but his name is Roald Dahl.

I think of them as industrial era fairytales - in the sense of the menacing German ones. Especially if you read a lot of his more minor work, the whimsy is in the face of this ever-imminent danger and violence. Kids working in factories because their hands are small enough to reach into stuck machines vibe.

In a good/skillful way though? 

His adult short stories about WW2 are pretty good too.

Roald Dahl is one of my all-time favorite authors. I've read everything the man has ever written and loved pretty much all of it. The most astounding thing about him is how he was able to write such fantastic children's books AND some of the most brilliant short stories of all time. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mister Fox, James and the Giant Peach, they're terrific, but his adult short stories are just on a whole other level of creative and stylistic brilliance. Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat is one of the best stories ever and Parson's Pleasure, The Visitor, The Man From the South, they're all great too. I really can't say enough about how much I love Roald Dahl and I was actually just reading Kiss, Kiss again this afternoon.

I think what makes his kid's stories so timeless and memorable is how he crafts characters. He really understood human emotion on a level most people never reach and he had an incredible gift for creating characters that readers could sympathise with, empathise with, love, or loathe, or just laugh at as his books are uproariously funny. The first time I read The Ratcatcher/Claud's Dog collection I couldn't believe how Champion of the World had me in stitches (That line "I must count them" still makes me crack up today), and then the ending of Rummins had my jaw hitting the floor.

The man sure knew how to craft a proper twist. Some of his endings are just perfect. He was an absolute genius at that - and his dialogue is always spectacular as well. The fine balance between his delivery, the ingenious surprises, his humour, his stories are really just in a class all by themselves. I have so many favorites I could speak about them for hours and hours. I love how some of his stories can induce such a strong reaction - they can be so cringeworthy they make your skin crawl, but they're so masterfully crafted that you can't help but be in awe of his talent.

As a grown man I obviously gravitate towards his more adult fare - stories like The Great Switcheroo and The Bookseller are obviously not for kids, but I think his kid's books are enjoyable for adults too.

On a side note I am completely against the changes being made to his works and I am a strong believer in leaving his legacy alone and wholly intact. I realise that he may have said and written some things it's easy to criticise, but I don't think that justifies amending his literature to suit current tastes and trends. It's akin to going into an art museum and touching up the paintings to "improve them." It's unforgivable and just plain wrong.

A bit dark on the surface 

But if you look closer 

Very fucking dark

Darkly consequential.
Things happen to people, often as a result of their own actions but sometimes just from being there.
The good guys are also not immune to suffering or from reaping negative consequences when they do wrong.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is pretty good. I love the use of Mr Walter Wall and his wall-to-wall wallpaper.

My favourite is the Twits or BFG. But I can't ignore Esio Trot either.

If anyone remembers back to the 70s and 80s in the UK, we had Tales of the Unexpected. This was a very different side of RD's mind to the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory version most people know.

Whimsical without veering into twee.

My favourite is Danny, Champion of the World, aka Stealing From Rich People is Good, Actually.

Short stories are my fav.

Royal Jelly, Edward the Conqueror, the wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. So many good ones all weird and wonderful.

Darkly whimsical.

Fucked up and anti-adult. Like all good kids books should be.

Just popping in to say I highly recommend listening to the official audiobook of Matilda. It is read by the delightful Kate Winslet.

oddly empowering? encourages questioning of stereotypes and finding out for yourself, like BFG. Enchanting humble magic for sure.

Yeah, classic kids stories. My favorite was James and the Giant Peach. I'd get the book from the library, read it over and over, return it just to check it out again. It was my favorite book for a little while there was a kid.

Just pure wonder and adventure.

His stories are a huge part of my childhood.

Victorian comedic imo, even set in modern times. At least the kids books. I learned to read on those books, and thinking about the rampant negligence and casual brutality is like seeing an old friend.

Victims of child abuse heroically rise above their deserving cohort.

Weird and wonderful

You should read his adult fiction, I loved Kiss Kiss.

You mentioning the glass elevator has unlocked a weird memory for me. I totally forgot that book existed and I remember reading it (didn’t get far) and feeling quite uncomfortable and almost frightened at a certain part. I think it had something to do with some giant worms? Talking 20+ years ago at this point.

Tales of the unexpected. Roald Dahls best literature is his non kids books... Some very very out there concepts. He's like an older version of Chuck Palinuik

Check out what he wrote for adults. It’s very different.

Ronald Dahl?

Transgressive, like that book about making a toxic cocktail for grandma.

Fantastical.

Witty and dark. I love his versions of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Three Little Pigs.

His tales of the unexpected essentially play as droll Conte cruels

Dahl's stories are like a twisted candy factory! Whimsy takes a wild turn with quirky characters, magical elements, and a dash of darkness. It's like he takes childhood wonder and throws it in a funhouse, making them both delightful and surprising! And yes, Glass Elevator is a fantastic sequel!

Roald Dahl and Douglas Adams are, for me, the two authors that most shaped my childhood. Dahl first, of course. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and Great Glass Elevator) are core memories for me. But I eventually devoured all of them, even the really simple books like Esio Trot.

I've always felt that Danny The Champion of the World was slept on - such a phenomenal book that never got the same popularity as his other works.

Dahl's oeuvre allows you to grow up with him - I got to his autobiographical books next. I especially remember being mind-blown by his R.A.F experiences. And also, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, which Wes Anderson recently adapted beautifully.

I'd read his adult short stories a while ago, but I think it's time to reread.

I had never read a Roald Dahl book in my life until it came to bedtime stories for my daughter. We read every book over & over again until we both knew them by heart. She's almost 16 now & we still talk about how much we love & remember the stories.

They are imaginative and a bit dark.

Roald Dahl is stupidly fun to read. The Witches used to be my favorite book and the movie was equally amazing. Determined my artistic preferences for a long time and I'm happy to see great directors like Wes Abderson and JK Rowling haven't only paid homage to his work but also gave it new direction.

Whimsical stories that are meant to be funny and lighthearted while offering positive, affirming messages to children.

I never read Dahl as a child, but I read many of them to my now adult children. I don't know who enjoyed them more, me or them

I loved his books as a kid. I had difficulty reading but I loved what he wrote and it pushed me to keep at it because I wanted to know what happened. I really enjoyed the interactions between adults and children and how it highlighted adults didn’t know everything.

Whimsical but also respecting children and not shielding them. Encourages them to be empowered and not just accept the status quo. That's why his stories are enjoyable for adults too I think.

Antisemitic.

Because of how Antisemitic the Witches is and how he was proudly Antisemitic.

My daughter has been reading Dahl since she was very little. They were her bedtime stories for a solid 2 years, and she has read most of the others on her own. After reading many of them with her, I'd describe the books as "delightfully fantastic."

Sure, there are some sketchy themes, ( George's Marvelous Medicine is about a boy who mixes every chemical under the sink, in the garage, and in the medicine cabinet, then feeds the mixture to his grandma) but there are loads of stories for kids to escape into and garner a love for reading.

Not as dark but the last book I read that had some of that same whimsy was Mr. Lemoncello's Library 

I adore all his works. I would describe his style as acerbic, wickedly (talented Adel Dazeem) clever, cheeky, sexy and brimming with pathos.

Pick up a copy of Someone Like You. Very adult, very dark short stories.

I registered for a set of his books when I got pregnant a few years ago. Rereading them with my son has given me so much joy it’s insane. Dahl’s silly and sarcastic. He has an incredible ability to tell stories that are both dark and light at the same time. I mean, James and the giant peach is about a kid whose parents were trampled by a rhino and now his lives with his abusive aunts in isolation until a group of giant bugs take him on a great adventure to New York City. Fantastic Mr fox is about a family of foxes being hunted and how they outsmart their hunters. Matilda and Miss honey’s lives are miserable and depressing but roald Dahl has a way of making these hard things palatable for a kid’s growing awareness of the world around them. It’s insane to describe his storytelling as delicate, but in that sense, it truly is. As a kid that grew up in an abusive household, I’m now starting to realize these stories were my favorite cause I could identify with the characters. Dahl taught me to use my imagination as an escape and I’m convinced it’s why I’m not old and completely jaded.

I’m going to answer as my inner child not the adult, since I enjoyed his books as a kid. The stories are funny in a nutty way and also spooky / scary. The kids are smart and usually the good guys, while the adults were often dumb, mean and child hating - apart from the few exceptions of course (shout out to Miss Honey)- when you are a kid it often feel like you don’t matter and adults don’t really like you. Also there is a lot of silly humor.

Hear me out, but his autobiography Boy is loads of fun.

The twits was my favorite

He's one of my favourites. His adult stuff is great, Royal Jelly still gives me the creeps.

But his kids books are full of whimsy, a huge part of my childhood. I always bought all of my friends kids the anthology of stories when they were little too

And it is absolutely no coincidence my daughter is named Matilda.

Skin. An adult short story. Bizarre and great.

Delightfully unhinged is how I would describe them. As a kid my favorite was James and the Giant Peach. But then, I never read Matilda or many of the others until I had kids.

Whimsical with a slightly twisted sense of humour. Like, all his children's stories are whacky and fantastical, but there's always something messed up about them which I kind of love.

Lol I didn't even notice the typo until I got to your edit. Read the title as Roald.

I heard someone describe him as childrens horror

Ronald McDahld?

Love that one, too

I absolutely adore all of his books! In fact, I have an entire set of them on my shelf.

I like Roald Dahl’s Ghost stories. They are short and fun, kind of like a quick hug or tickle for your brain. The Witches is great too but the film adaptations are better than the book. I prefer The Great Glass Elevator over Charlie and the Chocolate factory as well. (PS I say this as kindly as possible and not trying to be an asshole about it - it’s Roald and not Ronald. I don’t want the internet to eat you alive about it.)

My favorite Ronald Dahl books were Mantulda and Chornley and the Chomcolate Factory.

if you're into the Glass Elevator try the unofficial continuation of the Charlie Bucket Saga - Snowpiercer (Ed Harris, Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans) I can only speak for the movie, not the Graphic novels or TV series.

I like Roald Dahl, and would usually describe his books as whimsical. I think this is a fair description if you go off the more mainstream adaptations of his works. However, I'd also describe Dahl as a little macabre as well. His Red Riding Hood poem for example is a little darker than one might expect when you think of the traditional story.

Whimsically Heavy. That's just the feeling I got while reading them when I was younger.

Fantastical realism.

I loved Dahl’s books as a kid, and I’m reading them to my young sons now.

But.

In my opinion, his best work is “Switch Bitch”, a collection of short stories with an adult theme. He had a wicked sense of humour that he hides very well in his childrens’ books.

Best children's author, IMO. I love his stories. They are whimsical and weird. They create a fantasy that is believable and unbelievable at the same time. I become fully immersed and create voices and imagine characters which some authors just cannot do.

Rik Mayall reading George's Marvellous Medicine on Jackanory is an absolute core childhood memory for me.

He was the perfect narrator for the book.

RIP Rik.

Roald dahl's*

Mischievous

I tell people that Roald Dahl was a grandfather who told his grandkids bettime stories as they were growing up. For years, his children would pester him to write down all the stories. Until one day, tired of the incessant nagging, he just said, "Fine. Fuck it. I'll do it! I'll show you!" And thus, all his stories were immortalized.

My favorite work of his was George’s Marvelous Medicine. I loved his stories because they were so cheery and uplifting on every page. His worlds were zany and lived by one rule: “most adults are incredibly childish in some way and so is the world you live in”.

Boy is my favorite of his books. I was completely obsessed with all of them when I was little. I am dyslexic, so it took me a while to get into reading, but his books were the trick. Boy felt like it tied so many of them together, you get to see why different themes came up. I highly recommend it.

If you’re talking about his short stories, I’d call them “sinister.”

I read the heck out of Roald Dahl as a kid. I think I read pretty much every book of his. As a kid, his stories made me feel a strange sense of bittersweet melancholy mixed up with a comfort of home and family. I always felt like these were "adult" stories that were ported to the world of children. The morals and themes of his stories were always apparent to me, even as a kid. I think his stories helped brace me for the dichotomy of the world being a harsh and cold place filled with warm loving people.

Favorite: Switch Bitch. His adult themed stories (I guess they all are to some extent) are the best.

whimsical and absurd... love it! Do yourself a favor and read " My Uncle Oswald" and "Switch Bitch"... first and then everything else. pure gold.

Having read lots of his books to my students, I'd say consummate storytelling. Loved reading The Witches to my third grade students. Sent them off to reading his other books.

I read and re-read the two Charlie Bucket books countless times as a kid. The Great Glass Elevator, especially "Minus-land", was so bizarre, at times downright creepy.

Oddly, we didn't have any of his other books until "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (and Six More)" came out in 1977. How I wanted to believe that with some amount of meditation, I too could learn to see without my eyes and never have to worry about money or any of the problems it solves.

I think what kids love about Dahl's children's books is the same as what adults love about his adult fiction ("Kiss Kiss", My Uncle Oswald" etc.): they're subversive, disrespectful where disrespect is due. Naughty. Dahl had an extraordinary knack for satisfying our sense of just deserts. From a literary perspective, Dahl was also an author who excelled at relating characters with unique voices, and vividly sensual scene-setting.

They always made me so hungry as a kid

He's got some really creepy short stories as I recall. Really cool stuff dark though.

Honestly, with Dahl, it really depends on the story you are talking about. Some are fun and whimsical with a positive moral. Others are dark, dark, dark. Most people are acquainted with his whimsical side and only see the hints of darkness here and there. If you want to see the dark and sadistic side, try reading Lamb to the Slaughter.

As an aside, if you liked his stories, try The Willoughbys / by Lois Elhert. She also wrote The Giver which is a totally different vibe.

Ronald McDahl makes a hell of a burger.

Delightfully weird!

I've read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Witches, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Matilda this year and I love how he doens't hold back on including dark or adult stuff, even if they're books for kids.

I genuinely found them all terrifying as a kid 😂 except for Danny, the champion of the world which I loved and reread a lot (I loved the part where he drove the car himself as a kid, it astounded me to my 8 year old core).

In particular, the BFG gave me a complex about having curtains open in my bedroom, almost into adulthood, in case I accidentally saw something I shouldn’t have. I wish I were joking.

My daughter is 8, and she’s a big fan. She loves The Witches. I can at least appreciate that the kid has to stay a mouse forever 😂

I love a bit of Roald Dahl. I wrote my Masters dissertation on his children’s books. They are so subversive and empowering children to say no to adults, by using all the disgusting and funny things that kids enjoy! I know he is problematic for many reasons but I think his books have stood the test of time. I would also 100% recommend his adult short stories, absolute dark humour genius.

Matilda has always been one of my favorite books, but I devoured anything Roald Dahl that I could get my hands on. I've always loved the way he was able to take seemingly mundane things and make them exciting and adventurous through the eyes of his characters.

I even liked the random book of adult short stories someone gave me. Not as great as his children's works, but still interesting.

Fantastic escapism and first foray into dark humor. 🖤 I must have read Matilda like 5 times one summer - my Mom had to re-bind the spine with masking tape at one point. Lol I really enjoyed the magical realism and was also weirdly fascinated by British English at the time?

I read nearly everything he wrote afterward and was moderately obsessed with writing my own fiction for a beat, 2nd-3rd grade ish. I dedicated an award I received to him for my debut short story: The Witch’s Cat. Lmao 🤓📕☠️

That seems like a million years ago. Would have loved to meet him and pick that twisted brain for a minute…

I adored his books as a child and got the box set for my daughter a few years ago, we've read our way through them together. You know what I notice now that I never did before? The cruel adults!

Now before anyone jumps down my throat, I still love his books.

But I seriously wonder about RD's childhood and what he experienced where he made absolutely abusive adults seem like a par-for-the-course, standard childhood experience. I mean outright cruelty. It's disturbing to read as an adult and I even skipped over some lines when reading aloud to my daughter, who's the type to get teary-eyed hearing about someone being mistreated, though your child's mileage may vary.

I also noticed he had a tendency to build in a bit of body shaming into just about every book, something I'm glad we're moving away from in this day and age. I had close friends and family who were bigger when I was a kid and even way back then I found it unnecessarily hurtful when books, films and TV shows spoke so derisively about body shapes, as though they're horrific character flaws.

But other than that it's been great fun reading them again. I had forgotten how much poetry and song lyrics he incorporated into his novels as well!

Whimsical, dark and funny.

I read some of his short stories and they were good but what I really love are the children's books, partly because one of the first books I ever remember reading was The Witches, one of my favourites amongst his works, together with Matilda.

Not sure I can describe it properly but he managed to capture, at least for me, the feelings and view of children very well, even when he uses a narrator, the strike of rebellion and wonder and mischief most of his children protagonists have, makes me feel a child again every time I reread those. Also, while it is all very whimsical and magic often plays a role, I think he also managed to depict more dark and complicated matters, which as a child I didn't necessarily pick up but I can see as an adult.

As a side note, I have been teaching English in preschool in my country, Italy, this year, first experience as a teacher, and have been trying a few activities, since they are very young and easily bored and decided a couple of weeks ago to "act" some scenes from books and, amongst the various books I picked, the ones the children can't stop talking about are Roald Dahl's.The consequence is that now I have their parents asking me why their children, who can't read yet, are asking for books 😅

Good ol Ronnie Dowel

I loved his books as a child, not going to lie, i still enjoyed it at 27yr His writing style is so intoxicating! Weird wonderful imaginative! A perfect place for a child’s fantasy and day dreams

Horror stories for children who don't realize they're horror stories because of the whimsical language

Middle Grade fabulist fiction.

I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and even the movie adaptation. I read somewhere that the book was unique at the time for a children's book because the antagonists were not adults but other children.

I realised that I had never thought about it from that angle !

I like the way Dahl always sides with the children in his stories. He portrays adults with faults and some downright evil characters in charge of children. Children are a,ways taught to respect our elders and an adult is always right. I think this point of view makes his novels unique.

the first thing i think of is that he hated children as much as i do. i love how matilda's head mistress describes the perfect school as having sticky paper to catch all the children littering the place. he's only tender with special children, i've noticed. like he likes turning them into mice and force feeding them cakes (the fat children are the ones he hates most)

The first book of his which I read was , The BFG
However my favourite was The wonderful story of Henry Sugar
I would describe his stories to be sometimes like a fever dream as they can be unpredictable for first time readers if they are not familiar with his writing style

You all need to read his My Uncle Oswald stories and Switch Bitch before forming an opinion.

I love his books and I loved them as a child so much. I haven’t read any as an adult but I look back at them fondly. I loved The BFG, The Witches, and The Twits as a child. I think they were the first books that I really connected to and put myself into the story.

Love reading them to my 5 year old daughter. The magic finger is our personal favourite. His stories embrace the absurd, which not many truly do.

On the other hand, the man is absolutely obsessed with demonizing fat people. It's a bit much.

Like fever dreams (the good ones) on paper

surprisingly haunting. witches stuck with me as a kid, ESPECIALLY the ending. it was so bittersweet to me that his lifespan and and the remainder of his grandmas remaining lifespan corresponded, so they would never be without each other. but also, that kid never got to grow up.

His short story "Lamb to the Slaughter" was an episode on Alfred Hitchcock.

He has a thing against fat and ugly people.

I liked his books when I was a kid. But then I found out he said, "There's a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it's a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason."

Ronald Dahl

Roald*

Why? Because someone asked me to describe them.