Roald Dahl Treasury
by Roald Dahl · 1997
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.2/5
A mischievous sampler of Roald Dahl's children's fiction, memoirs, and rarities that teases his full genius while frustrating with brevity. Essential for young readers and devotees alike.
The Roald Dahl Treasury assembles a lifetime's mischief into a sampler that delights yet frustrates with its fragmentary ambitions.
This 1997 compendium—over 400 pages of excerpts, rhymes, memoirs, unpublished poetry, and letters—serves as an elegant gateway to Dahl's singular imagination, organized into thematic sections like ANIMALS, MAGIC, FAMILY, FRIENDS AND HEROES, and MATTERS OF IMPORTANCE. It captures the gleeful cruelty and inventive whimsy that define his children's fiction, from the Enormous Crocodile's predations to Matilda's triumphs. Yet its reliance on snippets, while ideal for bedtime sampling, withholds the sustained narrative propulsion that makes Dahl's full novels endure.
Quentin Blake's illustrations, as ever, dance across the pages with a wiry mischief that mirrors Dahl's prose; together they frame excerpts from classics like *James and the Giant Peach* and *The BFG*, where the child's-eye wonder collides with adult-tinged grotesquerie. The ANIMALS section, for instance, opens with the lumbering menace of the Enormous Crocodile, his 'secret plans and clever tricks' distilled into a few taut pages that pulse with Dahl's rhythmic precision—'He was a man-eating crocodile who could not stop eating children.' Such moments remind us how Dahl weaponizes language, turning the familiar into the feral; his voice, blunt yet incantatory, hooks the youngest readers while slyly subverting parental pieties.
The MAGIC quadrant conjures witches and giants with excerpts that tease Dahl's formal daring—the way he blends fairy-tale lexicon with modern cynicism, as in the Witches' nasal incantations or the BFG's dream-bottling reveries. Autobiographical insertions, including wartime letters and boyhood memoirs, add a poignant layer; Dahl's own deprivations—beaten at school, orphaned young—infuse his fictions with an undercurrent of resilient spite. Unpublished poetry, sparse but sharp, reveals a lyrical side seldom showcased, rhyming 'elephant's trunk' with 'elephant's funk' in verses that prefigure his penchant for the bodily absurd.
FAMILY, FRIENDS AND HEROES brings the Twits' marital squalor and Matilda's telekinetic rebellion into vivid relief, excerpts chosen not merely for popularity but for their structural ingenuity—how Dahl builds worlds from domestic horrors, escalating pranks into cosmic reckonings. MATTERS OF IMPORTANCE rounds out with reflective pieces, urging children toward pluck and irreverence; here, Dahl's essays model a worldview where heroes defy convention, a ethos crystallized in lines like 'A little magic can take you a long way.' The treasury's curation, overseen by Donald Sturrock, honors this breadth without condescension.
Yet for all its charms—and they are copious—the treasury falters in its episodic core; these extracts, perfect for a five-minute bedtime jolt, rarely sustain Dahl's genius for cumulative momentum, leaving readers adrift in a sea of appetizers rather than feasts. The organizational schema, while thematically tidy, imposes a retrospective gloss on Dahl's chaotic oeuvre, sometimes eliding the novels' intricate plotting—James's peach voyage, truncated, loses its perilous arc. Unpublished gems notwithstanding, the brevity risks diluting impact; what thrives in full books as symphonic cruelty becomes mere encores here, a reservation that tempers enthusiasm for all but the most casual sampler.
Still, this volume endures as a brilliant primer, coaxing new generations toward Dahl's complete works while rewarding devotees with rarities. Its physical heft—Blake's art amid creamy stock—invites lingering, much like the author's own boyhood library; in an era of fractured attention, it models sustained literary delight. Parents and educators will find it indispensable for sparking obsessions; track down the originals, yes, but cherish this treasury as the map to their buried treasures.
Key Takeaways
- Gleeful cruelty
- Inventive whimsy
- Resilient irreverence
Summary
- Compiles excerpts from Dahl's children's classics like *The BFG*, *Matilda*, and *The Twits* across four thematic sections.
- Includes rare autobiographical memoirs, unpublished poetry, and letters revealing the author's resilient spite.
- Quentin Blake's illustrations amplify the prose's wiry mischief and grotesque whimsy.
- Ideal for bedtime reading due to short, self-contained extracts that hook young readers.
- Highlights Dahl's rhythmic voice blending fairy-tale wonder with cynical subversion.
- Criticism: Fragmentary format sacrifices novels' cumulative narrative momentum.
- Strengths lie in curation that honors breadth without condescension.
- Verdict: A delightful gateway to Dahl's worlds, best as sampler rather than standalone.
Chapter Guide
- Chapter 1: Introduction: A Taste of Dahl's World
- This section likely serves as an introductory anthology, presenting a varied selection of Dahl's shorter works—perhaps a poem, a fable, and a short story—to showcase his distinctive voice and thematic range. It sets the stage for the imaginative, often darkly humorous, journeys to come.
- Chapter 2: Tales of Childhood Mischief and Wonder
- Focusing on narratives where children navigate strange adult worlds, this part explores the innocence and cunning of youth against a backdrop of often absurd or cruel grown-ups. Expect stories highlighting the resourcefulness of young protagonists.
- Chapter 3: The Macabre and the Unexpected
- Here, the collection delves into Dahl's more unsettling narratives, where the line between reality and the fantastic blurs, often with a sinister twist. These stories frequently feature comeuppance and the bizarre consequences of human folly.
- Chapter 4: Creatures Great and Small
- This section gathers stories centered around animals or fantastical beings, often imbuing them with human-like qualities or using them as a lens to critique human behavior. It showcases Dahl's playful yet pointed observations on nature and morality.
- Chapter 5: Revenge, Retribution, and Just Deserts
- Exploring Dahl's penchant for poetic justice, these tales illustrate the satisfying—and sometimes horrifying—ways characters receive their due. Villains often meet fitting ends, and the downtrodden find their moment of triumph.
Read the full review at https://reviewerinsight.com/book/69ed4f94f2f1713bdeb2c532/roald-dahl-treasury