Tales of the Unexpected
Edition: Vintage Books ed.
Publisher: Vintage Books
Published: 1990-07
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 471
ISBN-13: 9780679729891
Copyright date: 1987
Other titles: Tales of the unexpected
Description: A wine connoisseur with an infallible palate and a sinister taste in wagers. 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.

In these deliciously nasty stories an internationally acclaimed practitioner of the short narrative works his own brand of black magic: tantalizing, amusing, and sometimes terrifying readers into a new sense of what lurks beneath the ordinary. Included in Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected are such notorious gems of the bizarre as "The Sound Machine," "Lamb to Slaughter," "Neck," and "The Landlady."

Cover illustration by Seth Jaben
Cover design by Heidi North